Patrol

Ski Patrol

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Love the mountain, thrive under pressure, and want your work to make a difference every single day?

Our Ski Patrol team is at the heart of mountain safety. Patrollers are highly skilled mountain professionals responsible for creating a safe, welcoming environment for guests and employees while responding to everything from first aid calls and skier incidents to avalanche mitigation and mountain rescue.

This is much more than skiing for work. It requires strong judgment, advanced skiing ability, emergency response skills, physical endurance, teamwork, and the ability to stay calm when conditions change quickly.

If you are experienced, safety-minded, dependable, and ready to serve as part of a team that protects the mountain and the people on it, we want to hear from you.

What You'll Do

As a member of Ski Patrol, you will help maintain mountain safety, respond to emergencies, educate guests, and support daily mountain operations.

Your responsibilities may include:

  • Provide courteous, professional, safe, and efficient service to guests.

  • Identify and mitigate skiing and riding hazards through appropriate markings, closures, signage, and other established procedures.

  • Evaluate injured or ill guests and provide emergency care within the scope of your training and certification.

  • Transport injured guests using sleds, toboggans, snowmobiles, or other appropriate methods.

  • Assist with avalanche forecasting, mitigation, and control operations using established procedures.

  • Monitor terrain and changing mountain conditions throughout the day.

  • Enforce mountain policies fairly and consistently, including skier safety and speed-control expectations.

  • Educate guests through proactive, respectful personal interaction.

  • Anticipate guest needs and provide assistance whenever possible.

  • Serve in Mountain Dispatch as assigned.

  • Communicate effectively with Patrol, Lift Operations, Mountain Operations, Guest Services, and other departments.

  • Maintain and continuously improve patrol, medical, rescue, skiing, and technical skills.

  • Maintain proficiency with avalanche transceivers and other rescue equipment.

  • Participate in avalanche response, missing-person searches, evacuations, and mountain rescue operations.

  • Assist with chairlift evacuation and self-evacuation procedures.

  • Perform additional duties as needed to support safe mountain operations.

What We're Looking For

Great Patrollers are calm under pressure, technically capable, physically prepared, and committed to helping others.

Required

  • Minimum age of 21.

  • Current CPR certification.

  • Current Outdoor Emergency Care (OEC) certification.

We may also consider candidates with EMT-B, Wilderness EMT, or Paramedic certification who are willing and able to successfully challenge the required OEC written and practical examinations.

Candidates must also have:

  • Advanced alpine skiing ability in all weather, terrain, and snow conditions.

  • Ability to ski confidently and in control while carrying heavy or awkward equipment.

  • Ability to safely operate and transport patients using a rescue toboggan upon successful completion of required patrol evaluations.

  • Professional appearance and a courteous, approachable demeanor.

  • Strong communication and guest-service skills.

  • Ability to remain calm, focused, and professional during emergency situations, difficult interactions, or confrontations.

  • Excellent physical conditioning and the ability to hike and travel through mountain terrain while carrying heavy loads.

  • Basic radio communication skills.

  • Knowledge of knots, ropes, and rescue systems.

  • Ability to perform chairlift evacuation and self-evacuation procedures.

  • Ability and willingness to work outdoors in extreme and rapidly changing winter weather.

  • Ability to report for scheduled shifts as early as 5:30 AM, including during winter weather conditions.

  • Ability to climb lift towers while wearing ski boots and required equipment.

  • Working knowledge of mountain meteorology, snowpack metamorphism, and avalanche dynamics.

  • Ability to follow all policies, procedures, and operational standards contained in the Patrol Manual.

  • Ability and willingness to work extended hours or additional days when operational or emergency conditions require it.

Important: This position requires alpine skiing. Snowboarding is not permitted while performing Patrol duties. Telemark skiing may be considered following evaluation and approval by an RLM toboggan trainer.

Preferred

  • Previous ski patrol experience.

  • Previous mountain rescue or emergency-response experience.

  • Avalanche education and mitigation experience.

  • Experience working with explosives in an avalanche-control environment.

  • Previous experience operating snowmobiles in mountain terrain.

The Reality of the Job

Ski Patrol is one of the most rewarding roles on the mountain, but it carries significant responsibility.

You may begin your day before sunrise, work in snowstorms and extreme cold, respond to serious medical emergencies, climb difficult terrain, manage guest conflicts, perform avalanche mitigation, and make decisions where safety matters immediately.

Some days are demanding. Some are unpredictable. All of them require teamwork, sound judgment, professionalism, and a commitment to taking care of people.

For the right person, there is nothing quite like being part of the team trusted to help keep the mountain moving safely.

Physical Requirements

The physical demands described below are representative of those required to successfully perform the essential functions of this position. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

While performing this job, employees may be required to:

  • Walk, stand, communicate, hear, see, and ski throughout the workday.

  • Walk or stand for 70% or more of a typical shift.

  • Ski for 50% or more of a typical operating day.

  • Frequently travel across snow, ice, steep slopes, and uneven mountain terrain.

  • Frequently bend, kneel, reach, climb, and crawl.

  • Frequently lift, carry, push, or pull approximately 20–75 pounds.

  • Occasionally lift, push, or pull 100 pounds or more.

  • Carry medical, rescue, avalanche, and other equipment through difficult terrain.

  • Operate snowmobiles when qualified and assigned.

  • Use hands and fingers to operate tools, rescue equipment, radios, ropes, and medical equipment.

  • Perform physically demanding work at elevation and in changing winter conditions.

Specific vision requirements may include close vision, distance vision, peripheral vision, depth perception, and the ability to adjust focus.

Equipment You May Use

  • Alpine skis

  • Rescue toboggans and sleds

  • Snowmobiles

  • Two-way radios

  • First aid and emergency medical equipment

  • Avalanche transceivers and rescue equipment

  • Shovels and probes

  • Ropes and technical rescue equipment

  • Avalanche-control equipment

  • Explosives when appropriately trained, authorized, and assigned

  • Other mountain safety and rescue equipment

Working Conditions

This position works primarily outdoors in a mountain environment and may involve exposure to:

  • Extreme cold

  • Snow, wind, ice, and wet conditions

  • Steep and uneven terrain

  • Avalanche terrain and avalanche hazards

  • High or exposed locations

  • Moving mechanical equipment

  • Snowmobiles and mountain machinery

  • Fumes or airborne particles

  • Electrical equipment and associated hazards

  • Emergency and rescue situations

  • Rapidly changing weather and snow conditions

Patrollers are expected to consistently follow established safety procedures, operate within the scope of their training, communicate hazards, and exercise sound judgment.

More Than a Job on the Mountain

Ski Patrol is about service, responsibility, teamwork, and trust.

You will spend your winter working alongside people who depend on one another, developing skills that matter, helping guests through some of their best days and sometimes their hardest moments, and playing an essential role in keeping the mountain safe.

If you have the skills, judgment, physical ability, and heart for mountain service, we'd love to have you on the team.