British Association of Ski Patrollers

This picture is of Helimed 2 on a training visit to Cairngorm ski patrol in January '08

Cairngorm report -

We have had a great start to the winter with loads of snow and getting to get every tow on and just about every run on the hill open . The last month has seen it's fair share of "red sky in the morning.... red sky at night" , days of zero visibility and buckets loads of snow .... and ooh yes the hairdryer, a 140mph hairdryer to be exact with a freak gust been seen of 176mph the tunnel graph last week. All in a winters work for the ever determined Scottish Ski Industry. We still have the Coire Cas and the top bowls going and we patiently wait (as ever) for that illusive set of weather fronts that will pile in off the atlantic to bring more of the white stuff to our sacred ski slopes. We have all the same friendly, experienced and hilarious gang with a few extra sneaking in the back so the craic has been great.

Cheers to another cracking winter!

Twas the week before Christmas when 7 eager recruits arrived at the bottom Gondola station of the Nevis Range keen to learn all that Jeff had to teach us about the art of Ski Patrolling. It was of course the annual Ski Patrol Training Course and our spirits raised by the slight fluttering of overnight snow we duly set of up the mountain to find out what was in store for us. For myself it was the next step up the ladder towards becoming a fully fledged National Patroller at Glenshee, others had far grander ladders, Tignes, Canada, even the Cairngorms!

A thoroughly worthwhile and entertaining week was had by all, learning everything from chairlift rescues to ice axe arrests including how not to find someone on a dark mountainside! Had it not been for Cat we’d still be looking!

First Aid featured highly on the agenda obviously, and I think Jeff should probably take up a sideline in the props department on a horror movie set to fully utilise his make up sklls. Euan may not be able to look at vegetable soup in quite the same way ever again, and Annie certainly gargled for the rest of the week! But it was all good practice and certainly built our confidence for going out onto the big white pistes.

A bit of avalanche training, some sledge work on the dry slope, a day playing/training with crampons and ice axes, and some worldly patrolling advice from our mentor Jeff later and we were thrown out into the big bad world of ski patrolling!

I fully recommend the course to anyone thinking about patrolling in the future, it provides a good start to the proccess and provides valuable insight into what the job intails.

Thanks to Jeff, Mark, Tony and all the guys and gals at the Nevis Range.

Pete Grewar

p.s. Thanks also to our sponsors: Gore-Tex, and the wee rubber bits on the point of your ice axe!!