When I worked as a snowcat operator, we used to see ski patrol out checking the runs before the mountain was open. Those dudes were badass and would be doing stuff any normal person would get their pass pulled for. The local kids would always build their "opium dens" as my boss called them in the trees on the mountain. They thought they were well hidden, but we knew where they all were. Some kids took spray paint and wrote "fu*k ski patrol" on one of them and it was promptly eliminated using the blast charges they used for avalanche mitigation. HahaIve been knocked ass over tincups a few times by those ****in poles...we use em all the time for ski patrol training and shit
I worked at Beaver Creek where we had the Birds of Prey downhill course. If you've never been on a World Cup race course, it's straight ice. I snowboarded down it once just to say I had done it. Lol