Page 10 - 87099_NSAA_ JournalSpring2019_Online File2_Neat

Awards
NSAA PRESENTS SKI INDUSTRY IMPACT AWARD
TO LEGENDARY SNOW SAFETY EXPERT

Snowbird’s Peter ‘Mongo’ Schory Retires from Snowbird Resort after Five Decades

BY LIAM FITZGERALD, UTAH DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION & GERALDINE LINK, NSAA DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC POLICY

IN A JANUARY CEREMONY at NSAA’s Western Winter
Conference and Tradeshow at Snowbird Resort, Utah, Snowbird Resort
NSAA awarded Peter Schory the organization’s Industry
Impact Award for his significant contributions to snow
safety over a long and successful career.
Through his leadership roles with Snowbird, Wasatch
Powderbird Guides, the NSAA’s Explosives Committee,
and the Avalanche Artillery Users of North America
Committee (AAUNAC), Schory set the bar in the ava-
lanche hazard mitigation and worker safety arena over
his 47-year career.
Schory grew up in the Colorado ski industry as one
of four brothers in a family that owned a ski shop in
downtown Boulder. With his easy access to ski gear
and lift passes, he began to ski as a small child. Sibling
rivalry, a competitive nature, and his innate athletic
ability led him to quickly master the finer points of the
sport at a young age. By the time he was 18, he had
become the youngest person ever hired by the Vail Ski
Resort to teach skiing. His ski instructor career was cut
short, however, when he joined the Army in the late 1960s Peter “Mongo” Schory, director of winter operations at Snowbird and chairman
of the NSAA Explosives Committee
and went on to serve two tours of duty in Vietnam. When
his time in the military was over, he made what was to be within the Little Cottonwood Canyon avalanche community,
the pivotal change in his life, and moved to Utah’s Little the Wasatch Powderbird Guides—one of the pioneer
Cottonwood Canyon. heli-skiing operations in the US—was starting to spread
In 1972 Snowbird hired him as a ski patroller, launching its wings into the Wasatch backcountry. The goal of
what was to become a truly remarkable career. When you Powderbird was simple: safely guiding skiers in serious
patrol at a place that averages 500 inches of snowfall a year, avalanche terrain to give them a skiing experience unparal-
you get to do a lot of avalanche control work. leled in the US. Schory was a perfect match for what this
His long time co-worker and friend Liam Fitzgerald fledgling organization wanted to accomplish. He relin-
reflected recently, “Although none of us realized it at the quished his job as a ski patroller in 1974 and became the
time, Peter possessed an uncanny ability to accurately and lead guide for 12 years in one of the more challenging
quickly evaluate his surroundings. Whether this was a gift heli-ski environments in North America.
he was born with or a talent he developed in the jungles of During his time at Powderbird, Schory still remained
Vietnam is unclear, but it gave him the capacity to make connected to Snowbird; he divided his time between the
observations of subtle changes in slope angle, terrain, wind heli-skiing operation and the resort’s snow safety depart-
loading, and other avalanche ‘intangibles’ in a way unlike ment for more than a decade. When it was snowing and
anyone else I have ever known.” the heli-ski operation was shut down, he would work
Given the nickname “Mongo” as a result of his aggres- at the ski area doing avalanche control work. When the
sive behavior while playing “jungle rules” in volleyball, storm ended and the weather improved, he would switch
Schory quickly became a rising star on the Snowbird Ski jobs and assume his role as lead guide for Powderbird.
Patrol. Around the same time he was gaining recognition In these dual roles, he probably saw more avalanches and

8 | NSAA JOURNAL | SPRING 2019