Whiteface ski patrol volunteer Jim Derzon walks a skier down the mountain at closing time on Saturday, Jan. 8, carrying their skis. (News photo — Aaron Cerbone )

WILMINGTON — A crew of Whiteface ski patrol volunteers stood half-way up the ski mountain on Saturday evening, Jan. 8, preparing to make their final descent of the day to look for skiers who needed help getting down as the trails closed for the day.

“We have a saying,” volunteer ski patrol Assistant Chief Joe Rine said. “‘First on, last off.’ We don’t go home until everyone else is gone.”

Sometimes that means they get out pretty late.

Gerard Smith from Saranac Lake has been on the volunteer ski patrol for four years. At the top of Facelift, he detailed a day in the life of a ski patrol member.

They open the mountain, setting up before anyone else sets ski on the trails. Then, all day they’re fielding questions from skiers, helping prevent injuries by cleaning debris from the trails and keeping an ear to their radios for when there’s an emergency.

Gerard Smith, a volunteer Whiteface ski patrol member from Saranac Lake kicks up snow as he slides to a stop at the end of a shift on Saturday, Jan. 8. He said he joined the ski patrol because he wanted life-saving skills on the mountain and stayed for the community of ski patrol volunteers. (News photo — Aaron Cerbone )

Smith said he’s prepared for anything — whether it’s helping a skier who is out of their comfort zone get back to safety, loading an injured skier onto a toboggan to return to the base or loading someone into a helicopter for a ride to the hospital.

Smith was a groomer at the ski mountain first. When he would be grooming in the early mornings he was always worried he’d come across an early-morning backcountry skier who was injured and that he wouldn’t be prepared to help them.

People die in ways that are avoidable, he said. If someone with the right training and information is there, they can save a life.

So he took the ski patrol training course.

He puts his life-saving skills to work on the hill, but also keeps a supply bag in his car all summer. Now he feels prepared for any emergency.

After four years, Smith said it’s the ski patrol community that keeps him coming back.

It’s a serious and important job, and he said he’s got a good group of people to do it with.

The last act ski patrol members do on the job is meet at the summit, spread out to every trail, and make sure they’re cleared of skiers.

On Saturday, ski patrol volunteer Jim Derzon was walking a skier down the mountain, carrying their skis because they weren’t able to make it down themselves. Ski patrol member Doug Quinn was pulling up with a load of snowboarders who needed a ride back as the sun set on Whiteface.

“He does everything on this mountain,” Smith said of Quinn.

He’s part of the community Smith was talking about.