Park City » Jake Hutchinson skis on the edge of The Canyons. At 7 a.m., he ascends the 9990 lift and begins his work day.
The director of The Canyons ski patrol hikes up a peak, straps on his skis, and goes about 10 feet. He stands at the edge of a cornice -- a nasty compaction of ice and snow. With the wind howling and snow pelting his face, Hutchinson kicks the top of the cornice to see if it will come lose.
Then he skis about 5 feet and does it again. And again. And again. It's grunt work, but that's the way he likes it.
"This is the favorite part of my job," Hutchinson says with a smile.
An 18-season veteran of the ski patrol, Hutchinson is just like a lot of people who work at ski resorts. He loves the work, though the pay is bad. He does yoga.
But there's an edge to Hutchinson. He served seven years in the Marines, two on active duty. He prefers to live in Salt Lake City because he doesn't like the Park City scene.
So when he talks about his philosophy about ski patrol -- about kicking snow at 10,000 feet in wildly varying conditions -- you can hear Hutchinson the Marine and Hutchinson the yoga practitioner combining notes.
"Respect all, fear none," Hutchinson said. "You tune your senses to subtle things: the density of the snow, cracks in the snow. It's kind of a Zen thing. A lot of the job is your intuition, your gut feeling."
Trusting your gut feeling doesn't pay the bills in July, though. Just like everyone else who works in the ski industry, Hutchinson has a diverse résumé. He has trained dogs for The Canyons. Wookie, Hutchinson's three-legged German shepherd -- she lost a leg to cancer three years ago -- still lives with him in his Sugar House home. Because of his dog-training skills, he has travelled around the world putting on clinics.
He also teaches avalanche classes. He runs a Web site, www.lonetreeavalanche.com, which chronicles everything from spring motorcycle trips to ice climbing adventures. That's just an extension of his job at The Canyons, which could involve taking a chainsaw out to take care of a dead tree in the summer.
"If you want to be a year-round ski area employee, you'd better be ready to do whatever they ask you to do," Hutchinson said.
Walking on an ice cornice at 7 a.m. in a snowstorm? You don't have to ask Hutchinson twice.
"If you are not having fun doing this, if you are here for the money -- sorry," Hutchinson said.
» Jake Hutchinson, 37, has been skiing at The Canyons since his dad was a ski patroller there in the 1970s.
» Hutchinson, the director of ski patrol at The Canyons, has a diverse work history that helps him to make it in the ski industry.
