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Ski patrol volunteers always ready to ski into the breach (4 photos)

'When there’s an actual accident and you’re trying to help someone, (you) don’t want to have to think, you just want to do,' says ski patroller of valuable training

When Sidney Canning moved back to Barrie last year and got a regular 9-to-5 job, she needed a hobby to fill her weekends.

So, she took up the offer from a friend who’d been urging her for years to give ski patrol a try.

Canning thought the patrol would be a good way to lower the cost of her new hobby and find others to ski with.

“Skiing is one of those things where it’s a solitary sport, but it’s boring if you go by yourself,” says Canning.

Canning says she’s glad to have joined the patrol team at The Heights Ski and Country Club in Oro-Medonte, and given the resort’s need for more volunteers, says her fellow patrollers are very glad to have her, too.

Canadian Ski Patrol’s central Ontario zone has lost about 10 per cent of its members over the last two years, due to the pandemic and retirement of aging volunteers.

A lack of knowledge about ski patrol is a barrier in drawing new recruits to the team, say patrollers.

“If I hadn’t known (someone on patrol) I never would have even considered it,” says Canning.

Made up of Toronto, Barrie, Collingwood and surrounding areas, the central zone could stand to add 150 more volunteer patrollers according to the zone’s vice president of operation, Corbee Dutchburn.

He added that The Heights, Alpine Ski Club and Mansfield Ski Club in particular need extra hands.

Patroller Sharon Couzelis says declining numbers mean that those who do remain are stretched a bit thinner on the hills than the team would like.

“If you have eight people, great, that’s no problem if there’s two or three accidents. You have less (people) than that, it’s stressful,” says Couzelis.

Patrollers at The Heights are supposed to sign up for 15 patrol days each season, but having fewer volunteers means that some people might have to take on extra days in order to fill the schedule.

COVID- 19 has made it difficult for some volunteers to dedicate 15 days to patrolling as well, according to Couzelis.

A day in the life

Patrol mornings are early, says Canning, who wakes up at 6:30 in order to leave her house by 7:20.

That puts her arrival time to The Heights at 7:50 — perfect for the patrol’s 8 a.m. start.

Once there, patrollers head into their patrol hut to don their easily-identifiable red ski jackets adorned with white crosses and plenty of pockets. Patrollers have to be geared up by 8:15.

They check to make sure they’ve got their personal first aid equipment, ensure the team’s oxygen tank is filled and the AED is in good working condition.

Patrollers then head out to check each run before the hills open to the public. Closed runs are marked as such and obstacles are marked or removed.

Once the runs are deemed safe — around 8:30, usually — patrollers give the go-ahead to lift operators who start letting skiers up the hill.

From there, patrollers ski in pairs, keeping an eye out for potential hazards like fallen tree branches.

“Unless there are any accidents, we pretty much just ski,” says Canning. The hills have been tame so far she says, as there’s only been one accident in the three days she’s patrolled this season.

Patrollers take turns heading inside for breaks throughout the day, making sure there are always a few team members on the hill at any given time.

At 4 p.m. the ski patrol team at The Heights reverses the morning routine to close the hills. At clubs that offer night skiing, a shift change would take place mid-day instead and night patrollers would close the hill at a later hour.

They do a final sweep to make sure everyone is safely off the hill, taking down signs marking hazards and closed trails on their way. Once done, they can tell lift operators to stop the chairlifts.

Patrollers then head back to the patrol hut and wait for all members to be back before they can partake in the ceremonial “boots-off.” Patrol members have to stay geared up all day long in case of an accident, which makes finally taking off an uncomfortable pair of ski boots quite the event, according to Canning.

“Our resort has a really fun (tradition) that if you take your boots off before they announce it then you have to buy everyone a case of beer,” Canning laughs. The custom is a fun way of enforcing a critical safety rule, she says.

When chalets are open, patrollers might talk over hot drinks before heading home for the day.

Learning the ropes

Before patrollers become part of the team, they have to go through first aid and on-snow rescue training.

Though the training is extensive, patrollers come away from it able to perform first aid with sheer “muscle memory,” according to Couzelis.

“When there’s an actual accident and you’re trying to help someone, (you) don’t want to have to think, you just want to do,” she says.

Once there’s snow on the ground, trainees have to complete a ski test before learning the ins and outs of rescuing injured skiers. Passing the ski test earns new members a red patrol jacket, marking the moment they officially become a patroller.

Getting the jacket makes you “feel like you’re part of the team,” says Canning.

A ski family

The camaraderie between patrollers is a big reason volunteers start patrolling and stick with it for years, patrollers say.

Couzelis says some of her favourite memories from the patrol are from the few times the patrol attempted to beat the world record for most snow angels made at once.

“All the instructors with lessons brought the kids, and all the members came out and we’d line them all up up the hill. It was just this huge bunch of people doing snow angels,” says Couzelis.

Though they never broke the record, the team effort and relationship building with the ski club made the event fun.

Dutchburn says there’s no ‘type’ that fits the ski patrol label, either.

“The people that come together don’t judge. You could be the richest guy in the world or the poorest person at the table and everybody just has the same passion, so you forget about what you do,” he says.

Getting involved

Aside from patrolling the hills, Canadian Ski Patrol has volunteers that help at non-ski related events year-round where first aid is necessary. A motorcycle emergency response unit — which Dutchburn co-founded — and a bicycle unit are both divisions of that year-round volunteer team.

Dutchburn encourages people interested in joining ski patrol to shadow a patroller for a day to better understand what the role is like.

“Once you experience the camaraderie and feel a (day in the life), you get the itch,” he adds.

For more information or to sign up, visit the central zone’s website.