All of us here at Snowaction want to give a massive shout out to the men and women that invest their days and weekends keeping us safe on the mountains. They’re the first ones on the slope in the morning and the last to leave at night. Checking, securing & making sure the hill is safe. The magnificent team in red, white and black – and I’m not talking about the mighty Saints – rather the sensational snow guardian angels from Mt Hotham Ski Patrol.
Snow Action’s Dave Windsor caught up with veteran ski patroller Tim Grey on Hotham’s sun drenched Heavenly Lift.
DW: So Tim, how long have you been doing ski patrol?
TG: Ahh, not that long in terms of our patrol as a whole. I’m about to clock over 15 years
DW: That’s amazing. Has it all been up at Hotham?
TG: Yeah, my entire ski patrol career has been at Mt Hotham. My first couple of years were as a trainee in our training program and I’ve been an independent patroller for about 12-13 years.
DW: What’s the training program look like; how does one get into it; and is it a volunteer role?
TG: Yeah, so we have a mix of volunteers and paid staff. The pathways are pretty similar for both. The first thing we do is an induction program, which is usually a two day program – we run an on-snow skills test for a morning, and if you’re successful, then you get to shadow the patrol for a couple of days and really get a feel for what the job is. If you’re successful in gaining a traineeship, then you’ll do some of the medical and first aid training over the summertime. And then join a two-season training program.
DW: That’s amazing. And on a bluebird day like today, how many guys & girls would you have out here? And given the decent number of people out on the slopes today is this typically a more dangerous or active day than a crappy weather day?
TG: It’s really, really hard to predict. On the bluebird days, everyone can kind of see where they’re going and the snow pack is firm today – so people are skiing fast so that can be a hazard just as much as some of the lower visibility days, where people slowdown, which is also a hazard. So there’s no overall pattern to it.
In terms of how many we got on today, I think the roster might show about 16 ski patrollers. We also have some mountain safety and trail crew on board to help us out.
DW: Okay, who are the mountain safety and trail crew?
TG: So they wear a slightly different uniform to us. They wear a black jacket with black pants, with a bit of insignia, they help us with all matter of patrolling duties. It might be helping us with some of our slope setup and nets and hazard marking. They also help us with some patient transport, but they don’t do the patient assessment as much and patient treatment. But we’ve got many other jobs that we do on the hill apart from just attending to injured parties.
There’s always a setup in the morning, and a pack down at night, to give other crew on the mountain a chance to be able groom or make some snow or whatever it may be, and then we’ll deploy all our equipment based on the hazards for the day in the morning.
DW: And you’re engaged by Alpine Resorts as opposed to the lift company right?
TG: That’s correct. The ski patrollers are employed by Alpine Resorts Victoria – that’s a statewide body that manages all of the resorts.
DW: And what’s some of the biggest changes you’ve seen, perhaps from a safety perspective over the last 15 years for injury prevention, etc.
TG: We’re quite conscientious about being able to identify and mark hazards correctly. You know, all those orange poles you see on the hill.
But the biggest changes might be in equipment itself. Clearly, helmets have been a big change in my lifetime growing up, I never used to wear a helmet, and now all staff, and anyone engaged in any snow sports program are required to wear a helmet. We would highly recommend that you wear a helmet.
DW: For sure, I always wear one. Were head injuries a big thing in the past?
TG: I guess it’s always been a big thing and still currently, you know. We’re always wary of people that have had a head strike or a loss of consciousness, and we treat for concussion. That’s one of the number 1 things that we look for and assess for and then treat accordingly.
DW: Being a predominantly volunteer organisation, there must be some pretty special people in the crew that spend their time helping others. What’s the typical profile of your volunteers?
TG: We have a really, really wide scope. We’ve had medical professionals, doctors, surgeons, Victoria police members, firefighters, psychologists, and accountants. Plus we’ve had professional ski patrollers that work all year round. In fact, we’ve got 2 ski patrollers from Keystone on exchange with us this season. There’s always been some exchanges here. So the backgrounds are wide and varied and they all bring something really different and really beneficial to the patrol.
DW: For sure, and just one last question from my son, Jack – can you be a snowboarder on patrol?
TG: 100% we’ve got a heap of snowboarders on patrol. We’ve got Alpine skiers, and we’ve also got telemarkers too.
DW: Thanks Tim, and thanks to all your crew for the amazing work. We appreciate you.
