It helped shape his life.

With that training, Preston was qualified to partner with friends Val Ferrin and Charles Pocook as the inaugural ski patrol at Beaver Mountain resort near the top of Logan Canyon. Except for a few years in the mid-1950s when he was away flying Air Force bombers, he has been a fixture in the mom-and-pop operation's volunteer ski patrol.

Preston is retiring this season, his 60th, largely so he can spend more time at his Garden City home caring for his ailing wife, Janet. But his days on Beaver Mountain's slopes are far from over.

"I'm still going to ski with the 'corduroy crew,' the 70- and 80-year-old guys who take 10 runs on freshly machined snow and do pretty well," said Preston, now 75.

Wendell Liechty takes solace in that.

The 72-year-old from Providence has been Preston's compatriot on the ski patrol since about 1952. "It's hard to let go, even after 60 years," he noted. "It's going to be real strange not to have him on the patrol. And we'll miss him. But it's not the end of the world. He'll be coming back."

How could he not?

After all, Preston said, "I really enjoy being outside and in the weather. It doesn't matter whether I'm skiing or sailing or riding dirt bikes."

Besides, some of his closest friends are his fellow patrollers.

"I really enjoy the camaraderie. That's what keeps you going," he added. "On an all-volunteer patrol, you have to do something that motivates you to stay with it."

Especially through the hard times - and there can be some when you deal with life-or-death situations, or horrifying injuries, as patrollers sometimes do.

Preston has lost friends who died in avalanches. And, Liechty noted, "he and I have taken care of some fairly serious back injuries, and some pretty bad femur injuries. But he's a first-aid instructor so he keeps up on top of things. Jud, he's right there to help all the time."

Preston marvels at the changes in skiing, and patrolling, during his career.

He started skiing as a youth on "College Hill" in Logan, joined the Mt. Logan Ski Club and spent more than a few days at the Summit Valley Ski Area, Harold Seeholzer's fledging resort in The Sinks area of Logan Canyon. When the state and Cache County excavated an access road to Beaver Mountain in 1948, Seeholzer moved the resort there. Preston came with him. (Seeholzer's son, Ted, and daughter-in-law, Marge, now run the resort.)

In those days, Preston skied on wooden, laminated skis made by Groswald and Northland. He raced a bit, too, developing good technique that still serves him well. "He's a beautiful skier," said Liechty, "as smooth today as he was 30 years ago."

As a patroller, he relishes the ability to work with sturdy but lightweight fiberglass toboggans rather than "what we called a Mount Hood toboggan. That was nothing more than a wooden toboggan with steel runners." Splints also are much improved. And as much as anything else, Preston said, "with the invention of Velcro, things go much faster."

After the season, Preston plans to continue serving for a couple more years as the Rich County attorney, a post he has held for 14 years. He worked in the Cache County attorney's office for 16 years before that, following 18 years in private practice in Logan.

But skiing and patrolling will never be far from his mind.

"A patroller is always a patroller," he said.

mikeg@sltrib.com