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well to be a patroller in Whistler you must have an intensive first aid training (week-long course).
A lot of patrollers are volunteers, some are full time, tasks include avalanche control, taking care of injuries, opening/closing terrain, signalization, rescue, sweeping...
That's all I know off the top of my head, which you probably already knew...
if you get in trouble, they are ususally really chill if you just talk to them. and they save your ass when you get hurt. there are some patrollers on TGR i belive that might have some detailed info
they are most of the time asshole he dont like kids on twintips skiing backwords. and then they pull ur pass for trash talking em and running from them, then they ban you from your local hill and you keep coming back with different jackets and they catch on and put up a warrent for your arrest :)
ambassadors are the worst, they go around, thinking they are the shit and king of the mountain, taking kids passes for skiing backwards/practing and skiing 100x more in control then half the people on greens. when it really comes down to it, at moutn snow, all they do is wear a yellow jacket and get a free pass, they dont get free foood and they ahve to attend tons of required meetings, i love hoppin on the chair or gondy w/ ambassadors, i just sit there and say i'm an ambassador, im king of the mountain and they get mad and try to pull my pass, fuck that, you can't pull my pass for thinking im the king of the mountain, fuck you ambassadors, go pull your own pass
^ on the other hand, ski patrol can actually help you. if you break your arm, an ambassador will come down and stare at you lying there, not moving in pain, then proceed to ski away. or when your in the park, about to drop, a fucking ambassador starts doing Slalom turns over the in-run. and you proceed to yell at the ambassador, who once again trys to take your pass, but fuck that, he went against the park rules, fuck you ambassadors
shut the fuck up fag i wasnt talking about your dad asshole, i was talking about the ski patrol that i have had run-in's with have been assholes to me.
and yes some of them are chill but the majority of them walk around with a dick in they're ass and take their anger out on us because we ski backwards
most of the patrollers at Mt. Shasta are either stoners or alcoholics or both, and 50% of them ride twins. And when they see a gnarly crash, they laugh first, call them a dumbass, and then go help.
That's NOT to be a full time patroller, just a volunteer, be able to do first aid rescues, and it's a prerequisite before applying to be a patroller, so not organized by the ski patrol.
The course is 70 hours, every day.
I doubt you actually learn stuff for 6 months straight, it's probably continuous learning, for ski patrolling as a whole right?
Apart from first aid, you also get general training, that I'd think includes ski cutting, maybe avalanche control, etc over the course of the winter...
ehhhhhh, i dont know about a week long course, the OEC course i took in order to be a volunteer at winter park/mary jane was 165 hours and it took a little longer than a week
Like other have said...some are super chill, and some are power tripping dickheads...I think some of just forget what they are there for, and instead of helping people, they get off on being assholes. This patrol guy Sean that I rode with sometimes at my old hill was so awesome, he rode the old Eric Pollard pro models and would tell me about the best spots (even out-of-bounds spots), and where the pillow lines were, awesome chill dude. But I've been 'talked to' by other ski patrol people for skiing switch, skiing too fast, ducking fences, not slowing down at an intersection (even though the intersection was huge and there wasn't anyone even near it)...one patrol guy actually cut right in front of me while yelling at me and almost made me run into him, I had to bail hardcore to miss him and ate shit cause he was a dumbass. So yeah, some are cool, some a bitches...my general rule: the bigger the hill, the more asshole patrollers there are.
OEC (Outdoor Emergency Care)(about 350-400$): is similar to EMT in length and topic, it only focuses on medical and trauma patients. It doesn't cover any ski patroller duties at all, it's primarily a emergency first responder course. (4-6 months 2 days a week)
CPR course (about 50$): Needs to be either "Professional rescuer" or "Healthcare provider" with AED training. (10hr day)
Avy I (about 100$): Course focuses on snow sciences and snow tests. One day in the classroom and one day on the snow. (2 days 20hrs)
Avy II (about 100$): Goes more in depth on Avy situations and snow conditions and sciences. (one Week 70hrs)
Avy III (unkown cost): EXPLOSIVES! (unknown duration) (Not an official course, usually taught by exlosives expert involved in your mountain)
Mountain Rescue (about 100$): Focuses on caring and extracting patients on mountain and backcountry situations. (2 days 20hrs)
Not to mention Ski tests, Sled tests, and mountain logistics tests.
There are more... that's all I can think of right now.