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(Unfortunately, there is a lack of documentation about the origins of the Canadian Ski Patrol at many of the ski areas in Gatineau Zone. The Canadian Ski Museum would welcome any information that might help to fill the gaps in its knowledge. Please contact The Ski Museum at skimuseum@magma.ca or phone 613 722 3584
In the 1920s, skiing activity in the National Capital region was centred primarily in the area around the Camp Fortune, Old Chelsea, Quebec, in the Gatineau hills. In a decade of increasing prosperity following the end of World War I and to accommodate the expectations of an influx of new skiers, volunteer members of Camp Fortune's Ottawa Ski Club, known as the Night Riders (appropriately named as they did their work mostly at night), cut an additional 24 kms of trails through dense bush from 1924 and 1932 to provide a trail system between Old Chelsea, Kingsmere and the Western Lodge with Camp Fortune as its hub (Marshall, p.20). Although no formal ski patrol organization existed at this time, the Ottawa Club's Ski News, February 16th, 1927, noted that first aid kits were already available in the lodges scattered throughout the trail system.
When Dr Doug Firth formed the CSPS in 1940, he wrote to all clubs throughout Canada with an invitation to join the emerging organization. The Ottawa Ski Club, formed in 1910, declined the invitation preferring to go its own way by entering into a formal arrangement with the St. John Ambulance Brigade to provide First Aid facilities on Sundays where "…the majority of (the) accidents happen (and) where the hills are the steepest and bumpiest". (Marshall, p.44) Also helping out, were members of the Ottawa Ski Club's Night Riders who assumed first aid duties in addition to their other responsibilities. Unfortunately, World War II intervened and the arrangement with the St John Ambulance Brigade was suspended until 1947. The service resumed following the cessation of hostilities. In the meantime, the Night Riders continued to offer assistance to injured skiers in addition to their other duties.
The turning point to the question of safety came in the 1943/1944 season as a consequence of a young man breaking his leg and spending a cold and uncomfortable night alone in the open. That incident prompted the establishment of formal Ski Patrol with the Night Riders as its nucleus to complement the first aid work of the St John Ambulance Brigade. From the start, it was an uneasy arrangement as the other responsibilities of the Night Riders intervened, leaving the Brigade with the greater share of removing injured skiers from the trails and hills.
The partnership failed. The Night Riders Ski Patrol too faded away: "… it is a crying shame that we cannot find enough volunteers … to form a Ski Patrol to assist (the St John Ambulance Brigade)". (Ottawa Ski Club Year Book 1948-49, p.5) It would be 1951 before a Gatineau Park Ski Patrol was formed to serve both Camp Fortune and the Gatineau region. Founded by Dr. Douglas Firth and G. Douglas McIntyre, this organization was also present at both Beamish and Vorlage hills. In the initial year, 24 prospective patrolmen were formally trained and tested in first aid and ski safety. Two years later in the 1953 - 54 season the patrol was accepted as part of the Canadian Ski Patrol System as the Gatineau Zone (note that the first CSPS ski patrol organized nationally was in Ste Adele, Quebec in 1940 -41).