Ski Patrol

What is a Ski Patrol?

Duties

For effective ski patrol, you must serve important functions such as those given below:

• Interact frequently with customers by providing useful and timely information on weather conditions and grooming to ensure an enjoyable experience for guests.
• Make sure that all trail markings including bamboo poles, fences and ribbon are in good order and properly placed.
• Monitor the terrain of the property for the purpose of maintaining it in accordance with existing state and federal regulations and laws for skiing safety.
• Assess and correct or mark any perilous trail conditions that have been affected due to adverse weather or natural occurrences.
• Ensure that the padding on objects like snow guns and sign posts are properly placed and at the appropriate height for customers to ski.

Day In The Life

A ski patroller’s role is to function as a first responder in the case of sick or injured patrons at a skiing property. This may involve managing the scene, i.e. diverting other skiers from the spot, then assessing and treating those injured. You are expected to transport the affected patient from the site of the accident to a medical care facility with the help of a vehicle or toboggan. Besides providing first aid, ski patrollers are also responsible for ensuring mountain safety.

During your day to day work, you will start off by conducting a sweep of the assigned property before it is open to public, with the aim of confirming that there are no problems. To this end, you must look closely at boundary rope lines, clear up anything obscuring the trails and repair broken signage. At the end of the working day, you will do a similar sweep to confirm that there are no customers still using the property before shutting down for the day. The fun and exciting part of this job is that you will also get to enjoy some skiing on the side! You will move around the terrain by either riding or skiing as a ski patroller.

Work Schedule

Employment in this sector is often seasonal, unless it is a mountainous area that maintains snow-clad terrain all year round. The peak timings for this job include holiday periods and weekends, when you may even work extra hours to increase capacity at the workplace. Employers look to accommodate preferred scheduling times or offer consecutive days off as compensation when possible. As a ski patroller, you are expected to arrive on time – often during early morning hours to assess the ski area’s safety before it is open to visitors. You should also be able to work in all kinds of weather conditions which include high winds, fog, heavy snow and extreme cold temperatures.

Growth Of The Job

Since 2004, employment available in this field has risen to 8.6% across the nation, with a growth rate of 1.44 percent every year. The demand for recreational protective service workers is expected to increase with many jobs to be filled by 2018, at an annual rate of 1.13% over the next few years.

Typical Employers

Working in ski patrol could be seasonal at resorts and other hospitality services e.g. Mountain Creek Resort, Mohawk Mountain Ski Area Inc., Copper Mountain Resort, etc. Some find alternate means of employment over summer months, doing work that requires similar skills such as ski patrolling. For instance, working in the medical or emergency services sector like a Lifeguard, Paramedic, Firefighter, etc.