'I've been very blessed': Gary Weaver celebrates 60 years with Ski Patrol in Mansfield

Gary Weaver has been protecting skiers longer than most Ohioans have been alive, and he plans to stay on ski patrol for years to come.

"There have only been three shifts that I've missed," he recalled. "I've been fortunate, you know? My wife allowed that and the kids were able to go with me."

Fellow volunteers of the Ski Patrol unit at Snow Trails ski resort in Mansfield honored Weaver this spring after their season had finished.

They grilled him steaks and gave him gifts to commemorate his 60 years on the slopes.

"I have no idea what I would do in the winter without this," Weaver said. "For 10 or 12 weeks every winter, I know I'm coming here."

'I didn't know anything about skiing'

He grew up in Richland County and set school records playing football at Madison High School.

He was such a good athlete that he continued his football career at Muskingum College.

"For a year and a half," Weaver said. "I got hurt and I didn't stay."

He returned to Mansfield and started working in a factory. That winter, he tried skiing for the first time.

"I didn't know anything about skiing," he said.

He learned fast, though, and was soon in love with the sport.

The former football star got so good at skiing that he caught the attention of the volunteers who patrolled the slopes to make sure everyone was safe.

'I've been on Monday nights ever since I started'

The year was 1964 and gasoline was 30 cents per gallon. Lyndon B. Johnson was president. Humanity was racing toward the moon.

In Richland County, Snow Trails employees were preparing for their young attraction's fourth winter.

About 8 miles southeast, in the village of Butler, staff at Clear Fork Ski Resort were excited for their inaugural season.

Skiing was becoming popular nationwide, and North Central Ohio suddenly had two high-end wintertime destinations.

One Monday in late autumn that year, Weaver drove to Clear Fork, put on his Ski Patrol uniform and rode the lift to the top. Sixty years later, he still follows the same routine.

"I've been on Monday nights ever since I started," he said.

The schedule was such a part of his life that he would show up even during warm spells.

"There would be times I’d come down and just sit in the parking lot and watch them blow snow," Weaver said. "I knew my Monday night."

'You got to know people really well'

Over the years, he advanced through the National Ski Patrol to become Ohio's assistant regional director.

"You got to know the people all over six or seven states," Weaver said. "It was really nice."

He enjoyed the competitions Ski Patrol members from across the state held against one another every winter.

More importantly, he cherished the friendships that grew among the skiers from Clear Fork and Snow Trails.

"They operated two totally different ways," Weaver said. "The people that ran Clear Fork ran it as a family. It was close, and you got to know people really well."

He helped the Ski Patrol team at Snow Trails on occasion when they were short-staffed.

Decades before cellphones were common, Weaver and his counterparts on the other side of Pleasant Valley sometimes talked to one another during patrols.

"On a good night, we could stand at the top of the hill and we could hear their radios," Weaver said. "We could ask them how their night was going and we would laugh about it."

Clear Fork closed in early 2005 before the season had ended. It opened briefly a few years later, and has been closed since May 2015.

His skiing friends at Snow Trails welcomed Weaver onto their patrol ahead of the 2006 season — somehow, the 80-year-old realized, that has already been 18 years ago.

He considers himself fortunate to have Snow Trails in his home county.

"This is the only private area that's still in the state of Ohio," Weaver said. "Everything else is owned by somebody big. This is so nice because you can just talk to the owners."

'Everybody here decided to help people'

Weaver found a family of skiers waiting for him when he joined the Snow Trails Ski Patrol.

"He's the older brother that I never had," said Randy Tharp, a longtime Snow Trails patroller. "He's kind of like a mentor, you know? He attracts people and puts out good vibes to everybody he meets."

Tharp is the captain of the Monday shift for Ski Patrol, but he readily admits Weaver has the most experience.

They've worked together to help a lot of people over the years who have suffered anything from minor scrapes to concussions.

Tharp pointed out that the slopes unite people from different backgrounds.

"We've got an insurance salesman," Tharp said. "I'm an excavator by trade. We've got quite a menagerie of occupations."

On Monday nights at Snow Trails, that all goes away and they see one another as members of the Ski Patrol team.

"Everybody here has a common goal," Tharp said. "Everybody here decided to help people."

'He's a very humble person'

Dan Fay joined Ski Patrol 18 years ago.

Now he's in charge of cooking dinner for the team every Monday night, but back then he was a newbie.

Never once did Weaver speak down to him, or even mention that he already had 42 years Ski Patrol experience.

"I had no idea he was a transfer," Fay said. "Took me two years to find out that he was transferred. People like to correct you, but he never did that. He just watched and listened."

He said that's only one example of Weaver's character.

"He's a very humble person," Fay said. "From what I know, he goes to church every Sunday. Loves his family."

That's why Fay and the others from Ski Patrol decided to celebrate Weaver's milestone 60th anniversary.

"There's no way I could get 60 years," Fay admitted. "And he's not quitting. He will be back next year."

'I've been very blessed'

Aside from the parts of two years Weaver attended Muskingum, he's been in Richland County.

He moved his family from Madison Township to Lexington, where they've been ever since.

"My son still skis and my grandkids ski," Weaver said. "We've been blessed to be able to do that."

He knows a few things have changed since he was 20.

"I can't move as fast as I used to," Weaver said. "But I still enjoy being out and I still enjoy being around the people. I've been blessed to be able to do that."

The best things have stayed the same.

"It's so nice to see the parking lot full with the buses and all the kids," Weaver said. "That's a blessing."

That's why he plans to return for as many seasons as possible.

"As long as I can come, I'll be here," Weaver said. "I always said I'd never come once I couldn't ski, but I wouldn't know what to do if I didn't in the winter. I've been very blessed."

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This article originally appeared on Mansfield News Journal: Ohio man has 60 years service protecting slopes through Ski Patrol