Page 30 - ESCARPMENT MAGAZINE | Winter 2013

ON
PATROL
30 Escarpment Magazine Winter 2013
When I was a young skier, my friends and I had a distorted idea of
why people joined the ski patrol. We saw them as a bunch of ski bums
who were in it to ski for free and chase women. Of course, this false per-
ception changed drastically over the years as some of those same
friends became patrollers and I realized how much work and respon-
sibility goes into patrolling. Last winter, I decided to see for myself just
what a typical day in the life of a ski patroller is like, so I asked my friend,
Bill Moriarty, if I could join him during one of his volunteer patrol days
at Beaver Valley Ski Club.
Bill’s day started at 7:30 at the pa-
troller’s hut where all patrollers re-
ceive their daily assignments before
heading out to the lifts. The ski patrol
are the first on the lifts and the last
ones off. Before the public is allowed
on the hills the patrollers not only
scan the runs for any obstructions or
dangers, they are also lift guinea
pigs. They check each tower and
pulley to make sure that there aren’t
any cables off-track or unusual
noises. It is also a ski patroller’s duty
to ski each run before it is open and
look for ground level issues, like groomer holes, low or fallen branches,
ice patches or other obstacles that may be a danger to skiers and
boarders. Only when they are satisfied that the run is safe do they take
down the barrier tape and allow everyone else on the run.
During the week, Bill is a Senior Design Engineer Specialist at Bruce
Power. On most winter Sundays, Bill dons his yellow and blue jacket
and assumes his role at Beaver Valley. He has been doing this for over
30 years and still enjoys mingling with old friends while keeping a
watchful eye for problems on the hills. Bill feels he is giving something
back to the ski community by volunteering as a patroller.
After Bill finished his morning duties, we rode up the chair and crossed
over to the Bear Trap run. It hadn’t been groomed that day so we were
blessed with a fresh dump of ankle deep powder. Bill stopped halfway
down and scanned the area. Then he spotted a couple of young boys
riding the chair and hitting each other with their poles. As the swordfight
progressed, one youngster dropped his poles and they fell to the run
below. Bill skied over, retrieved the poles and waited. Soon the two fel-
lows gingerly skied down to us. Bill, doing his best impression of good
cop/bad cop stood facing them with his hands firmly on his hips and
asked if they knew what was wrong. One boy sheepishly mumbled,
“We shouldn’t drop our poles because someone might get hurt below.”
“That’s right”, said Bill, “and remember I know your parents.”
“Sorry sir, it won’t happen again, sir.” They chimed, then zoomed off
as far from trouble as they could get. Bill explained that there is a deli-
cate balance between getting the message across with firmness and
not nastiness.
The Canadian Ski Patrol has been around since 1940 when the Cana-
dian Amateur Ski Association invited Dr. Doug Firth to train a team of
skiers to aid the injured on ski hills. Dr. Doug was well known in the ski
industry for doing this very thing at the Toronto Ski Club throughout the
1930s. He called the first aid group The Canadian Ski Patrol System and it
became part of the Ski Association. Dr. Firth served as president of the
Canadian Ski Patrol for twelve years. By the 1960s, the CSPS reorgan-
ized as an independent national or-
ganization and became a registered
charity. Training programs were ex-
panded to achieve higher standards
in this rapidly expanding sport. The
Ski Patrol is now a proactive group
that strives to find ways to protect
skiers and boarders before acci-
dents happen as well as helping
those who are injured. *
Canadian Ski Patrol is a non profit corporation, comprising highly-trained volunteer
and professional members. It was formed to promote safe skiing and to provide
assistance to injured skiers/snowboarders and provides, without charge, a uniformly
highly-skilled and responsible service to the skiing/snowboarding public.
BY TOM HAKALA AT BEAVER VALLEY SKI CLUB Canadian Ski Patrol helping an injured skier in the 1950s
Dr. Doug Firth
Bill Moriarty
FEATURE | on patrol at beaver valley