By Dan Balkin
Minnie was in a fix – a bad fix. He had a painful broken leg near the summit of a big mountain ski slope, the daylight was waning, and he was shivering from the cold. It was 1936, and The National Ski Patrol did not yet exist. Five years earlier, in 1931, Minnie was one of the 71 charter members of the ASCNY – Alpine Ski Club of New York. In winter, these ski enthusiasts would spill out of New York’s sky-scratching buildings and motor toward the snowy and gravelly roads of New England to find ski mountains. The ASCNY produced a newsletter for its members edited by a writer who gave himself the fanciful moniker “The Baron Dunski.” To his friends, he was known as “The Baron” or “Minnie”. Nicknames aside, he was born on April 18,1899 in Massachusetts and named Charles Minot Dole. One of the nicknames, however, did stick – because he is now commonly known as Minnie Dole, the founder of the National Ski Patrol.
There are bigger ski mountains, but Stowe VT is enchanting. In 1931, Roland Palmedo, president of the ASCNY, wrote a letter to the Postmaster in Stowe VT asking if they would welcome skiers (lifts were not installed at Stowe until 1940 – this was the era of mainly hiking up and skiing down). The letter had been passed along from the Postmaster to the Secretary of the Stowe Civic Club, and he wrote back saying Stowe had facilities where the skiers could be accommodated and a great ski mountain. It clicked – ASCNY members regularly journeyed from NYC to Stowe, and the locals enjoyed hosting them.
Five years later, in 1936, the early season conditions at Stowe’s Mt. Mansfield were not ideal. It had been unseasonably warm and wet, and the conditions were soft, gooey, and sticky. Minnie Dole had fallen the previous day and was soldiering on with his ski holiday despite a tender ankle. With his wife Jane Dole and another couple, they hiked up a ski trail known as Toll Road. Shortly after starting the descent, Minnie’s sore ankle gave out in the mushy snow and he fell, breaking his leg. His male friend stayed with Minnie, who, despite having a reputation as a courageous soul, was quaking from the cold and the waves of pain from his ankle and leg. The wives, knowing that time was of the essence, skied down in search of help. There was no organized Ski Patrol in 1936, but two Stowe locals, in fading daylight and lugging a sheet of roofing tin, climbed back up the mountain with the wives. One end of the roofing tin had been bent upwards to create a makeshift toboggan, and because many hours had now passed, they also brought kerosene lanterns to help guide them down in the darkness.
The injury was severe, and Minnie spent many months convalescing. That same winter, with Minnie hobbling on crutches, a good friend and fellow member of the ASCNY informed Minnie he was entering a ski race in the Berkshire Mountains of MA. Minnie had some reservations as his friend was not an accomplished skier. In the race, before the era of safety netting, Minnie’s friend veered out of the course, hit a tree, and died the next day. Dole’s serious injury, and the tragic fate of this racer prompted the President of the Alpine Ski Club of New York to ask Dole if he would chair a committee on ski safety.
At first, the committee received severe blowback from various New England ski clubs, claiming the committee were “spoilsports, sissies, and frighteners of mothers.” Undeterred, Minnie Dole persisted and published his findings. Notably, he recommended that “ski patrols” be formed to aid injured skiers. In 1938, the National Ski Patrol was founded in Stowe VT when the president of the National Ski Association asked the leader of Stowe’s Ski Patrol – Minnie Dole – to form a national patrol. This winter will mark the 87th anniversary of our Guardian Angels of the slopes. At HoliMont, and ski areas far and wide, we can thank Minnie Dole for inspiring generations of selfless patrollers to be at the service of skiers in need.