Meet Kira and Haley Howard
You’d be hard pressed to find two more impressive young women than Haley and Kira Howard, or to find a mountain that feels more like family than their home mountain, Windham Mountain in New York. Kira is a freshman at the Coast Guard Academy, Haley is a graduate now in flight school with the Coast Guard. They are both [...]
National Ski Patrol Members Supporting Beijing Olympics and Athletes
The National Ski Patrol (NSP) is thrilled to announce that four of our members will be patrolling at the 2022 Winter Olympic Games in Beijing, China. Using their extensive safety training, our team of Patrollers will ensure the safety of the world’s top winter athletes competing on-mountain. Our NSP members have loaded up gear from partners including Backcountry Access, [...]
Meet Gary Porter | Protecting Skiers in Avalanche Terrain
By: Gary Porter, 2022 Subaru-NSP Ambassador “Hey, did you hear that?” Some victims recall first hearing a ‘loud crack’. Others suggest that they felt the snow move just before hearing the crack. For me, there is an inescapable dread in knowing regardless of whether you heard it or felt it first, you are about to experience the horror of being [...]
Pregnant on Patrol
Hannah Waguespack is a year-round volunteer ski and bike patroller at Bryce Mountain in Virginia. She has a PhD in Neuroscience. In her free time, she enjoys water sports, mountain biking, and spending time with her growing family. You can learn more about Hannah as an NSP-Subaru ambassador here. Being pregnant is hard work! And it can be even more [...]
Chris Castilian named National Ski Patrol CEO
The National Ski Patrol (NSP) Board of Directors announced on June 10 that Chris Castilian will join the organization as its new CEO. Castilian brings a wealth of public, private and civic service experience to NSP, along with a passion for the outdoors. He comes to NSP from Great Outdoors Colorado (GOCO) where he served as executive director for [...]
Paid Ski Patroller to Volunteer and back!
By Colby Atkinson Colby Atkinson works in Utah on Powder Mountain's professional ski patrol. He is also a volunteer at Snowbasin. When Colby is not taking beautiful photos around Utah you can find him freeskiing and mountain biking. Colby is part of the 2020-2021 Subaru Ambassador team. Learn more about Colby here. There are some that understand what being [...]
“I don’t think skiing’s for Mexicans…”
Cipher Tarrant is a volunteer patroller at Tyrol Basin located in Mount Horeb, Wisconsin. Cipher is an OEC instructor, volunteer EMT, and rock climbing coach. Cipher is part of the 2020-2021 Subaru Ambassador team. Learn more about Cipher here. “I don’t think skiing’s for Mexicans…” “Actually most people who get injured are white”, I replied. We laughed, then [...]
Advance Life Support in Ski Patrol
By Bruce Welton, 2020-2021 National Ski Patrol-Subaru Ambassador Follow @bruce.welton In 1938, Charles Minot Dole, then the director of the Mt. Mansfield Ski Patrol in Stowe, Vermont was approached by Roger Langley, the president of the National Ski Association. Their conversation was simple, Langley was hoping to convince Dole to form a national ski patrol. While still dealing with the [...]
Yakima® – the official Rack Provider of National Ski Patrol
Ski patrollers need their equipment to be reliable on and off the hill. This includes the products they need to transport their most important gear, their skis, and snowboards. As the premier car rack partner of the National Ski Patrol, Yakima® provides VIP discounts on everything from ski racks and rocket boxes to bike racks and fly fishing carriers. Whether [...]
Adjusting to the New Normal
By: Cipher Tarrant, 2020-2021 NSP-Subaru Ambassador 2020 started as a normal year for most of us, and now look where we are in 2021. Most kids are not in the actual classroom, lots of people are still out of work, masks have become something relatively normal. Not many of us thought the world we knew would look like this now. [...]
The Lifespan of a Ski Patroller, the Greatest Job on Earth
By Bruce Welton, 2020-2021 NSP-Subaru Ambassador Let’s be honest the lifespan of a ski patroller is ironically similar to that of the patroller’s nemesis, the ski resort “SLOW” sign. It may sound crazy but just wait. You start your career as nothing more than ink on a canvas. Whether that canvas be an employee profile or a simple orange banner, [...]
Time to Expand
Diversity within the National Ski Patrol and Solutions for Improvement By Eryka Thorley (Originally published in Ski Patrol Magazine) When is the last time that you walked into a room and you were the only person that looked like you, the only person in the room that spoke your native language? Or the only person that shared your religious or [...]
Live, Ski, Love: How finding my partner led to more than one love affair
How does a neuroscientist from Louisiana end up a ski patroller in rural Virginia? My love affair with skiing began in parallel with another, even stronger, love affair, the one I share with my husband and partner, Nick. As a child, I never owned a winter coat warmer than a fleece, let alone went on a ski vacation. My senior [...]
Giving Tuesday is December 1!
Giving Tuesday is December 1 -- raise money for your patrol and NSP! What it is GivingTuesday is “a global day of giving fueled by the power of social media and collaboration” which takes place this year on Tuesday, December 1. Many nonprofits take advantage of the day to encourage financial donations from supporters. National Ski Patrol will be [...]
Ski Resorts Promote Sustainability
Patrols, like Arapahoe Basin, take a leadership role By Lindsay DeFrates Photos courtesy of Arapahoe Basin The morning meeting runs smoothly. Tony Cammarata, the operations director/ski patrol director at Arapahoe Basin for the last 10 years, runs through the daily assignments of duties. He then covers the pass-on topics like first aid and safety discussions. The content, the commentary, and [...]