Ski patrollers are a vital to our skiing and snowboarding experience. While part of their job is often enforcing rules around the mountain, most of it is working to keep people safe. That includes managing avalanche terrain, closing trails when they’re unsafe, and, of course, rescuing skiers and snowboarders after they’ve injured themselves on the mountain. We’re always grateful of ski patrol and the work that they do on the mountain, but sometimes these hard working employees go above and beyond. We asked our Unofficial Networks Facebook followers “what’s the nicest thing a ski patroller has ever done for you?” Hundreds of people responded, and this is how the answers broke down.
Breakdown of Responses
Based on general categorizations of the responses, the top response categories are as follows:
- Medical Assistance and Rescue (51 Responses): Ski patrollers providing needed medical aid, sledding injured skiers down the mountain, saving lives.
- Leniency with Rules (25 Responses): This section includes patrollers overlooking rule-breakers, often offering warnings rather than punishments. Some commenters were specifically grateful that their passes weren’t pulled when they were performing poorly on the mountain.
- Rope Drop and Exclusive Access (24 Responses): Ski patrollers providing access to closed trails, powder stashes, or early runs. If you’ve ever been given first-access to a ski run, you know how great these memories can be.
- Small Acts of Kindness (19 Responses): This category includes smaller acts like giving food, drinks, or small items, or helping with minor tasks like retrieving lost items or giving advice on the mountain.
- Personal Connections and Relationships (15 Responses): Sometimes people fall in love with a ski patroller or become close friends. While their job is on the mountain, they’re often incredibly great people off the mountain.
Our Favorite Responses to the Question “What’s the nicest thing a ski patroller has ever done for you?”
From heartwarming to hilarious, these are a handful of our favorite responses to the question.
“Paid up when they lost end-of-the-day chinese downhills. Only sort of laughed (in a concerned way) when I snow-snaked, did a full front flip and exploded my backpack, sending my gear all over the mountain in a true yard sale (including snapping my probe) and terminated the shack’s ghetto blaster.” – Naes N.
“Got my ski boot off without me feeling it after a complete boot-top tibia fracture, after getting me from Alta to the Snowbird clinic. I was so scared because removing ski boots hurts when you’re a kid and they managed so well I asked when they were gonna do it and it was already off!” – Mason M.
“Rescued my 82 year old mom from deep powder on waterfall at wolf creek. Found her ski. Got her up and running again. I had no idea where she was.” – Mark H.
“We came up on a patroller putting up the rope on a trail they we had already done. I asked ‘what’s your official policy on ducking the rope?’ He just looked at the rope and said ‘Oh this is just a recommendation’.” – Chris D.
