INTERESTED IN JOINING SKI PATROL
(to get free skiing?)
POTENTIAL CANDIDATES
For Free Skiing after you pass the class, please keep reading:

Thank you for your interest in the Bittersweet Ski Patrol. There are two main areas of training for new patrol candidates: emergency care and ski/board and toboggan skills (hill training).

This is currently a 12 week course given from mid-August to early November. The course meets two evenings per week from 6:30 to 9:30, usually Mondays and Thursdays. The course is a lot of fun and a great learning experience, but you must understand that it requires a great deal of time and effort, equivalent to a 3 hour college course. The textbook, published by the National Ski Patrol, is about 800 pages and we cover all of it. Most candidates spend two to three hundred hours between classroom, study sessions, midterm and final exam. The great majority of candidates who put in the time do pass the course! But please do not underestimate the time commitment. Course fees, including textbooks, CPR course, and first aid supplies, are approximately $170.

Candidates who pass the OEC course and pay national dues, (currently $55), become Auxiliary patrollers in the National Ski Patrol and are eligible to belong to the Bittersweet patrol (for free skiing). Those who then complete hill training become Basic patrollers. While all patrollers are members of the National Ski Patrol, we function as agents of Bittersweet, under the direction of the ski area management.

Still interested? If so, please fill out the information form in the notebook in the patrol room, or contact Martha and you will be contacted in late June. It is essential that we have complete and permanent information for you. Our preferred means to reach you is by email, but we will send out letters if email contact fails or is not available. We will not contact you if all we have is a phone number. If you think your current information is likely to change by June, give us information of a friend or family member whom we can contact. If your contact information changes later, please email us your updated information.

Being on ski patrol is a valuable service to the snow sport public, a great way to hang out with fine people who are as excited about snow sports as you are, and a much better way to spend the winter than growing roots in front of the TV. We look forward to seeing you in the summer and on the hill! If you have further questions, ask any of the patrollers you meet on the hill or in the patrol room.

Martha Nowak
One of many Ski Patrol Recruiting / OEC Instructors
you can email Martha here