The load on the red coats can be large. Especially this slow-to-arrive snow season as dense crowds pack limited terrain.
Ski patrollers are on the front line of those crowds, handling ugly traumas, terrible accidents, near-misses and worse. They hike to remote snowfields and hurl explosives. They chase down rope duckers. They spend 45 hours a week working in ski boots.
And then they live in communities with glaring wealth disparity as they piece together lives in some of the most expensive valleys in the country.
It can be overwhelming for ski patrollers in mountain communities that already are struggling with growing numbers of stressed out residents who are not addressing their mental health as well as they could.
Winter Park’s ski patrollers assist their service dog onto the chairlift, Feb. 29, 2024, at the ski area in Winter Park. (Hugh Carey, The Colorado Sun) But a new three-year program at Winter Park ski area is better preparing patrollers for the stresses of front-line resort work. The partnership with Responder Alliance is designed to build stress resilience by delivering a host of tools for patrollers to bolster their mental well-being.
To read the entire article, visit The Colorado Sun.