Copper Mountain Junior Ski Patroller Responsibilities
- Copper Mountarin, Colorado, is popular with skiers.copper mountain,colorado,rocky mountains,mountain, image by Earl Robbins from Fotolia.com
More than a million visitors ski at Copper Mountain in Colorado each year and although less than 1 percent get injured, the ski patrol is ready to locate the injured skiers, stabilize them physically, and transport them to a medical facility as soon as possible. Copper Mountain offers a Youth Ski Patrol for those who want to learn the basics of ski patrolling, first aid skills and general safety. - Skiing hazards signs are placed on slopes.skiing image by charles taylor from Fotolia.com
Copper Mountain Ski Patrol is one of the larger patrol teams in Colorado and consists of 60 full-time patrollers, 100 Slope Watch volunteers, 20 medical volunteers, 15 high school students who assist in most patrol operations, and five avalanche dogs.
The responsibilities of ski and snow patrollers are to monitor the resort's snow, post signs, regulate its ropes and use their medical knowledge when a skier is injured.
In September through to early November, the priority is to get 80 to 90 percent of all the snow packed down for safe skiing by boot packing all the avalanche terrain that snowmobiles are not able to access.
Members of the ski patrol are the first to ski by zigzagging across the terrain and when the snow seems unstable, they will do explosives testing with charges to flush the pack. After performing standard trail checks, ski patrollers cordon off hidden obstacles such as rocks and fallen trees and put up warning signs.
During the day, patrollers are on-call for medical emergencies. A dispatcher assesses the situation and sends out patrollers with a toboggan, who then relay their exact location and then transfer communication to a private radio to ensure that information about the injured party is kept confidential. All patrollers are certified emergency medical technicians and are able to treat the most common injuries, such as injured knees or shoulders, and then transport the injured skiers down to the medical clinic Copper's Center Village. In the event of a severe injury, however, the patrollers call on "Flight for Life," a helicopter service that transports skiers to Denver for emergency care. By late afternoon, the ski patrol is taking down ropes and checking trails for stranded skiers. - Copper Mountain offers a Youth Ski Patrol program that teaches the fundamentals of ski patrol, basic first aid and ski safety. It is important to note that although this program teaches bandaging and splinting and CPR, the Youth Ski Patrol never administers medical treatment to an injured skier. The training focuses on learning the history of the National Ski Patrol and lift and snow-making.
You need to be 18 and become a Certified Emergency Medical Technician to go on to become a member of an official Ski Patrol team. - The Junior Patrol Program is a volunteer program that allows youth to get involved in the ski community by taking part in a professional ski patrol organization. The Junior Ski Patrollers help the official Ski Patrol with maintaining safety at emergency scenes, carrying equipment, directing traffic and re-packing toboggans. Other responsibilities include safety watch and providing guidance to skiers and snowboarders.
Candidates for Junior Patrol should be between 15 and 17 and have skiing and/or snowboarding experience. You will be assigned a scheduled shift during the winter ski season. Good people skills are an asset for working with the public. - To become a certified member of the Professional Ski Patrol Association, you must take a course to prepare for several exams: the ski/snowboard exam, a toboggan exam and a written exam, as well as a First Aid Exam and interview exam.
