Ski patrol teams all over Utah are preparing for the upcoming winter by doing everything they can to mitigate hazards at resorts.
Chloe Mortensen and Amanda Hayes-Puttfarcken are both part of ski patrol teams — Mortensen at Nordic Valley Ski Resort and Hayes-Puttfarcken at Powder Mountain. Ski patrol teams watch out for the safety and well-being of everyone at their respective resorts by preventing and responding to dangerous situations, they said.
“Our main responsibilities are first aid, medical assistance on the hill — which includes a lot of splinting — coordinating your emergency response, and getting your additional resources,” Mortensen said. “You must ask yourself, ‘Do I need a backboard? Do I need 911? Do I need a helicopter?’”
Whenever a decision is made, the rest of the ski patrollers need to know so they can help, she added.
Another way ski patrols mitigate hazards is by marking off hazardous areas, such as the side country, because ski patrollers can’t perform certain preventative duties out of the resort’s boundaries, Mortensen said.
“That’s kind of where we get our bad rap from,” she said. “People are like, ‘Oh, the ski patrol just ruins all our fun,’ but we’re trying to keep people safe.”
The most dangerous preventative measure taken by ski patrollers in Utah is triggering avalanches, both Mortensen and Hayes-Puttfarcken said. By doing so, avalanches are less likely to happen while patrons are skiing, they explained.
“When the snow conditions are unstable, a subset of the team goes out and blows up the mountain side,” Hayes-Puttfarcken said. “We use hand explosives, light the charges and throw them about 30 feet away.”
Most ski resorts in Utah, such as Snow Basin and Powder Mountain, use explosives to trigger avalanches, but Nordic is so small they must use a tactic called ski cuts, Mortensen explained.
“You go really fast and stomp on the middle of the hill and hopefully ski away,” she said. “If all the conditions are right, it triggers an avalanche.”
Even though it’s one of the scariest aspects of being on a ski patrol team, it’s also the most exciting, Mortensen said. It can even be rewarding, Hayes-Puttfarcken added.
When ski patrol teams aren’t on active duty or giving safety guidelines to the community, they’re training, Mortensen said.
“We do a lot of beacon avalanche rescue drills, toboggan drills, or just skiing,” she said.
The ski patrol teams are always trying to be the best they can when training, Hayes-Puttfarcken explained.
“It’s really nice to have a friendly community to work with,” Hayes-Puttfarcken said. “If you’re lacking in a specific area the team’s like, ‘Yeah let’s run a drill.’ We want to help each other.”
Visit the websites for Nordic Valley Ski Resort and Powder Mountain to learn more.