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.