The US National Ski Patrol has issued a policy for member personal protective equipment (PPE) for the organization’s 30,000+ members. The new policy mandates approved facemasks and other forms of PPE in situations where social distancing cannot be maintained.
Continue reading NSP Issues National PPE Policy for 2020-2021 SeasonA ski patroller at Vail’s Heavenly Mountain Resort South Lake Tahoe was killed in a serious incident. Heavenly Ski Patrol responded to 
the scene on the Mott Canyon double black diamond trail where they found 36-year-old patroller, Christopher John Nicholson. The critically injured patroller was transported via Care Flight to Carson Valley Medical Center in Gardnerville where he succumbed to his injuries.
Continue reading Heavenly Resort Ski Patroller Dies in Skiing Incident
Vail Resorts has closed its $265 million acquisition of Missouri-based Peak Resorts. The transaction adds 17 US ski areas to Vail’s network of resorts, bringing the total number of owned and operated resorts to 37 worldwide. Most Peak locations have historically been staffed with volunteer ski patrols affiliated with the NSP. Vail does not anticipate making significant changes to the way the patrols operate this season.
Continue reading Vail Completes Peak Resorts’ Acquisition
VAIL, Col. — Sanford Morris “Sandy” Treat II first trained in the Colorado mountains as a young man at Camp Hale after leaving Dartmouth College in 1942 when US forces would soon join World War II. He later returned to the Vail area after retiring from a successful business career.
Treat was personally recruited by 10th Mountain Division and National Ski Patrol System co-founder, Minnie Dole.
Continue reading 10th Mountain Vet and Vail Skiing Icon, Sandy Treat, Passes at 96
The body of missing Kirkwood Mountain ski patroller, John Greever, was discovered in the Georgetown, area on 13 August, according to the El Dorado County Sheriff’s office. Georgetown is the northeastern-most town in the “California Mother Lode” territory, about 40 miles west of Lake Tahoe. Continue reading Missing Kirkwood Patroller found dead
Robert Kendrick, of Leadville, Colorado, passed away on 28 July at eighty-eight. He was awarded NSP National Appointment number 2330 in 1960, and was on the founding patroller team when Vail first opened. Robert Kendrick born Aug. 12, 1930, in Leadville. He was also a mining executive and a founding trustee of the National Mining Hall of Fame located in Leadville. Continue reading…
Ski Patrol pioneer, rescue toboggan inventor and 10th Mountain Division skiing skills trainer, Nelson Bennett, passed away just a few months after his 101st birthday. 
Bennett was the recipient of a National Ski Patrol (NSP) National Appointment, #1304, in the 1950s.
Bennett, a native of Lancaster, New Hampshire, graduated from the University of New Hampshire in 1940 with a degree in Forestry. He was also an early member of the UNH Ski Team, and during school breaks worked at Peckett’s Inn on Sugar Hill in New Hampshire’s White Mountains, one of America’s first resorts and ski schools. During World War II, Bennett was drafted in 1942 and served as a skiing skills trainer for the US Army’s 10th Mountain Division and in Italy, as a member of this US alpine infantry Continue reading Ski Patrol Pioneer, Nelson Bennett, Dies at 102
Yellowstone Club ski patroller and avalanche expert, Darren Johnson, triggered an avalanche near Cedar Basin that swept him to his death. Johnson was in a 4-member group doing avalanche research on 19 January in the southwestern Montana area near Big Sky. Having concluded 23 stability tests over 4 hours of research that late morning and early afternoon, Johnson was well aware of the risk of jumping onto what the group had determined was an unstable wind-loaded slope with a “Considerable” rating for avalanche risk, but Continue reading Patroller and Avalanche Expert, Darren Johnson, Triggers Slide that Kills Him
Members of the full-time paid ski patrols at the recently-combined Canyons and Park City resorts voted to unionize on 14 December. (Listen-in on interview with Ski-Patrol.net Cofounder, Mark O’Connor, and Park City Mountain Resort COO, Bill Rock, on local NPR affiliate KPCW). The vote was close, with 97 voting in favor and 94 opposed to joining Local 7781 of the United Professional Ski Patrols of America (UPSPA) union within the AFL-CIO’s Communications Workers of America (CWA). 
The Park City and Canyons resorts were officially combined at the end of July to form what is now the largest US ski resort. Fifty-million dollars has been committed to capital improvements for joining the resorts and upgrading the associated infrastructure. The combined resort has been re-branded as “Park City” (PCMR) with new tagline “There is only one. Park City.”
The question now is whether Vail Continue reading Vail’s Park City Resort Ski Patrol Votes-in Union
Ski Patrol Inc. Cofounder, David Lawler. J.D., died at 64 in April. Lawler grew up on a farm in Iowa, and that work ethic continued throughout his years of service as an attorney and through his volunteer efforts, where he passionately represented the interests of patrollers, farmers and consumers. 
Lawler was an attorney in private practice in Iowa, where he was admitted to practice law in 1975, and at the federal district level in 1978. In addition to his non-profit contributions at Ski Patrol Inc. and its Ski-Patrol.net publication, Lawler dedicated much of his time over the years as a volunteer to many worthy causes.
Lawler held a number of positions as an attorney during his 40 year Continue reading Obituary: Ski Patrol Inc. Cofounder, David Lawler
Patrollers at Telluride are the latest to organize a union, bringing the count of unionized “Pro Patrols” at large resorts around the US to eight. Telluride patrollers, in a 47 to 1 vote, joined the ranks of Colorado’s Crested Butte and Steamboat, and Utah’s Canyons Resort in February of 2015. Those resorts are represented by the United Professional Ski Patrols of America (UPSPA), operating as Local 7781 of the AFL-CIO’s Communications Workers of America (COA) union. 
Patrollers at Aspen SkiCo’s four resorts, Aspen Mountain, Snowmass, Aspen Highlands and Buttermilk, have been separately unionized since 1986 as the Aspen Professional Ski Patrol Association (APSPA). The Steamboat Professional Ski Patrol Association voted in a union in a December 1999, 44 to 12 vote. Canyons patrollers unionized in April of Continue reading Ski Patrol Unions: Isolated Occurrences or the Latest Trend for Ski Patrol Organizations?
If you happened to have a Google alert set up to track the term “Ski Patrol”, you would have received a story touting a free e-version of the National Ski Patrol’s Outdoor Emergency Care (OEC) 5th Edition. It’s unknown how long the hoax has been out there, but Ski-Patrol.net staff became aware of it on Saturday, 11 April. If you didn’t click on it you’re one of the lucky ones. Those that have tell a horrific tale of an insidious virus that many may still be attempting to eradicate from their systems, if it is even possible. 
The image to the left shows a copy of one such hoax alert heralding “Outdoor Emergency Care 5th Edition by National Ski Patrol Staff”, from a site named Continue reading Computer Virus Targets Patrollers Looking for Free E-Version of OEC 5 Manual
Ski industry pioneer, Earl Ervin Clark, died on Sunday, 28 December, at his home in Littleton, Colorado. He was 95 years old. 
Clark, a Londonderry, Vermont native and long-time Colorado resident, became a member of the Rocky Mountain Division of the NSP after World War II. He served as volunteer Patrol Director at Arapahoe Basin on weekends after leaving active duty with the Army’s 10th Mountain Division. He also served as a patroller at Loveland, Berthoud Pass and Winter Park. He was inducted into the Colorado Ski Hall of Fame in 2001. Continue reading NSP and 10th Mountain Division Legend, Earl Clark, Dies at 95
A recent study by Ski-Patrol.net found that Ski Patrollers, Lifeguards and others involved in recreational protective service work (“Patrollers and other RPS Workers”) are among the lowest paid workers in America. Data for our research came from the US Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics, a reputable source, so we decided to take a closer look at the statistics to see if we could determine why that is.
After all, “paid” patrollers are highly trained workers with certifications across a number of skill areas, many of which are re-certified annually. It seems illogical that their compensation would rank somewhere near the bottom of the pay scale for American workers, below parking lot attendants and just marginally above wages that waiters and waitresses “claim” on their tax returns. In fact, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data, over 97% of all US professions have higher compensation than Patrollers and other RPS Workers. 
It’s important to note that 90%+ of ski patrollers that are also National Ski Patrol members in the US take no compensation for their work, and do not appear in this category of the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The compensation of those 20-25,000 or so patrollers Continue reading Ski Patroller Among Worst Paying Jobs in America
Ski Area Management (SAM) magazine has published the first article in a two part series, “Rescue Me: The National Ski Patrol has been through years of turmoil. Can it be saved?”, which proposes to explore the acrimonious multi-year battle between various factions of the US National Ski Patrol System, Inc.’s (NSP) membership. The battle has resulted in NSP vs. NSP civil litigation on two occasions over the past 8 years. 
At first glance the SAM series appears to be an attempt to explore solutions to problems that have been plaguing the organization since 2005. The two warring factions are largely comprised of a majority of NSP’s senior leadership on the one hand that propose that a small group of vocal and well organized members are wasting the time of senior leaders on issues that are of little strategic importance to the organization or the majority of its members.
On the other side there is a loosely-coordinated group that fashions itself as “members’ rights” advocates attempting to force NSP senior leaders to re-focus on the strategic interests of the organization. They say the NSP has strayed in recent years toward a primary focus on the financial interests of resorts and other for-profit entities, and they would like to put the strategic focus back on skier and rider safety and care, and conservative actions to protect members’ rights in support of that strategy and protecting the NSP’s non-profit status.
There is certainly truth to Continue reading Ski Area Management Magazine “Outs” National Ski Patrol Acrimony
Longtime Aspen resident, Ski Patrol pioneer, 10th Mountain Division member and skiing instruction legend, Curt Chase, died in early June at 91 at his Colorado home. Chase, born on 3 October 1922 in Manchester, NH, lived and worked in Aspen for more than 40 years.
Chase was a member of the University of New Hampshire ski team in the 1930s. He was also recruited by the National Ski Patrol in its early years to join the 10th Mountain Division and became a survival training instructor for the US Army in 1943. He later organized, trained and directed the Aspen Ski Patrol in 1946. Continue reading Ski Patrol Legend, Curt Chase, Dies at 91
A few short 10th Mountain Division “ski patrol” first aid films have recently been published to Shutterstock. The videos show state of the art procedures for treating freezing and frostbite, and knee and ankle sprains, circa 1942 before the US entered World War II.
National Ski Patrol (NSP) Founder, Minnie Dole, was instrumental in founding the US Army’s 10th Mountain Division alpine fighting force, after founding the NSP in 1938 at the urging of NSAA (National Skier Association of America, not to be confused with NSP’s main partner 75 years later, the National Ski Areas Association) President, Roger Langley. During the height of the 10th Mountain Division’s build-up, its training grounds were located near what is now Continue reading 10th Mountain First Aid Film: State of the NSP Art Circa 1942
Ski-Patrol.net recently introduced a ski patrol job search page that goes out onto the web and searches many jobs sites in real-time when you load the page. We believe that you will find it to be the best ski patrol position search page available. Just click on the “Ski Patrol Jobs” link above.
We also recently launched an updated ski patrol news page. Like the jobs page it automatically searches for current news around the web, but this search tool uses a custom search created by Ski-Patrol.net staff using Yahoo! Pipes. Check it out – you won’t be disappointed!
Patrollers from 13 or more countries are gathering at Big White resort in British Columbia, Canada from 29 March to 5 April 2014. This will be the 19th Congress or meeting of the Fédération Internationale des Patrouilles de Ski (FIPS) member patrollers.
FIPS members gather biannually in member countries forming an international network of ski patrollers with the intent to discuss and disseminate information on new ski rescue techniques, avalanche rescue, medical management of ski injuries, search and rescue, legal issues, ski safety, alpine risk management and accident prevention, both on and off Continue reading Patrollers from Around the World Convene in Canada
Wolf Creek Ski Area Patroller Colin Drew Sutton was killed in a backcountry avalanche incident on 4 March 2014.
According to the Colorado Avalanche Information Center (CAIC), Sutton was in a group of four patrollers from Colorado’s Wolf Creek that were transported via helicopter to Pt. 12,505, which is approximately one mile west of Conejos Peak, and around 16 air miles SE of the Wolf Creek area where they typically Continue reading Wolf Creek Patroller Colin Sutton Killed in Backcountry Avalanche