Factoids About Joining Boreal Ski Patrol

TIME COMMITMENT 

• First Year
In your first year you are considered a candidate. You do not need to sign up for days on our schedule. You DO need to participate in toboggan training, which typically is held starting in January and runs every Saturday until around the end of March. You do NOT have to make it up the hill every Saturday, as once again this skill is performance driven, and if you can master all the elements of taking a toboggan down the hill in 3 or 4 training sessions, then you're ready to be evaluated on your toboggan skills. Most people need to attend at least 6 toboggan training sessions; weak skiers sometimes need 10 or more trainings, or take two years to complete the training.


• Subsequent Years
Once you have been checked off on toboggan skills, you are a full member of the patrol. In your first year as a full member you are expected to shadow experienced people and try to learn as much as you can, including proper use of radios. You are expected to sign up for 10 days on our schedule of days, and you are expected to attend our OEC refresher and our On The Hill Refresher each year. If you can stay around for 15 years, you no longer have to sign up for your days ahead of time, although this policy is subject to change.

EXPECTATIONS

• Patrolling is a 12 day commitment (2 days of refreshers, 10 days of ski patrolling). Patrollers are expected to put in their required 10 days of patrolling during weekend and holiday "daytime" hours. While some patrollers try to earn extra days by patrolling until 9pm (closing time), the patrollers we need to cover our hill obligations are those who can be present during daytime hours on weekends and legal holidays.
• It is expected that each patroller will sign their name in the log book in our First Aid Room by 8:15 a.m. and be ready to go out on the hill by 8:30 a.m. on any given day with boots on and skis ready to go. A typical day runs from 8:15 a.m. to 5:15 p.m. Patrollers have access to a private locker room where you may safely leave your gear while not patroling.
• Patrollers are expected to stock their own first-aid vests and keep them stocked. (Supplies you purchase may be tax-deductible.)
• Patrollers are expected to be courteous to the skiing public at the area.
• Patrollers are expected to know hill radio protocol and possess decorum. Radios are provided by management for our use during the day.
• Patrollers are expected to pay attention to all mountain communications and know what is transpiring in all areas of the mountain at all times.
• Patrollers are expected to have a current OEC card and a current Professional Rescuser CPR card.
• Patrollers are expected to help open the hill which usually takes until roughly 9:30. Patrollers are expected to do a one-hour shift in the standby shack at the top of the hill. Patrollers are expected to be back at the standby shack by 3pm to help close the hill. On busy days, patrollers are expected to sign up for a one-hour slot in the First Aid Room. If you can eat lunch in 30 minutes, this leaves you 3 hours to go skiing. Management wants you on the hill and listening to your radio. You may need to respond to accidents while skiing, so do not view your ski time as free time. You are the eyes and ears of the mountain and should be out looking for issues that need correcting.
• Patrollers are expected to preserve life and provide emergency care until the patient can be removed from the area and transferred to other medical care. Our patrol room hosts a nurse who is employed by Tahoe Forest Hospital who can assist with triage and patient care once the patient is in the first aid room. Patrollers are expected to manage their own patients wherever possible as the nurse has other duties to perform. The nurse can give medications and start drip lines; volunteer patrollers cannot, even if you know how to do it. Volunteer patrollers do not perform medical procedures or do chair evacuations.

BENEFITS - Sun, fun, and first aid! As noted in our Quicktime movie posted on the web site, most professional rescuers who join the patrol find that they get much better trauma training by working real accidents on the hill. So improvement of your skills is a definite benefit. Share your knowledge with others, and let others partake of what you know. Patrollers who have completed their probationary year get a Boreal season pass for themselves and members of their direct family. Patrollers in good standing may get a letter from management and use that to ply a ski discount at another Powdr Corporation resort. (Note: Powdr Corp. sold Apline Meadows in July 2007 so it is no longer part of the package.) Candidates may get lesser benefits their first year, but this is not always the case. On days when you are suited up and patrolling, you will be given a meal ticket worth $11 to cover your lunch. The meal ticket is not divisible, i.e., you can't buy a candy bar and ask for $10 back. You use the meal ticket one time.

CERTIFICATION REQUIREMENTS - The Boreal Ski Patrol requires that all members have a current OEC certification from National Ski Patrol and be current in Professional Rescuer CPR and AED. If you have some other certification, such as EMT or Paramedic or MD or RN, the National Ski Patrol recognizes that its certification should be performance driven, and you can arrange with one of our OEC instructors to do a "challenge" to the OEC course and demonstrate your ability. This reduces your time commitment from roughly 90 hours to around 10 hours. Once you're jumped into OEC, you are then expected to complete an OEC refresher annually with our ski patrol, or if you cannot make the Boreal OEC refresher, you can call other patrols and arrange to refresh with another patrol (providing that documentation of your attendance makes it back to the Boreal Ski Patrol).

To join the Boreal Volunteer Ski Patrol you need to complete the following steps:

1. Enroll and graduate from an OEC (Outdoor Emergency Care) using National Ski Patrol curriculum. This class is available from many patrols, or at some community colleges - or - Be a current paramedic, nurse, or EMT and pass our first aid "challenge" that our Pro Patrol will administer.
2. Become a member of the National Ski Patrol. Once we accept you, we will assist you in filling out the paperwork to affiliate with NSP. (Typically people do a "ski check" with one of our senior patrol members and if their skiing or snowboarding is acceptable, the patrol accepts you as a candidate and you begin sled training.)
3. All persons: Join our e-mailing list. This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .
4. Transferring From Another Patrol?: We require that you fill out our transfer application form and mail to Larry Dobson, 740 Vine Hill Way, Martinez CA 94533.
5. All volunteer patrollers must attend two days of first aid and skill refreshers per year. In addition, all volunteers must patrol 10 days minimum per season in addition to the foregoing requirements; of those 10 days, you must pre-assign for 10 days. (If you have been a member of the Boreal patrol for over 15 years, you may qualify for a waiver of pre-assignment requirements, but you still have to put in 10 days on the hill, plus attend two one-day refreshers at the area.) Failure to show up on your assigned days without making arrangements for a substitute causes substantial hardship to the patrol, and may be grounds for termination from the organization.

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