bbski

For anyone who can't make it Saturday but is interested... contact Ed at Jack Frost... he is the overall director for both mountains. Just mention if you are interested in BB and he will pass your name along. Contact info is here. http://www.jfbb.com/ski-patrol.asp Also, feel free to stop in the patrol room any time. Ask for the director or the hill captain for the day. The event starts at 9am and should go until 3p or so. There will be some structure to it so you probably need to make the whole day to participate in the program. As for the paid/volunteer situation. At most areas there is a paid patrol and a volunteer patrol. Depending on the area some have pro's do weekdays and vol's do weekends. It really depends on how many patrollers the area has and what the hours are (no nights at JF). BB did do away with volunteer patrol this year but merged many of them into the paid patrol. Nationwide I believe that there are many more volunteer patrollers than paid. It is also true that there is no difference between the skills - both paid and vols take the same tests, etc and at many areas they are treated exactly the same for day to day operations. At other areas, like CB, only the paid patrollers drive the snowmobiles, primarially for risk management and insurance reasons. Out west you can bet that anyone throwing dynamite out of a helicopter punched a timeclock that morning. So you would need to look into the policies at the mountain you are interested in working at. As for needing less patrollers... it is true that some patrollers can be jerks cutting tickets and such, but it is nice to have enough staff to get a sled to you fast if you break your leg on a 15 degree night. As for the safety enforcement (responsibility code) part of it - its important to get people who are familiar with (and enjoy riding in) parks to become patrollers. You know that beginners snowplowing and falling on the landing of a hit is much more dangerous than skiing under the lift. But many patrollers will mark the ticket of the kid who is trying to make some fresh tracks and not even warn the beginners that are about to get killed. I think that at BB our patrollers are all pretty cool about not marking tickets except for really dangerous stuff (btw. bouncing a lift is dangerous - it is possible to throw a young kid from a chair or even to bounce the haul rope right off). So I would say we in general the whole industry needs more patrollers who are familiar with parks.

Big Boulder is having a ski with a patroller day on Saturday (2/10). If you are curious about how to become a patroller or just want to know what it's all about then come check it out. The day starts at 9am at the ski patrol shack at the bottom of midway. Tickets are provided if you are not a passholder. Serious inquires only (ie no grabbing a ticket and splitting) but no long-term committment is necessary on Saturday. We need more park skiers and riders. Why be a patroller? It is a great way to make some cash while getting as much skiing as you want. Its a committment just like any job but can fit with your schedule. If you are a student - get paid to study sitting in front of the fireplace up top. Learn some practical first aid in some seriously unusual situations. Meet lots of great people. There are flyers hanging up at BB but I think I put all the info here. Post here if you have questions.

Note. I am not BB management. BB management has been quiet about this because it is buisness. I do happen to know some things that occured, but I have no idea if they were related to the break of the contract or not. Like I said, this info is all secondhand from employees or directly observed. I am only posting it because BB seems to be bearing the brunt of this forum and now with the petition I think it should be said. PL did wreck a brand new park bully groomer leaving it stranded on the snow for several days with 3 wheels missing through inept operation. BB staff reparied it where it was (it couldn't be moved) the day the parts arrived. PL also promised the opening of the merry widow park last saturday. Despite keeping MW closed on friday to build it they still left early and did not complete the park. Not only did they not put a single feature on the park, they did not even finish grooming it. BB staff discovered this on sat morning and groomed it out so that it would be open for the weekend. And no, PL did not go to JF either. I don't know anything else but there may be more. So lets stop lamenting the move that BB or PL made to seperate and start looking for ways to make BB park even better. Those guys did build nice jibs. However, the main thing BB has been lacking is a $$ committment to park until now. Given the raw materials that PL was given, any weldor could build those. BB already has some of the best grooming equipment and great operators. Now with Peak and the committement to snowmaking we are looking like we will have a great season. So we need to continue to support the push to improve freestyle terrain by making management know our interest. Maybe someone could voluneteer to make videos and photos and update them online. I'm sure that they would be able to compensate you somehow. Good park scene, which is what some are lamenting the possible loss of, is generated by the riders not the builders.