
The Mount Mansfield Ski Patrol at Stowe, the nation’s longest-operating patrol that pre-dates the resort itself, has just turned 90 years old. The milestone will be celebrated with gusto when the resort concludes ski and ride operations this season, but for now, patrol focus is centered on the health and safety of guests, which, after all, is MMSP’s greatest legacy.
The patrol was founded when the Mount Mansfield Ski Club formed in January 1934. There are other ski patrols out there claiming to be first, but longtime MMSP member and resort historian Brian Lindner has the documentation to prove it.
“It gets to be splitting hairs when you say who’s the first because on paper, we were clearly the first legally,” Lindner said. “However, Schenectady (N.Y.) Winter Sports Club legitimately claims to be the first patrol actually treating patients face to face. And they started three months after we were created. They claim to be first, and we claim to be the oldest.”
Founded by C. Minot “Minnie” Dole, the MMSP made its first rescue in 1936, a full year before the first lift was operating at Stowe. Mount Mansfield Ski Club members would hike the toll road and ski back down. One day, a skier broke his ankle late in the afternoon. Two patrol members responded, dragging up a piece of old corrugated roofing tin with the front bent up. They found the injured skier, pulled him down to the bottom of the mountain by the light of a kerosene lantern, and transported him to the local hospital.