70 Years of Ski Rescue
Text, pictures, and archival newspaper articles follow.
Long before Gatineau Park was Gatineau Park there were signs that people needed to think about the safety of those who used the outdoors for recreation.
Some of the earliest recreational users were members of the Ottawa Ski Club for whom it became a pleasant routine to catch a streetcar to a place called Ironside along the Gatineau River, then start an outing from a clubhouse they had there at a place called Dome Shaped Hill.
Modern maps still show Ironside at the intersection of Boulevard Saint-Joseph and Rue Jean Proulx and Dome Shaped Hill lives on in Club de Golf le Dome but Highway 5 now makes these locations impractical places for ski access to Gatineau Park.
On Thursday February 12, 1942 when all the other skiers were schussing back to catch the streetcar home after a day on the trails Walter Arthur Boult thought he’d take one more loop to finish the day. Unfortunately he fell and broke his leg and spent a very uncomfortable night in the snow, nearly losing both feet to frostbite.
This incident may have helped prompt the first ski patrol and rescue team that was organized the following winter.
The ski patrol that formed in 1943 had no equipment and asked for advice from skiers north of Montreal on how to build rescue sleds. Injured skiers were often brought out of the park using horse and sleigh.
Eventually Gatineau Park ski patrols and first aid centered itself out of a building called the Riders Roost; still in existence and located further up the valley from the present Camp Fortune location.
This was a central location to many ski trails in Gatineau Park and emergency response crews could head out quickly to injured skiers. It was only in the last few years that the emergency rescue centre has moved from the Riders Roost. In 2007 operations became centered in a utility building beside P8.
In some ways this represents a jumping off point that makes the trail network even more accessible. Whereas the Fortune Valley was central to the original Ottawa Ski Club trails, these days many—perhaps more—skiers made use of the parkways and the new emergency response location gives quick access to rescue crews using snowmobiles for rapid response.
Because back country ski trails in the park are not groomed it is possible that in deep snow snowmobiles might get stuck. For this reason Gatineau Park has acquired a special rescue sled for extracting injured back country skiers with a team on snowshoes.
I had the chance to talk to some of the rescue team recently and to check out their gear. Things have advanced quite a bit since the day Walter Boult spent his night in the snow. The special rescue sled now sports warm sleeping bags and insulating pads, splints and bandages, chemical warming pouches as well as an oxygen tank, defibrillator and rescuers who know how to use all this stuff.
Thanks to Matthieu Lemay, Camille Leclerc and Jean-Guy Beaumier who gave me the royal treatment as they displayed the gear. Thanks well as Daniel Blais who got strapped into the rescue sled during the demonstration.
Here are some images from my visit with the rescue team followed by newspaper clippings from back when the ski patrol started.
First though, here’s a photo from Herbert Marshall’s book How Skiing Came to the Gatineau (1972). In the book the image has the caption
Ski Patrol (now Ottawa Ski Club Aid and Rescue Patrol: “OSCAR”) bringing a casualty to the first aid station on “Bloodwagon” as it was popularly termed.
This is the newly outfitted rescue sled in it’s configuration to be towed behind the snowmobile.
It can be quickly decoupled from the skidoo and transformed into a human powered first aid sled.
It has a keel at the back to keep it running straight and not swinging wildly behind the snowmobile. It also has teflon runners that make it easier to drag across pavement and other non-slippy obstacles.
And of course it’s packed with cool gear for saving lives.
Gradually Improving (Ottawa Citizen, February 18, 1942)
The condition of Walter Arthur Boult, 22-year-old son of Mr. and Mrs. Walter Boult 117 Laurier street Hull, who nearly froze to death last Thursday when he broke a leg on the Dome Hill ski trail is gradually improving, it Is reported at the sacred Heart hospital. Doctors now hope to save his two feet which were severely frozen. HIs broken leg was placed in a cost yesterday by Dr. J. C. Rossignol. [editorial comment: doesn't there seem to be some irony in this physician's name?]
Hope to Organize Local Ski Patrol (Ottawa Citizen, October 20, 1943)
Bill Irving who heads the Night Riders of the Canyon, has under consideration formation of a ski patrol to look after persons injured on ski trails of the Gatineau.
Ski patrols have been organized by many ski clubs in the United States and as a result experienced first aid men are always available during the hours of the day when ski traffic on downhill runs and trails is at its peak.
Irving has in mind constructing three or four first aid toboggans with canvas frames, similar to those in use in the Laurentian mountains north of Montreal, and placing them at strategic trail points sucha s on the Merry-Go-Round trail and half way to Western lodge.
Last season first aid men of the Ottawa Ski Club and the Night Riders did yeoman service in aiding injured skiers and the formation of a ski patrol would do much to add to the comfort of those unfortunate enough to suffer injury on the ski runs.
Ottawa Ski Patrol, 24 Strong, To Look After Injured Athletes (Ottawa Citizen, November 17, 1943)
An Ottawa Ski Patrol Comprising twenty-four crack skiers was organized last week-end at the annual general meeting of the Night Riders of the Canyon, held at Camp Fortune lodge in the Gatineau Hills.
The patrol, which will be led by Bill Irving, will be given a course in first aid and will patrol Gatineau ski trails during the winter season so that injured skiers will be given almost immediate attention.
Plans are now under way to have the Ottawa Ski Patrol affiliate with the National Ski Patrol System of the National Ski Association in the United States and the Ottawa group will wear an armband similar to those worn by members of the United States patrol system. The armband has yellow lettering on a blue background.
It is hoped that the Ottawa Ski Club will provide the patrol with several hospital sleds and Montreal ski officials have been contacted to secure further information about the type of hospital sleds in use in the Laurentian mountain ski country.
Herbert Marshall, vice-president of the O.S.C., was a visitor to Camp Fortune lodge last weekend and was surprised by the great amount of work carried out on the trails by the Night Riders.
Ottawa Ski Patrol Sets Up Station (Ottawa Citizen, February 16, 1944)
Due to the many skiers now skiing from Camp Fortune to the end or the Wrightvllle carline, the
Ottawa Ski Patrol have set up a first aid station, with equipment., at an inn Just before Pink Lake.
The ski patrol seems to have been reformed in 1951. Click here for another clipping from that year.
I added a little bit of new old information to this post since I came across it. Namely that the Ottawa Ski Club Aid and Rescue Patrol seems to have been called “OSCAR” and that their rescue sled was also named, in this case it was called “bloodwagon.”