Monday February 10 is International Ski Patrol Day and patrollers at every resort deserve the recognition.
Words: Feet Banks
Certainly, it’s easy to be envious standing in the lift line watching the ski patrol get lap after lap of fresh tracks while doing avalanche mitigation work—”another tough day at work eh?”— but there’s a much larger story behind each lap.
“On a big snow day, our first wave of patrollers will arrive at the base just before 6 a.m.,” says Lon Flath, Assistant Manager of Ski Patrol on Blackcomb Mountain. “They’ll jump on sleds and head up. That’s eight people—the Forecaster will get the day’s plan together while the others start doing the avy control and getting the explosives prepped.”
By 7 a.m. the rest of Blackcomb’s patrol will arrive, there can be as many as 35 professionals, three to four volunteers and two doctors on a busy day, and Whistler Mountain will have similar numbers. “That’s 40 red coats on a busy day,” Lon says. “Our goal is always to get the whole mountain open by 10:30 a.m. Obviously there can be extraneous circumstances affecting things, but that has always been the goal.”
With 25-plus years of ski patrol experience, Lon says a patroller’s most important tool, besides the team he works with, is terrain knowledge. “Knowing the terrain intimately is what allows us to move safely and enjoy circumstances that many people would not be able to navigate.”
Often punching through howling winds, and blowing snow/sleet in near-whiteout conditions on dangerous slopes, ski patrol everywhere are putting themselves on the line to help make the average ski day better.
“We know there are lots of people in Whistler who know the mountains as well as us,” Lon says. “And they want to ski when it’s wild and stormy so we always push to keep things going, even in bad weather.”
And the work doesn’t stop once the entire mountain is open. “Hopefully we get a chance to grab a quick bite to eat,” Lon says, “then we scramble back to our zones and start responding to injuries.”
They aren’t always bad injuries, or injuries at all, but if someone calls Ski Patrol they go. “We talk in terms of ‘responses’,” Lon says. “A busy day will be 50 responses. Sometimes that requires the toboggan, sometimes it’s just someone too fatigued and just can’t go on.”
Then of course there are always snow fences to straighten out, ropelines to check/repair, signs to repost—ski patrolling includes a lot of skiing, but not the kind the rest of us are after.
And then, at the end of the day, what patrol are not dealing with responses/injuries begin the final sweep to ensure everyone gets to après safely. By the time Lon and his colleagues unclick their boots they may have spent ten or eleven hours out in the pounding snow (or worse) dealing with sometimes really difficult, and even traumatic situations. So why do they do it?
“I think about this a lot,” Lon says, “even after 26 years. A huge part of it is the relationship dynamic amongst the team. This job is a mixture of very challenging circumstances, but you get to shoulder that burden as a team—we are not doing this alone. The other part that we’re in the natural environment. Most work days we are watching the sun come up over the mountain and then we watch it sink back down behind the mountain. It gives us a sense of our place in the world—real perspective on what matters— and that is a pretty healthy thing these days.”
Ski patrol are a gang, a benevolent gang hell bent on keeping us safe, alive, and as comfy as possible if we do happen to faceplant/scorpion/yard sale a tad harder than we can handle. Their red jackets shine as a beacon of order and safety in an environment that would normally be untravellable for the majority of people.
“Most work days we are watching the sun come up over the mountain and then we watch it sink back down. It gives us a sense of our place in the world…“
And after all the bombing and ski cutting, the tobogganing and rope stringing, the sign pounding and sweeping and (rarely) pass clipping, your friendly neighbourhood ski patrollers finish their day long after the rest of us, then get up and do it again, for the rest of us.
“Well,” Lon adds, “sometimes we après. The Whistler patrollers are partial to the Dubh Linn Gate and the Blackcomb team likes RMU.”
Probably wouldn’t hurt to buy them a beer, but a ski-by high five and a “thank you” on the hill is nice too. Happy International Ski Patrol Day!
International Ski Patrol Day is February 10, 2025 and with patrollers and mountain staff on over 200 ski resorts and mountain guiding operations outfitted in its uniforms, Helly Hansen is donating 5% of all e-com sales and select retail store sales to various organizations that support ski patrol internationally. Details here.
Bonus Videos!
Need a refresher on the Alpine Responsibility Code? Check this Safe Shredding video where Mountain Life editor Feet Banks talks to Whistler Blackcomb Patrol Supervisor Pat Mortlock.
Shredders coming from smaller hills out east may not realize the finer details, and importance of terrain closures at larger resorts like Whistler Blackcomb. Here’s Feet talking Whistler Avalanche Forecaster/Patroller Nicole Koshure to help bring you up to speed.
And tree skiing with Blackcomb Patroller Kei Grey. Tree wells are a real thing, get informed!
