Paid to Ski or Ride

[bbski]

Big Boulder is having a ski with a patroller day on Saturday (2/10). If you are curious about how to become a patroller or just want to know what it's all about then come check it out. The day starts at 9am at the ski patrol shack at the bottom of midway. Tickets are provided if you are not a passholder. Serious inquires only (ie no grabbing a ticket and splitting) but no long-term committment is necessary on Saturday. We need more park skiers and riders.

 

Why be a patroller? It is a great way to make some cash while getting as much skiing as you want. Its a committment just like any job but can fit with your schedule. If you are a student - get paid to study sitting in front of the fireplace up top. Learn some practical first aid in some seriously unusual situations. Meet lots of great people.

 

There are flyers hanging up at BB but I think I put all the info here. Post here if you have questions.

[bigdaddyk]

Big Boulder is having a ski with a patroller day on Saturday (2/10). If you are curious about how to become a patroller or just want to know what it's all about then come check it out. The day starts at 9am at the ski patrol shack at the bottom of midway. Tickets are provided if you are not a passholder. Serious inquires only (ie no grabbing a ticket and splitting) but no long-term committment is necessary on Saturday. We need more park skiers and riders.

 

Why be a patroller? It is a great way to make some cash while getting as much skiing as you want. Its a committment just like any job but can fit with your schedule. If you are a student - get paid to study sitting in front of the fireplace up top. Learn some practical first aid in some seriously unusual situations. Meet lots of great people.

 

There are flyers hanging up at BB but I think I put all the info here. Post here if you have questions.

 

Sounds interesting. Hopefully it has a good serious turnout and people just don't use it for the tickets.

[Matt]

damn, I was looking at being a patroller next winter after I graduate college but I have a ACSC SL/GS race at Tussey. So I can't go ... damn.

[syd harvey]

not as many as you think get paid......and u got to be a damn good skier/boarder.....harder then most pp think....good luck to all that try it out though

[sjb269]

INTERESTED... BUT I GET OFF WORK AT 5 AND COULD MAKE IT THERE BY 6! WOULD THIS BE OK OR DO YOU HAVE TO BE THERE AT 9AM TODAY??

[bbg]

Call BB and speak to the Director of Ski Patrol at BB. I am sure that would be the best way to find out if you could do that.

 

By the way most patrollers are volunteers, very few are paid.(Not because of ski level just because they can commit to certain hours)

[skidude]

I believe at CB they only pay the patrolers that are paramedics. I think they have to be fulltime too, but I'm not sure. Theres only a couple. They are also the only ones who are allowed to drive the snow mobiles on the hill, and sit in the room with the 43549 different radios.

 

 

I heard a rumor that BB got rid of all there unpaid patrollers, but taht doesn't seem reasonable. Any truth to that?

[fluffy]

Currently at Big Boulder all red coats are paid. Frost still has many volunteers.

[bbski]

For anyone who can't make it Saturday but is interested... contact Ed at Jack Frost... he is the overall director for both mountains. Just mention if you are interested in BB and he will pass your name along. Contact info is here.

 

http://www.jfbb.com/ski-patrol.asp

 

Also, feel free to stop in the patrol room any time. Ask for the director or the hill captain for the day.

 

The event starts at 9am and should go until 3p or so. There will be some structure to it so you probably need to make the whole day to participate in the program.

 

As for the paid/volunteer situation. At most areas there is a paid patrol and a volunteer patrol. Depending on the area some have pro's do weekdays and vol's do weekends. It really depends on how many patrollers the area has and what the hours are (no nights at JF). BB did do away with volunteer patrol this year but merged many of them into the paid patrol. Nationwide I believe that there are many more volunteer patrollers than paid. It is also true that there is no difference between the skills - both paid and vols take the same tests, etc and at many areas they are treated exactly the same for day to day operations. At other areas, like CB, only the paid patrollers drive the snowmobiles, primarially for risk management and insurance reasons. Out west you can bet that anyone throwing dynamite out of a helicopter punched a timeclock that morning. So you would need to look into the policies at the mountain you are interested in working at.

 

As for needing less patrollers... it is true that some patrollers can be jerks cutting tickets and such, but it is nice to have enough staff to get a sled to you fast if you break your leg on a 15 degree night. As for the safety enforcement (responsibility code) part of it - its important to get people who are familiar with (and enjoy riding in) parks to become patrollers. You know that beginners snowplowing and falling on the landing of a hit is much more dangerous than skiing under the lift. But many patrollers will mark the ticket of the kid who is trying to make some fresh tracks and not even warn the beginners that are about to get killed. I think that at BB our patrollers are all pretty cool about not marking tickets except for really dangerous stuff (btw. bouncing a lift is dangerous - it is possible to throw a young kid from a chair or even to bounce the haul rope right off). So I would say we in general the whole industry needs more patrollers who are familiar with parks.