by Jessie Miller, Assstant Division OET Supervisor | Jan 18, 2025 | Division News, Program News
This year the Senior OET Evaluation includes two major updates to the format of the evaluation. The changes aim to make the assessment more relevant and practical, mirroring how these critical patroller skills are used in practice.
Patroller Skills-Blended Skills Run
Moving forward, all Senior Evaluations in the Eastern Division will evaluate patroller skills as a blended skills run, including snowplow, sideslip, moving change in direction (i.e. transition or pivot slip), and a static change in direction in a designated location (i.e., kick turn, wedge and match, jump turn or static 180 for snowboards).
In years past, a Senior Candidate would complete patroller skills separately, performing a snowplow run and a sideslip run. In practice, when a patroller is handling a toboggan they use a BLEND of these skills to achieve a smooth ride for the patient.
Loaded Toboggan & Tail Rope – Traverse
A traverse is now included in the loaded toboggan run. The driver and tail rope candidates demonstrate the ability to work together as a team to traverse around an obstacle. In a practical sense, the traverse will simulate getting around a rock, tower, bare patch, or other obstacle while safely transporting an injured patient. Consider how each of these changes ties into the Toboggan Fundamentals!
Toboggan Fundamentals
• Employ sound judgment to ensure the safety of the toboggan handlers, passenger, and public.
• Use a blend of Technical Fundamentals, along with chain/rope management, to control the speed and direction of the toboggan.
• Use Route Selection and other Tactical skills to optimize the path of the toboggan to safely arrive at a scene or transport a patient.
• Employ appropriate Communication between toboggan handlers, passenger, and public.
Really Cool Resources
You have questions? We have answers! The FAQs in the Standard Operating Procedure aim to address questions regarding the updated Senior Evaluation format. These, and more, can be found on the:
Patroller School OET homepage.
Senior Evaluation Standard Operating Procedure
OET Trainer Evaluator Handbook (i.e. the Flip Book)
Reach out to your local TEs and Regional Leadership to learn more and get involved in the Senior Program!
by Laura Harner, Otis Ridge Patrol Director | Jan 18, 2025 | Program News, Region News, Spotlight Articles
It can be difficult to find enough volunteers to cover all open ski patrol shifts, even for a small ski area that only requires a few patrollers at a time. When a couple of alumni patrollers approached me last winter to find out whether they could get involved at Otis Ridge Ski Patrol, WMA Region, I explored the possibility with area management and then invited the alumni patrollers to join us.
They quickly became part of the team, jumping in with enthusiasm, and often choose to ski at times when large midweek lesson programs are scheduled, so they’re available to lend a hand.
Our alumni promote safety by riding the lift with children who are in group lessons. They’ve become strong ambassadors for our patrol by getting to know some of the pass holders and have started bringing up the idea of ski patrolling with some of them.
The first time an alumni patroller assisted with an injury on the hill, I saw the value in having someone there with their level of experience. We arrived at the scene at the same time and when I turned to ask if they could secure the scene, they were already positioned to direct skiers around the area.
When the toboggan arrived, they were able to retrieve the needed equipment as well as prepare the toboggan for transport, which helped us transport the patient more quickly than two patrollers on the scene would have been able to.
Our alumni have been finding ways to help out such as encouraging our newer patrollers and practicing OEC skills with them. It’s a pleasure having the enthusiasm and experience of alumni patrollers on our team. I’m thrilled that we’ve started partnering with them, and that they are able to continue to be involved.
These patrollers are truly an asset to the Otis Ridge Ski Patrol, and I look forward to continuing to work with them and see how else their skills and experience can be utilized.
by Rob West, Avalanche Supervisor | Jan 18, 2025 | Division News, Program News
Hello everyone. Winter is upon us, and the snow has been falling. Thanks to some early-season storms the backcountry is skiing nicely. With that, it is time to think about avalanche safety when venturing into the backcountry.
The Eastern Division is running three Level 1 Avalanche classes this season. If you are venturing out into Tuckerman Ravine or getting ready for the Certified program these classes are for you. Our first class is coming up soon, from January 24-26 at Whiteface Mountain in NY. Registration is now open at Patroller School or contact the IOR Chuck Boyd.
Our other two classes are at Smugglers’ Notch and Tuckerman Ravine. Dates and information can be found on the Patroller School website. See you all soon.
by Craig Larson, YAP Supervisor | Jan 18, 2025 | Division News, Program News
The Eastern Division Young Adult Program Staff has been planning, prepping, and preparing for this year’s Eastern Division Young Adult Summit at Smugglers’ Notch. Young Adult Patrollers from Maine to West Virginia will gather at Smugglers’ Notch Resort in Jeffersonville, VT. from March 7 to 10 for three days of hands-on training, competition, friendship, and fun.
Smugglers’ Notch Resort has tons of terrain: long turn cruisers, steeps, trees, terrain parks, and Black Hole, the only TRIPLE BLACK DIAMOND in the east. With 2610 feet of vertical rise this is the YAP event to attend.
Those who have been to a Young Adult Patroller Summit speak highly of the training and fun they had.
“What a great event. There aren’t other Young Adult Patrollers where I ski. I never knew there were so many. I’ll be back next year.” – First-year attendee
“I look forward to showing off my patroller skills at this event each year. This event gets bigger and better each time I attend. I love walking away with free stuff.” – Third-year attendee
If you have never attended an Eastern Division Young Adult Summit, this is the year to participate. If you have attended this event before, come again! Here’s what you get by attending this event:
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- Three nights of lodging (Friday, Saturday, Sunday)
- Breakfast on Saturday and Sunday
- Dinner on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday
- Lift Tickets for Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday
- Hands-on Skills training
- Patroller Skills competition
- Mystery events
- FREE swag
ALL for $475.00!
More information regarding the YAP Seminar can be found on the Eastern Division webpage, patrollerschool.org, Facebook, and Instagram. Check our social media pages often as information is updated, swag is promoted, or goodies are given away.
by Dave Hawkes, HoliMont Bike Patrol PD/WNY Bike RA | Jan 18, 2025 | Program News, Region News
Bike patrols come in many different forms. Some, for example, serve cross-country mountain bike trails. Others provide medical support for races and festivals; some support lift-served bike parks. The HoliMont Bike Patrol in Ellicottville, NY, which just concluded its second season as a registered NSP bike patrol, works in all three ways.
Our bike patrol supports the HoliMont Bike Park and all other summer events. Although we’ve only had two seasons as a registered patrol, we’ve been actively supporting HoliMont for much longer. We started by providing medical/safety support for members who were riding the property’s cross-country mountain bike trails. Next, we found ourselves supporting off-road bike races. Then, HoliMont started offering lift access for mountain biking four years ago.
With the support of HoliMont, we registered as an NSP bike patrol and named two of our winter patrollers as primary members. I serve as Patrol Director and Mike Bailey, also from HoliMont, is our second primary member. In addition, we now have many darn good patrollers from all over WNY registered as secondary. Some are from HoliMont, but others are from nearby WNY winter patrols such as Holiday Valley, Kissing Bridge, Buffalo Ski Center, Cockaigne, and Allegheny Nordic.
We now have a dedicated group of over 20 bike patrollers who respond to incidents, provide medical support, and transport as necessary. We developed many new protocols, including guidelines for how to use our “Medlite” quad runner, fully equipped for incident response and transport.
Our average season is about 60 days, starting on Memorial Day weekend and ending after the Ellicottville, NY Fall Fest. Lifts are open and patrol is on-site every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. In addition to recreational riding, the bike park features competitive events including mountain biking and cyclocross races. We also serve many other athletic events such as trail running, uphill challenges, and disc golf. All are staffed by our fully credentialed bike park patrollers.
This past summer, we partnered with our safety committee and hosted a two-day safety event. Ellen Conrad and Doug Levy, our Safety Advisor, organized the weekend and we staffed it with bike patrollers. There was great swag for participants! We ran the event on a weekend that included a mountain bike and a kids-on-bikes day. The timing was perfect. The NSP safety event was quite successful.
Like many bike patrols, our biggest challenge is recruiting, even though our requirements are minimal. In fact, riding a bike is not even required! This is because many of our responses are walk-ins or transported to the patrol medical center by our Medlite quad. And the benefit is that we get bike park access and can even earn winter lift tickets!
If you’re interested in learning more about our patrol, contact me at dhawkes184@gmail.com. If you want to learn more about forming a bike patrol contact Tim Franz, the Eastern Division Bike Program Supervisor.
by Trail Sweep Staff | Dec 18, 2024 | Division News, Program News
The Eastern Division has so much to offer patrollers. Take advantage
of events that are currently listed on the Eastern Division Calendar.
For information, go to the calendar and click on the event, go to the
Patroller School website, or contact the Program Advisor.
1/8 Patroller Stress Awareness Forum, ZOOM
1/11-12 Nordic Fest, Highland Forest, Fabius, NY
1/17/25 Certified Pre-Test, Sugarloaf, ME
1/18-19 Sugarloaf Patroller School, ME
1/24-26 Level 1 Avalanche, Whiteface, NY
1/25-26 Elk Mountain Patroller School, PA
1/25-26 WISP Patroller School, MD
1/31 Certified Pre-Test, Killington, VT
2/1-2 Killington Patroller School, Killington, VT
2/3-5 Level 1 Avalanche, Smugglers’ Notch, VT
2/8-9 Waterville Valley Tele/Snowboard School, NH
2/8-9 Gore Mountain Patroller School, NY
2/8-9 Plattekill Patroller School, NY
2/12 Patroller Stress Awareness Forum, ZOOM
3/7-9 Level 1 Avalanche, Mt. Washington, NH
3/7-9 Winter Division Officers’ Meeting
3/7-10 Young Adult Patroller Summit, Smugglers’ Notch, VT10
3/12 Patroller Stress Awareness Forum, ZOOM
3/13-16 Certified Annual Exam & Meeting, Jay Peak, VT (invitation only)
3/31 Memorial Fund Scholarship Applications Due
by Chuck Boyd, Nordic/Backcountry Supervisor | Dec 18, 2024 | Division News, Program News
Get ready for Nordic Fest! On the weekend of January 11-12, 2025, at Highland Forest in Fabius, NY, the Eastern Division’s Nordic/Backcountry program will be hosting a Nordic Fest. What is a Nordic Fest? It is the celebration of everything Nordic, ski clinics with a PSIA track and skate instructor, skills stations, Nordic senior training, and a nice meal on Saturday night.
You will learn new skills, make new friends, and maybe start your way toward becoming a senior patroller. There will be cabins available for lodging, but you should bring your own sleeping bag and sleeping pad. Camping is also available. Registration and more information can be found on www.patrollerschool.org.
Hopefully, many of you have gone skiing in this early-season snow. I know that patrollers from both Connecticut and Western Mass Regions have had several good skiing days. I’m sure the New Hampshire and New York Regions’ patrollers have also been skiing, as we have been having a good time up in the Adirondacks.
There is no database that lists Nordic patrollers in the Eastern Division. It would be great if we had a list of all the ED Nordic patrollers. I would like some help creating this database so we could all benefit from it. Here’s an example of where this would be useful. I’ve recently been contacted to provide coverage for several Nordic races in upstate NY. This becomes a difficult task without a current list of Nordic patrollers. If you’re willing to help, please contact me.
by Eric Kreckel, OET Steering Committee | Dec 18, 2024 | Division News, Program News
Currently, in the Eastern Division, there are over 800 toboggan instructors, over 200 senior trainer-evaluators, and over 100 instructor-trainers. At a division level, we are responsible for validating and submitting new instructor applications, instructor renewals, and instructor-trainer appointments to the national office annually.
To simplify the administrative tasks required to manage these, improve our accuracy, and provide transparency to the instructors themselves, the steering committee has developed and deployed the “Smartersheet” application. We encourage every toboggan instructor in the division to log into the app and review the status of their record.
The new and improved NSP Eastern Division OET help desk let’s you:
• View your instructor record
• Submit self-reporting items• Submit new instructor applications
• Submit instructor renewal applications
• Submit TTW or STW teaching observations
To gain access, use the ‘Forgot password?’ link on the login page and enter your email address. If the email address entered matches what we have on your record, a password reset link will be emailed to you. Otherwise, please submit a ticket to the OET Help Desk. This OET Help Desk also provides additional details on the capabilities of this app.
If there are any discrepancies in your record, please contact your OET RA. The steering committee will then work with your RA to make any necessary corrections and get them processed through the national office if necessary.
by John Wolf, Bike Supervisor | Dec 18, 2024 | National News, Program News
In case you missed the news in November, the National Ski Patrol and the National Interscholastic Cycling League (NICA) announced a Memorandum of Understanding describing a new partnership. This marks a significant milestone in expanding NSP’s impact beyond the slopes and into the rapidly growing world of youth cycling.
Founded in 2009, NICA “develops interscholastic mountain biking programs for student-athletes across the United States. NICA is about having amazing adventures with your teammates while tackling both small and epic challenges.” This partnership formally recognizes the vital role that bike patrollers can play in ensuring safety in youth mountain biking.
Even before this agreement, Liberty Mountain Ski Patrol in the Eastern Pennsylvania and Maryland Region started providing first responder services to their local NICA leagues and has already demonstrated how successful this relationship can be for both organizations.
The 2024 season showcased the potential of this collaboration when we supported both the Maryland (MICL) and the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Cycling Leagues (PICL). Our dedicated team provided patrol services for seven events, contributing over 100 patroller hours. The patrol’s comprehensive approach included pre-event virtual huddles with stakeholders and planning how to coordinate with on-site medical staff, ensuring seamless integration of emergency management protocols and site-specific logistics.
One of the most remarkable outcomes of our partnership with the local NICA leagues has been the translation of Outdoor Emergency Care (OEC) skills from snow to dirt. Our OEC training provided an exceptional foundation for handling cycling-specific injuries by using the same assessment and treatment protocols. The familiar equipment from winter patrolling – such as trauma packs, splinting materials, and bleeding control supplies – proved equally valuable during summer events, though we adapted them for a different type of mobile deployment. Patrollers reported how their experience with the mechanism of injury assessment on the slopes transferred perfectly to evaluating bicycle crashes, allowing for quick and accurate scene size-ups, and treatment decisions.
Another significant advantage that our patrollers brought to the local NICA league events was their extensive experience with radio communications and incident coordination. Years of managing on-mountain communications proved invaluable on mountain biking race day. Patrollers’ familiarity with clear, concise radio protocols, emergency response coordination, and maintaining effective communication to manage an incident across challenging cycling terrain helped establish efficient information flow between course marshals, medical support, and race operations. This professional communication standard enhanced overall event safety and response coordination, particularly in areas with limited cell service where reliable radio communication was crucial.
The impact of our partnership with the local leagues was immediately evident. The local league organizers repeatedly emphasized how the NSP presence significantly enhanced their emergency management capabilities. At one particularly challenging event, our dedicated bike patrollers demonstrated their value when they quickly responded to multiple incidents across the course, providing immediate care while at the same time coordinating with event staff to ensure optimal outcomes.
The successful integration of NSP’s expertise with NICA’s youth development mission has created a model partnership that benefits everyone – from the young riders pushing their limits while their dedicated friends, family members, and other volunteers support them to the patrollers who hone their first response skills during the summer.
This new collaboration between NSP and NICA represents more than just an operational partnership; it’s an investment in the future of both organizations. As NICA continues its impressive growth nationwide, the presence of NSP-certified bike patrollers adds an essential layer of safety and professionalism to youth cycling events.
For the Eastern Division, this partnership opens new avenues for member engagement and demonstrates our organization’s versatility and commitment to outdoor safety across all seasons in an area where NICA participation is growing rapidly. The enthusiasm and appreciation shown by NICA’s national organization, local leagues, coaches, and participants confirm that this partnership will be a cornerstone of both organizations’ futures.
