Summer Update Series Pt.4

Welcome to our summer update series! As our year-round employees know, the fun never stops at Shawnee Mountain. Our winter season typically runs from late November through late March, and summer prep starts immediately following our closing day. This week we met with Mitch Wise, our Ski Patrol Director. Mitch spends his summer servicing and cleaning equipment and signage, but today, he told us all about the intensive training that our Ski Patrollers go through during the off-season to earn their title.

A little bit about Mitch:

Mitch Wise became a junior patroller at Timber Hill, aka Alpine Mountain, in 1968. He worked as a part-time pro patroller for one season at Kahkout Mt in 1974. In 1975, Mitch became a full time Pro for Shawnee’s inaugural season. In 1983 he became the Director of Ski Patrol at Shawnee Mountain. He earned his Senior Patroller designation in both age and skill level. Mitch received a National Appointment from the National Ski Patrol. He is a CPR and Outdoor Emergency Care First Aid Instructor and he started our Slope Security program which has transitioned into what is now known as the Mountain Hosts.

Mitch is married to Lee Ann and they have two children and a grandson, and they all ski! Mitch had the pleasure of meeting Olympic star Jean Claude Killy while he was a part of Shawnee. He says that he is fortunate to have a terrific bunch of patrollers and a staff of first class Instructors for our First Aid and Toboggan training.

Becoming a Ski Patroller

Hi I’m Mitch Wise. I’m the Patrol Director here at Shawnee Mountain and I want to talk to you a little bit about one the common questions I get asked: what do I have to do to join the ski patrol. I’m gonna go over how we have a class going on right now.

I have candidates that were her last season and they would apply, they would get screened, and they would get accepted. So those that were accepted are now in our candidate training program. It consists of OEC which is outdoor emergency care, first aid which is required by the national ski patrol. They’ll take a FEMA 100 course that’s online and that kinda gives them exposure to what a mass casualty incident, management part of it is. They will receive training in lift evac, low angle rescue, and they will become certified in healthcare CPR with an AED. So as this course goes on, the first aid portion of it, some time in the late fall they will be given a written test and a practical test. Assuming they pass it, they will be labelled a patroller.

We have about 76 patrollers. Most of them are returning patrollers but we have twenty instructors. We have about eight to ten new instructors, patrollers that instruct the OET program obviously, we have patrollers that instruct the OEC, it takes a village to do the test for them. But our training will start in the fall. They’ll have some online training that they’ll take. They’ll go to a… it’s about a six hour first aid refresher. They spend a day out on the hill where they do lift evac, low angle.

“But there’s clinics, there’s always something going on, constant training.”

Once we’re skiing then they will participate in our outdoor emergency transportation program, and there they focus on teaching specific skiing skills and how to handle a toboggan. Once they become proficient in that we will test them out, if they pass now they’re labelled an alpine patroller and they are now considered what we say a full patroller. And that’s kind of how you become a patroller in a real nutshell. We hope that you never need our services but if we see you out on the slopes at least try to be safe. Thank you.

Written on: June 26, 2024  |  Written by: Michaela K., Marketing Asst.