Why Silver Star Mountain won’t have Canadian Ski Patrollers this winter
VERNON – The volunteer agency that has been providing ski patrol service at Silver Star Mountain for the past 16 years will no longer be looking out for people on the hill.
The resort is transitioning to a new service model that will replace volunteers from the Canadian Ski Patrol by adding four full-time, paid ski patrollers to its staff. Silver Star operations director Brad Baker says the resort looked at a number of factors and didn’t take the decision lightly.
“We certainly appreciate all the volunteers that have played a role in getting Silver Star where it is over the last 16 years,” Baker says.
Baker says the move was an operational decision, one which will ensure service levels are maintained.
“From a business standpoint, it’s a strategic decision we needed to make. We’re growing and evolving, and our operations have to evolve with us,” Baker says.
Ski patrol is the mountain’s ‘mobile workforce’ Baker says, and is responsible for a number of tasks including event set up, maintenance, and more. With volunteers, ski patrol is ‘something else they do’ and scheduling was, at times, a challenge.
The winter 2015/2016 season will be the first time the new service model is put into practice, and Baker says patrons shouldn’t notice any big changes.
“We will not compromise service levels or level of care,” Baker says. “It’s a new system and needs to be tried out, but nothing would be dimiinished. We’ll maintain (service levels) or better it.”
Canadian Ski Patrol volunteers were not paid for their work, but received pass benefits for their service, Baker says.
“We’ve had lots of open dialogue between ourselves and Canadian Ski Patrol,” Baker says. “The volunteers are wonderful, past, present and future.”
He says the resort looks forward to a continued working relationship with them.
Canadian Ski Patrol could not be reached for comment by publishing time, but posted the following message on its Facebook page:
We are sorry to announce that Silver Star Mountain Resort will no longer have patrollers from the Canadian Ski Patrol.
We hope that in the future we will be able to continue a relationship with the resort as there is a rich history of care from CSP volunteers. Thank you to everyone who has volunteered for or helped us in any way during our time on the mountain and we look forward to continuing our work on many other mountains in the area.
To contact the reporter for this story, email Charlotte Helston at chelston@infonews.ca or call 250-309-5230. To contact the editor, email mjones@infonews.ca or call 250-718-2724.
— This story was edited at 1:07 p.m. June 16, 2015 to change the photo.
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8 responses
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I’m not surprised with this development at all.As someone who spent years in the volunteer patrol in another part of Canada and then joined the Silver Star patrol as a full timer I could see the difference in the core philosophies of the two organizations.One militaristic and elitist and the other, well, Canadian.The CSPS is a national organization that provides First Aid services to many, many ski hills and resorts in Canada.It’s training program and resulting patrollers are highly skilled and well practiced by the time they finish their first season and go on to receive more training and practice on the ski hills in subsequent years of membership.They supply their personal time and energy to provide a service for which they may receive food, season passes or other perks.To belong to the organization you have to love it, it is like another job.Especially here in BC where very long days working on the mountains and extreme physical exertion are the norm.It’s interesting that Silver Star is hiring 4 more full time patrollers.I crunched the numbers and this will cost the resort approx $70,000 for the season.The cost of having the CSPS operating on the hill is not entirely clear to me, however I realize that the resort may calculate the number of “complementary” season passes it may have to issue to volunteer patrollers and their families as the major expense. This season pass typically increases in value with years of service.If the calculation of cost involves the number of free passes that the resort feels it will lose to the CSPS at $700 each that would be 100 season pass expenses to justify hiring the full timers instead of keeping the CSPS on the hill.The foregone value of eliminating the CSPS on the hill includes removing experienced patrollers who are not on payroll, eliminating an organization that brings members from other regions with expertise that otherwise will not be accessed, and eliminating that incalculable spirit that the CSPS embodies that cannot be duplicated by those trained as paramedics or other first responder workers.Many members of the CSPS are career professionals that bring a brand of judgement to the mountain that cannot be duplicated in an organization of very modestly paid labour oriented patrollers.It’s the trade off for 4 full time patrollers vs. the CSPS that troubles me.It seems like it is easier to CONTROL 4 full timers rather than use DIPLOMACY to effectively employ a small army of CSPS volunteer patrollers to do much more.Not surprising.
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sure hope the Ski patrollers keep together as I think this thing will fail……4 patrollers is defiantly not enough….as you well know……the patrollers do Theron scheduling.?
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Was so sorry to hear this news, guys! Maybe the silver lining will be that you can really promote our off-season patrol functions (such as first aid services at summer events) and help to develop some more training/curriculum around that. Overall though, a huge loss to the hill, the public, and those CSP who absolutely love and look forward to volunteering each season.
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The decision was made without our input and there was no dialogue.Our efforts have always been aimed at providing good quality first aid and getting people off the mountain safely.How can fewer patrollers tasked with doing other jobs be better for patients?
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Canadians ski patrol volunteers are there specifically to provide first aid and rescue services two guests and to increase on Hill safety through visibility and interactions with guests. Canadian ski patrol volunteers areski patrol volunteers are there specifically to provide first aid and rescue services two guests and to increase on Hill safety through visibility and interactions with guests. Canadian ski patrol not coveredI WCB and if they are injured setting up for special events orGeneral labor they may be financially harmed personally as they may not be able to work their regular paying jobs.
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It is telling that the paid ski patrol at Silverstar resort is required to set up for special functions and assorted other duties.
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Hey Mike, thanks for adding to this post. Ski patrollers might be easy to get ahold of but not the association. We respected their need to have an “official” spokesperson reach out to us tomorrow at the earliest.
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I should note here that I am writing this on behalf of myself personally… as a patroller, but NOT on an official basis from the patrol itself. I am speaking only for myself here.We (The Canadian Ski Patrol Inter-Mountain Zone ) are VERY easy to get a hold of. The reporter could have gotten a hold of someone before you wrote this. There are several email and phone contacts on our website http://www.cspimz.ca.For Brad Baker to say that the mountain needs to evolve (without the csp) is just plain crazy. What does that even mean? That the mountain management thinks that CSP is not good enough to patrol a ski area with worldwide visitors? Really? FAR FAR better mountains in Canada have Canadian Ski Patrol System volunteers! (Lake Louise is just one example. Even Big White has a paid and CSP patrol that works well together.) The Canadian Ski Patrol has been patrolling the mountains and ski resorts in Canada for over 75 years! http://www.skipatrol.caIn addition, to say of CSP Volunteers its ‘something else they do’ “and scheduling was, at times, a challenge” is a complete INSULT to every patroller in the CSP Canada wide! Yes, injuries and other pressing matters can happen, but could also happen to paid patrollers as well. ( For the record, I personally have gotten along just fine with the other paid patrollers on the mountain. We are all there for the same reason!)As CSP patrollers we take over 60 hours of intensive specific mountain/ski/boarding first aid training in the classroom, as well as MANY days of on hill training. That’s just to patrol… Our CSP trainers work hard all year to hone their skills to train returning and new patrollers. Some of our patrollers are actually nurses and health care professionals that work in the local hospitals! We also volunteer at many other events through the year… You may have seen some of us up at the Foam fest the past weekend, and you will also see us at the Kettle Valley Tressel tour day, Dragon Boats, and the downhill skateboarding events this summer. (Come say hi to us! We’re very friendly!)We look forward to our days patrolling and get up far before dawn through all weather to patrol our shifts. I don’t think I have ever been as proud to be a part of something as I am now being in the patrol.This past season we even had a couple patrollers from Kamloops come to do their shifts (staying in their camper in the back parking lot!)We dedicate time away from our families and other matters, and spend a lot of money to serve the public and help the public in their time of need. We do this with a great passion for what we do. We, the patrollers, and the City of Vernon have supported Silverstar mountain a LOT through the years… some of these times when they needed it the most…A short while ago, a team of patrollers from our zone won FIRST PLACE at the National CSP awards and first aid competition in Montreal! The best team in all of Canada!And this is the Canadian Ski Patrol that Silver Star doesn’t want to have on their hill this season.Go figure that one out.I live, ride, ski, board, bike at Silverstar. I love it up here. But I really personally have to disagree with this choice the mountain has made. Joining the patrol was a bucket list goal for me. I did the course/testing/training and made it in just last season. I got a few shifts in before I had an injury, but I was hoping to return for next season, and many more to come. I really hope Silverstar will re-think this in the future. You can only win having the extra power of the Canadian Ski Patrol on the mountain along with the paid patrol.There is NO downside to MORE care for the visitors.
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