Ski Patrol has a hard enough job without people acting like complete unconscious idiots on the slopes, but that's what I see every day. People fall over, that's going to happen, but all collisions are avoidable. People just need to have an once of self-awareness or caring in their bodies, but they don't.

Just yesterday, I saw two skiers collide about 20 yards above from where I was shooting. A guy wearing an orange jacket was skiing way too fast and out of control and he hit another skier, who smashed his head against the ground was so concussed he didn't know where he was. He didn't even know what day it was. And this happened right below two huge yellow signs that say "SLOW". The amazing thing is that it doesn't happen more often.

The day before I was coming down from a shoot on the same run and there was a patrolman with a sled skiing down beside me. Close to the end of the run, there's a bottleneck where two trails merge into a smaller one and there were more patrolmen on the run trying to get people to stop. I was the only one who stopped. I was praised for it, but I shouldn't have been. People are such fucking idiots. They need to start treating a patrolman with a sled like he would an ambulance. It's even more important be cognizant and to get out of the way on the slopes because the patrolman doesn't have a siren or lights or anything to alert other people to his presence other than his red jacket. It's really insane.

I found something even more disturbing the other day. While I was shooting, an older patrolman named Walt stopped to talk to me. He was trying to recruit me into the patrol, which would be a great life. However, when I asked him how much they make, I was shocked to find out that the patrol staff start at 9 bucks an hour and are lucky to make 11 after two or three years on the job. 5 years is usually the longest any of them last because of the stress. Amazingly, Walt has been on the job for 30 years.

I don't think I'm a strong enough skier yet to qualify for the patrol even if I could manage to live off 9 bucks an hour, which I can't. It's amazing that people with so much responsibility are paid so poorly. It's another example of our misguided priorities in this country.