Hello all. I just moved to the area and transferred into the patrol at blue mountain. I saw a paskiandride sticker on one of the lift bars and had to check it out.
After reading some posts, I thought the patrol could use a voice here and maybe I can take some suggestions to the patrol. Being new I think I can objectively look at this patrol.
Before I talk about some things I read I just want to say what our responsibilities are. We are mostly volunteers (some paid during weekday hours) and work with managment to prevent injuries and then stabilize and transport off the mountain any injuries that do happen. All decisions on where the jumps go, if there's a gap between the rail and the ramp, where the signs go, etc. etc. are done by mountain managment with our input.
Volunteers are required a weeknight shift and a 16 hour weekend duty every third weekend. At any time there are typically 4-6 patrollers doing ski cop. Managment gets tons of complaints every year about fast, out of control skiers in the slow zones and needed proof they were doing something about it. So evolved the ticketbook. Sidewinder is also an area where we are supposed to do S3P (safe snow sports patrol) as we call it. It often gets overlooked though. There is no way that this position can be staffed at all times by a volunteer group who's main responsibility is to get injured riders safely off the mountain. The busy days that require the most S3P have the most accidents which draw our attention. Besides, very, very few of us got into patrolling to sit on a run and yell at people being stupid.
You can join NSP as young as 15 (at least last I heard) and I've been doing it 9 years since I could drive. The medical training is usually done in the fall and then those patrollers are known as canidates and carry the white cross at blue. They train with the tobogans on Challenge on Sunday afternoons.
Sure, you don't have to be a great skier or boarder to be a patroller but I saw a few people here slander the whole patrol because of a few. One of the previous places I patrolled at in Michigan had only 250 inches of snow a year, 50+ foot cliff bands which most regular patrollers could drop, avalanches, and was all open, even the tree lines so thick you can only see 1/2 a turn ahead of you. I'm learning rails very slowly so laugh at me, not the rest of us if you see me in the park covered in snow. I have hit all jumps on sidewinder though. But I'll let my skiing speak for itself thursday nights...look for the patroller with either pocket rockets or teles on.
