High Life / A WEEKLY FORUM FOR HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS : To Patrol and to Ski : Sunny Hills Senior Takes the Ups and Downs of Serving on Mountain Rescue Team

Chris, an 11-year-old skier, sat huddled by a tree, tears rolling down his face. After a bad fall, he awaited help.

“First, I introduced myself, asked him his name, then asked for permission to treat him,” said ski patrol member Andrew Hess, recalling his first injury victim rescue.

“He had twisted his knee and wasn’t going to be able to ski down, so I asked another patroller to radio for a sled. In the meantime, I just made sure he didn’t have any further injuries.”

Hess, a senior at Sunny Hills High School in Fullerton, became a ski patrol member (or “received his jacket”) in January, after working in the Boy Scouts’ Explorer National Ski Patrol program since September. He was the youngest in his class, at age 17, and the first to graduate, though his involvement came about quite by accident.

“I was the ski club president and in charge of getting people to go on the school ski trip. I went to a meeting at the Boy Scout office that was in charge of our trip, and I saw a flyer for a class to become an Explorer ski patroller.”

After two months of classroom instruction in first aid--called Winter Emergency Care--he was trained until he was able to pass tests in mountain first aid, toboggan, knots and skiing.

“It’s a major time commitment, and you gotta be serious,” Hess said.

Ski patrol members can climb in the ranks from candidate to auxiliary, then to such designations as basic, senior, certified, nationally appointed and alumni.

The local Explorer ski patrol program is headed by Jane Battanberg, a patroller for 15 years, who is assisted by her husband, Tom, a veteran with 29 years of patrol service.

“It is a lot of responsibility and a lot of attention is required,” Jane Battanberg said. “We are training every minute. No matter what level a skier is at, we will improve it, but they should really want to be in ski patrol, and their skiing should be so that they can get down anything. “

But in truth, ski patrollers don’t have to be able to ski at all if they choose instead to work as auxiliaries and perform first aid duties at a mountain’s base station.

Despite Hess’ 12 years of skiing experience, he did encounter some difficulty with the toboggans, which are used to carry injured skiers down the slopes.

“You never get the chance to do toboggan handling when you’re a recreational skier, so that’s something you have to learn.

“We’d throw (another patrol candidate) in the toboggan and they were the customer or the guest, and we just started practicing. You have to know how to package it up, put it away and take it out; get it up on the chairlift, as well as get it off.

“The strategy is to keep a consistent pace because it’s tough when you are the tail person and the guy in front is always stopping and starting. It’s easy to regulate your speed with the sled behind you because you’ve got the brake.

“When you’re going through the moguls, the key is to stay on top of the moguls and make the sled go in the troughs all the way down.”

For the purpose of toboggan testing, candidates are taken to the most difficult run on the mountain.

“It doesn’t matter if there is crust or ice or death cookies (chunks of snow left behind by grooming machines), you gotta go down it,” Hess said.

The Explorer ski patrollers train at all 12 ski resorts in the Greater Los Angeles area. After candidates become patrollers, they are “farmed out to separate ski areas,” Jane Battanberg said, where they help the local patrollers and may eventually be hired.

Hess said Explorers are often the better-trained patrollers because they learn their crafts on a wide range of mountains, rather that at only one resort.

“I like the variety in the Explorer program,” he said.

But variety isn’t what initially draws a skier to the program. Instead, it’s often the opportunity to ski for free, especially with the cost of lift tickets.

“There are a few patrollers who don’t have the balance between the free-skiing aspect and the helping others part of it,” Hess said. “It all depends on the attitude. Some kids have the attitude that they just want to play, and that’s bad. But most people have the balance.”

Candidates for ski patrol must be at least 15, “but you have to be a pretty mature 15,” Battanberg said.

“If they stay with the program, they are able to become leaders,” she said. “They really step up in responsibility, and when a situation comes up, they are able to handle it. It’s really exciting.”

Hess agreed. “The thing is, as a ski patroller, it’s a lot of work and you gotta get that done before you can ski.

“There’s a lot of putting up fences, digging out tower pads and snow-making equipment, checking out the sleds, the braces and the first-aid stuff, and making sure the blankets are dry.

“You can ski for free, but you still have to do your job.”