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Show i Page A8 Thursday, October 1, 1987 Park Record WavU City Profile by JENNIFER MADGIC Itecord staff writer When Ray Santa Maria's best friend Gus died in an avalanche, Santa Maria decided it was time to hang up his boards. The death of a friend wasn't worth the pain of continuing. Having known Gus Mora since elementary school, the March 22, 1982 incident was a tragic reminder of the dangers of back-country back-country skiing. ..one Santa Maria would never forget. It has been a little over five years since Mora was swept away by a snow slab in Todd's Bowl near ParkWest. The years have gone by slow and it has only on-ly been recently that Santa Maria has been able to look back, and ahead, with good feelings. feel-ings. "His death changed my life," said Santa Maria. "He was my best friend. We grew up together." In the confusion of losing someone so-meone close to him, Santa Maria was lost. His first thoughts were to leave, to escape everything to do with skiing ski-ing and Park City. But, as many others who have lost someone f ind, Santa Maria realized cashing in his own life wasn't going to help bring Gus back. Instead, In-stead, he decided to do something that would help prevent pre-vent further such accidents. Joining with Brian Harrington, Harr-ington, Duffy McCabe, Jim Silva and Bob Bailey, Santa Maria helped form the Red Pine Back-country Back-country Rescue group in Park City during the winter of 1983. Santa Maria says Red Pine Rescue is thriving. The system, he maintains, allows Park City skiers to make a call and receive backcountry help in approximately ap-proximately 10 minutes. The organization has become an integral in-tegral part of skiing the local backcountry terrain. "After Gus died I didn't want to see anyone else die in the backcountry," said Santa Maria. VOTE OCT. "There is Park City town, or a 1st Class Resorts? Jed is back! (the big grey kitty) "Since Red Pine Rescue formed, we haven't had an avalanche-related avalanche-related death on this side of the Wasatch." Over the years, Santa Maria has become an expert at predicting predic-ting the idiosyncrasies of snow. Clad in an "Enjoy Cabo San Lucas" t-shirt, he grins that he didn't start skiing until he turned turn-ed 19 he was on skis for two winters before becoming a member of the ski patrol. Labeling himself as "34, going on 25," Santa Maria started his teenage years as a god of the surf in California. Like most youngsters of the Southern California culture, Santa Maria watched for big swells from his southern Los Angeles home. Surfing Sur-fing was the rage and Santa Maria's shoulder-length hair was tinted blonde from hours spent along the western coastline. An accident on the North Shore of Oahu in the early '70s that left Santa Maria with 37 stitches along his skull, caused him to think otherwise about his sport. Deciding it was "time to try something else," Santa Maria took to the slopes of Mammoth, Calif., where he got his first taste of skiing. The next year, the surf and sun lifestyle was replaced by snow and sun in Utah. It didn't take long for Santa Maria to adjust. His surf board expertise transformed into one of skis, and Santa Maria found himself ski patroling the slopes of the Park City Ski Vrea. He was a natural. After skiing on the patrol for eight seasons, Santa Maria rescued his first accident ac-cident victim, Park Ci.y resident resi-dent Fred Duncan. Bringing Duncan back to life with the use of CPR, little was Santa Maria to know that Duncan would make the front page of the Record six months later, murdered as a result of a local complicated drug ring. The ski-related rescue rarned Santa Maria the Purple Merit i v Dr. Lyle Jackson City Council only one real issue. Will be a big resort in a tourist quality community with f 9 Paid Political Advertisement Santa Maria: 'looks like Omar, skis like Stein' Star award, the highest award given by the National Ski Patrol, in 1983, a year after the death of Gus. Realizing there was more to skiing the Wasatch Mountains than groomed slopes, Santa Maria hitched up with Utah Powderbirds and started learning learn-ing more about the Wasatch backcountry. Three years ago he teamed with Bob Bailey and started guiding Interconnect tours from Park City to Little Cottonwood Canyon. Once described by Ski magazine reporter, James Tabor, as looking "like a small Omar Sharif and skiing almost as well as Stein," Santa Maria has guided some 2,400 trips linking link-ing five Wasatch ski areas. Although he is known for occasional occa-sional joking around, Santa Maria takes the Interconnect trips seriously. He does his best to not only ensure the safety of those involved, but makes a special effort to make sure each person smiles by the end of the day. "A lot of people think the Interconnect In-terconnect is a cake job, but there's a lot involved," said Santa San-ta Maria. "It's real important to me that everyone has a great time. If I see someone not having hav-ing a good time, I'll go out of my way to try and make them happy." hap-py." Being happy and making other people happy is a dominant factor fac-tor in Santa Maria's outlook on life. Leading a miserable life or lifestyle does not make sense to Santa Maria, and living through the death of his friend plus a divorce has helped him realize life is worth more. "Gus was one of the only people I've met that could live day by day," said Santa Maria matter-of-factly. "I want to be happy. I've learned that from my friend Gus. I'm still trying to get to that point.. .to be happy and to make the best of whatever you do. "Sports and all that is 6th iff1 definitely part of my life, but I'm not financially wealthy so I do have to work," said Santa Maria, adding that he "tries to get in as much fun as possible." During the summer months, Santa Maria stays busy sporting the role of carpenter. Pounding nails between L.A. and Park City, Ci-ty, Santa Maria stays current on the condition of both surf and snow and makes sure to fill his appetite in both areas. In the meantime, he hopes to get his contractor's license. Specifically mentioning not wanting to be referred to as a "skier" or a "surfer," Santa Maria maintains an open mind. "I don't put horse blinders on and just look in one direction I'm open to anything," said Santa San-ta Maria. He realizes that being such a free spirit isn't always conducive con-ducive to settling down and forming for-ming a family, but he's not about to count marriage out. "My divorce really screwed things up," said Santa Maria, who was married from 1983 through 1984. "All the plans and stuff. It has taken me awhile to get over everything." Upon first meeting Santa Maria you can't help see a kid in him. His jokes, as his mother would say, lean along the lines of "sick humor," he smiles a lot and generally appears to have the world wrapped around his little finger. But life hasn't been easy and the holidays, especially, especial-ly, are often lonely. "Last Christimas was the worst," said Santa Maria. "I was working in Los Angeles up until the day before Christmas because there was nothing going on here. I bought a three-foot tree and put the presents under it labeling them 'to me,' 'for me,' 'from me,' 'because of me.'" Santa Maria will readily tell you he is a loner beneath his often extroverted exterior. Growing up the second oldest in 5(0),(Q)(Q) peopk Yes. Fifty Thousand. That's how many people-residents and visitors alike, you can reach this winter by advertising in The Pocket Guide to Park City, a pocket-sized guide published by The Park Record Newspaper. The Pocket Guide will be updated and published monthly, November through March. Our goal, in publishing the "Pocket Guide to Park City" is two- fold. First, to provide the tourist and Park City residents with a current and informative tool that will help them to better enjoy the area. Second, to provide the advertisers an economically effective media through which to promote their products and services. Distribution of the guide is free and will be available in rooms or at check-in locations throughout Park City. Additional sites include; restaurants, retail outlets & Park Record newsstand racks. One ad purchased for this guide runs all five months, for a total distribution of 50.000. Park City's own w ' ' ' Vm i:.'.-;Ji. . Ml JJCJ : s Y h '' uu..r- " kk t. M ! vL i y Ray Santa Maria says he is a family of eight kids, Santa Maria says he has friends he "can count on one hand and a whole world of acquaintances." Relatively satisfied with his life, Santa Maria says a lot of people misjudge him. Labeled as egotistical by some, Santa Maria denies the accusation, stating simply the people in question don't know him. "With all the things I've been through, I'm happy to be alive. They say tiat only the good die young," said Santa Maria smil award winning newspaper in its 1 08th year. I MjTi 1 lllllll Al Mow until Sunday Oct. 11th Jennifer Madgic "34 going on 25." ing. "Maybe I'm not a very good person." But who defines who is good and who is bad? . Santa Maria has helped change attitudes on skiing the local backcountry. Perhaps if Red Pine Rescue had not been formed after Gus Mora's death, another skier might have been swept away by yet another fatal avalanche. |