The hustle at Deer Valley Resort doesn’t stop just because the snow is running out and ski season’s end looms Sunday.For ski patrol, the shift from active operations to spring shutdown means a long checklist of teardown tasks — removing safety pads, pulling signage, stashing away hazard marker s and everything in between. The resort has pared down to six lifts across Bald Eagle and Bald Mountain, leaving the other 18 lifts and 81 trails to be cleared of their winter apparatus. For the mountain operations teams, stretching closing tasks over a number of weeks helps keep the working teams efficient and effective, chipping away at small portions of the resort each day, without overwhelming them with the overall scope of the project. As the weather heats up, the teams make decisions about where to close operations based on safety, conditions and the guest experience. Ski Patrol Manager Chris Erkkila, second from left, chats with a group of patrollers about the end-of-season takedown progress they had made on Monday, which included cleaning out the shack and taking pads down from closed runs. Credit: Clayton Steward/Park Record“We keep an eye on avalanche-prone areas, as things start to heat up and the snow gets soft and gooey. Those areas make us think about both the guest experience and the risk of recovery,” said Ski Patrol Manager Chris Erkkila. “For one, how good is the experience going out into those areas? And if somebody does get hurt out there, and we have to get them, are we putting ourselves at risk in poor conditions?”As the snow melts out quickly, other areas at lower elevation that feel closer to skiing mud than snow are cordoned off so patrol teams can go in before the snow is gone entirely to remove debris and winter signage. “This last week or so, as areas melt out, we try to get some of these pads before we end up having to walk to them, so then you’re not tromping through the rock and dirt and mud to get to them,” said Erkkila. “And if they’re already surrounded by dirt, then we can pretty positively pull them.” Chris Erkkila’s boots covered in mud on Monday. Warming temps and melting snow make for muddy conditions to take down pads and other items that won’t stay up all summer. Credit: Clayton Steward/Park RecordErkkila’s ski boots and work pants were caked in mud from his morning of cleanup in lower elevation terrain on Monday from where snow melt created a stream through the fresh dirt of the spring. “I was shin deep in mud this morning taking pads down,” he said with a laugh.As the patrol teams work through the closed areas this week, the crew remains at full capacity, with just a few working the areas still open to the public while everyone else takes care of teardown. With the army of patrollers helping out, the bigger challenge is finding places to store every miscellaneous item they pick up until next winter, said Erkkila. Between skier tunnels, storage facilities and packing the patrol shacks full, everything finds its place, though repairs on some patrol shacks like that at the top of Lady Morgan, can throw a wrench in the storage plans, forcing the team to search for other hidey holes around the mountain, as Erkkila put it. Chris Erkkila surveys runs that were closed to the public on Monday. Credit: Clayton Steward/Park Record“We have miles and miles of rope and we take it all down, store and put back up next winter. We cleaned up the mountain on Little Baldy already, and did Mayflower and the Chutes this past week when those closed,” said a member of the team clearing the Lady Morgan shack.With the mountain’s terrain expansion on the horizon, the annual spring cleanup is taking on a whole new urgency this year. As grooming teams begin to clear off ski runs to make a road for trucks and construction equipment to access the expanded areas, the patrol crew has to make sure all of their equipment is cleared in time. A ski patroller drives by on a snowmobile with a trailer on the back for pads, rope and other items headed into storage for the summer. Credit: Clayton Steward/Park Record“The goal is to plow the snow off those runs the best we can, and get it to start drying out and melting to get to where we can drive vehicles on it. This year, we’re plowing stuff we normally don’t because we need access for the summer construction crews,” said Erkkila. Replacing all of the padding, signage and rope lines next fall is often far more time consuming than the takedown, said Erkkila, but it’s essential to help maintain the equipment for years to come. “For us, it’s about getting our stuff out of the way so they aren’t buried or broken in construction zones, but also because if pads and cushions sit out and roast in the sun all summer long, it really shortens their lifespan. It’s so it doesn’t get UV damaged and ruined by dirt, dust and sun,” he said. As ski patrollers make their final rounds, trading winter jackets for T-shirts and ski goggles for sunglasses, Deer Valley’s spring transformation is unmistakable. The once-bustling slopes are now quiet, dotted with muddy tracks and the occasional tune from a beachside radio station. With just days left before the resort closes on Sunday, ski patrol is making quick work of the seasonal teardown chore. According to Erkkila, after the final six lifts stop spinning on Sunday, the remaining cleanup should take less than half a day.Warming temps have closed some runs at Deer Valley due to the safety of skiers and patrollers as well as the obvious lack of snow in some sections of the resort. Credit: Clayton Steward/Park RecordWarming temps have closed some runs at Deer Valley due to the safety of skiers and patrollers as well as the obvious lack of snow in some sections of the resort. Credit: Clayton Steward/Park RecordWarming temps have closed some runs at Deer Valley due to the safety of skiers and patrollers as well as the obvious lack of snow in some sections of the resort. Credit: Clayton Steward/Park RecordThe post Deer Valley ski patrol cleanup takes a village appeared first on Park Record. ...read more read less