What does it take to become a ski patroller?
Cover photo courtesy Bri Loveall
Laughter echoed in the conference room as ski patrol candidates trickled in, scribbling names on tags and finding seats while swapping stories. At half past five, Brian Perry, a member of the Lookout Pass ski patrol, stood at the front of the quieted room.
What followed was a 40 minute rapid fire lecture reminiscent of high school, with Brian asking questions based off the weekly reading while ski patrol candidates shouted answers over each other, their thick white Outdoor Emergency Care (OEC) manuals propped open in front of them.
When I joined the gathering in September, it was week three for this new batch of ski patrol hopefuls and they were already covering chapters 10 through 15 of the OEC. That night’s lesson included skills like listening for lung auscultation, using oxygen tanks, administering epi-pens, and treating patients who were choking or otherwise unable to breathe (all rare injuries, ailments, and treatments encountered on ski slopes although important care for ski patrollers to be schooled in).
The hopefuls ranged in age and career: a firefighter, attorney, hospital IT manager, nurse practitioner, and legal assistant were just a few of the two dozen hoping to join the Lookout Pass Ski Patrol. In just a few short weeks, these candidates would take their final written test, perform a series of skills in front of an advisory board, and begin the ski season shadowing veteran ski patrol members.
The Ski Patrol Program
Ben King, a patroller with 49 Degrees North, says that joining the ski patrol is more than just a part-time volunteer opportunity—it’s a community. Certified patrollers in good standing (usually after one year of service), can easily join other mountain patrol teams as seconds.
Surprisingly, skiing isn’t a requirement for patrolling. King says some patrollers stick to areas like the aid room and main lodges without ever donning a pair of skis. Established patrollers also have the option of joining bike patrols at Lookout, Mt. Spokane, and Silver Mountain.
Don’t have bike or ski skills? No problem. The mountains will get you the lessons and training you need. Here’s how it works: call ahead and spend a day shadowing the ski patrol. If you decide to join the program, you’ll spend a few hundred dollars on a book—the Outdoor Emergency Care manual—pay your national dues, and in the late summer begin attending in-person classes to work on skills, assess knowledge, and prepare for the test.
The class itself is a hybrid format, with both a didactic and hands-on portion. King emails his students at the beginning of the summer with a recommended timeline for reading through material and participating in the online course (which takes about 30 hours). He prefers students to read the textbook beforehand so the focus of in class participation is hands-on training.
At the end of in-person learning, students take a 100-question multiple choice test, pass the hands-on exam, and become officially certified with The National Ski Patrol. The rest of training then takes place on the mountain, shadowing veteran patrollers, taking ski lessons if needed, and learning to pull a toboggan. In total, a ski patrol candidate spends around 160 hours in the classroom and on the mountain.
Once a certified patroller, each year they will attend a one-day intensive refresher course as part of continuing education, with the option to add on certificates to increase knowledge base. “We encourage people to become instructors,” says King. “You’re not required to do anything more than the refresher, but we want people to become instructors because it helps with community building.”
The Patrollers
Back in the classroom this September, I watched as the participants moved to hands-on skills. Stations were set up with pulse oximeters, stethoscopes, oxygen tanks, and a dummy who had seen better days. At each station, an instructor walked students through a skill, making small corrections to hand placement or technique. There was a spirit of comradery and encouragement as they moved through stations, often working together to demonstrate stethoscope use or proper handling of oxygen tanks.
Which other qualities make for a great ski patrol candidate? While it helps to have medical knowledge, it isn’t a requirement, says King. “Volunteering is a commitment to service—you must accept that you’re putting in a lot of time. You must be willing to work with others, whether you’re being told what to do or you’re the one telling people what to do.”
One ski patrol hopeful mentioned her work as a firefighter and said she had wanted to join the patrol for a few years. Most of the information was similar to what she learned as a firefighter. She was confident that her adaptability to change would make her an asset to the ski patrol team.
When asked what the most difficult part of the course was, students gave an almost unanimous answer: the material is rigorous and fast-paced. Excluding the students with prior medical knowledge, they found the course work intense.
Erik Pedersen, an IT worker for MultiCare, said, “We also need to balance book learning with hands-on learning. We need to know how to do things such as inserting NPAs and OPAs correctly. It’s equivalent to the workload of a 3-5 credit college course.”
Why Join a Ski Patrol
So, why join the ski patrol, I finally asked in between stations. One student, Safa, remarked that he didn’t want to be completely useless in a time of crisis. “You’re up on the mountain anyway and you might as well be helping out,” he said. “What I love about patrol,” says King, “is that it’s a community and no matter where you go there are opportunities to patrol with other mountains.” He adds that it’s about giving back to the skiing public.
Cheyenne, another ski patrol hopeful, said, “I’ve wanted to be a member of ski patrol ever since I was a little girl. And then I wanted to be an EMT. This seems like a good way to do that and give back to the community.”
“The program is intense,” she says while watching another student insert an oropharyngeal airway into a dummy, “but it’s all these people doing their best to teach us what we need to know so we can keep people on the mountain safe and everybody can keep having a good time.”
Bri Loveall is the digital editor for Out There Outdoors Magazine. During her time spent interviewing this class, she was asked to join the patrol and is seriously considering it.
Interested In Joining the Ski Patrol?
While the process varies slightly between mountains, anyone interested in the patrol should reach out to their preferred mountain of choice to spend a day shadowing veteran patrollers. Candidates do not need to have a medical background (although a basic understanding of anatomy and physiology is helpful) nor do they need ski experience. Candidates will complete the Outdoor Emergency Care training course to become certified ski instructors. Think you might be a good fit for the ski patrol? Reach out to your favorite local mountain to get started.
