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Question: Any Nat'l Ski Patrol members out there?

Valerieplas

Diva in Training
Hi ladies. This is my first time posting. I'm a member of the Nat'l Ski Patrol at a small mid-western resort. I have been skiing for over 50 years (even after I broke my leg on my very first day skiing at age 8!), and still have so much to learn. I'd love to connect with other women patrollers. What challenges do you face as a woman patroller at your resort? Many larger resorts have paid patrollers, but I rarely see any women at them. Are any of you paid patrollers? Tell me about your experiences!
 

Marigee

Angel Diva
Welcome @Valerieplas! Wherein the Midwest do you patrol? How long have you patrolled? I patrol at Whitetail ( a sister resort to Liberty Mountain that Ski Diva mentioned above). Whitetail is around 1 1/2 hours from the Wash DC metro area. We were bought by Vail last year. Will be interesting to see where that leads.

I have been a patroller for 9 years, all at Whitetail. Our patrol is about 35% women. We have some paid staff. The paid staff works day shift during the week, volunteers work nights and weekends. We have several women on paid staff. The biggest challenge for me was toboggan handling. I am petite - 5' 1", and 110 pounds. I had to learn to work smarter, not harder. I found going to Women's clinics helped immensely, as they taught me how to use my body and finesse the toboggan, rather than muscling it like the men do. I've found the women's clinics give me better support and feedback. We have some pretty awesome, fierce women patrollers in the Eastern Division, and I have some good training from some who are at the certified level. I have taken a clinic twice from Linda Barthel, a certified patroller in Michigan, and past director of the National Ski Patrol's Women's Program. I also have become pretty good friends with Tanya Thomas, the current director, who patrols in NC and VA. Take clinics whenever you can!

My patrol is pretty tight knit, and I have been on the Council for the past 6 seasons. I would say that the best part of my job is the people I work with at Whitetail. We are pretty spread out geographically (MD, DC, VA, PA, WV), but we still manage to get together several times outside the season. My shift stays connected through What's App During the season, we hang out after shifts.

Glad you joined the site. I have been a member since the very beginning. I don't post much, but I check out the site as often as I have time.
 

freckles

Certified Ski Diva
I'm a volunteer patroller at a small ski hill in SE Michigan. Our patrol is about 30% women. We see our share of injuries from the high school teams, racing and boarder cross. I patrol at night, after work. I'm the only woman on one of the nights, and one of two on the other. I was a bit intimidated at first, but then felt welcomed.

Linda Barthel is great! I've taken a Women's clinic with her here in Michigan to help get me ready for my toboggan test. I liked the Women's clinics, but I also liked the mixed clinics, as that's representative of real life.

Take all the clinics you can -- I've learned so much from NSP and made great friends.
 

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