Patrol Wages???

Well, it's about time to do some comparison between resorts. however informal this may be, it might be a start to better pay. My resort is looking to see where we fall in the range of pay vs. the amount of work we are expected to do. So, for those of you that know, what are your approximate wages for a 1st year, 5th year and 10 year patroller? Do you feel that you are adequately compensated? What are your most hazardous duties? in other words, do you do control work, deal with a lot of trauma cases or have no snow on the mountain you patrol?;)


Any responses are appreciated but PM's are good as well.

Thanks,

--Seth

I've never heard of a ski patroller that made good money from it. This is just me wishing I could be a patroller, but itsn't it about living the life and not making a living?

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Originally Posted by rfus

I've never heard of a ski patroller that made good money from it. This is just me wishing I could be a patroller, but itsn't it about living the life and not making a living?

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hey, when the president of the ski resort tells you he wants to pay patrol more, your response should not be that it's about living the life. i've never turned down a raise and i'm not about to start now. though, chances of getting rich from patrolling are slim to none.

I can check locally but all I can say is... not enough!
Thank you.

Pete

I've worked the seasons, and hey, I'm envious. Ski Patrolling is a great job. And to me, it is a 'real' job, but not a job that will help me achieve some of the stuff I'm looking for. If what I was looking for was the life of a skier, then I'd say it would be a great job, hence, living the life. Hell, i've washed dishes for weeks at Goldminers just to ski. If you are talking to the pres then you don't need my 2 cents. Its just not a job that should have a 'going rate' attached to it. A ski patrol union would only take away from your skills.

FWIW, I believe ALL trollers are vastly underpaid...



That being said, way too many of them compensate for that fact by being beaurocratic power-trippers, at least that may feel good. For a while.

There are often MANY folks on the hill that know vastly more than them about snow science and resort operational flow, but your 26 yr. old kid in the red jacket thinks he just won the authority lottery. It's laughable, usually.

The lifer/pro trollers generally are WAY cooler than the rookies.

I don't know what's fair these days, but I do have a funny story about my wages as a patroller a long fucking time ago....like the winter of 69/70.

I was fourten years old and basically lived every spare moment on the hill. It'd been that way for years. The mountain manager kinda took me under his wing and gave me odd jobs like trimming brush on low snow years. Then I got a job loading chairs for like $5.75 an hour. Patrol then made $2 an hour. After one day loading chairs, they put me on patrol. I didn't care about the money. patrol? at fourteen? I was a pig in shit, climbing towers at 6am to knock ice off the sheaves on chairs caught in an ice storm, frozen too solid to turn......all those compound fractures I got to splint....playing with sticks of dynamite we lit off cigars ....capping and crimping fuse while sitting in a small plywood shack... and basically picking up every accident on the hill cause all the guys got so drunk every night, they spent all day sleeping off their hangovers. Plus, I could outski almost every one of them. I went on full-time, going to school Tuesdays and Wednesdays.

Eventually, the shit hit the fan when the mountain manager picked up the log and saw that I was picking up all the accidents. Of course, being the asswipes that they were, all these older guys on patrol blamed me for them getting in trouble for sleeping all day. So after that, it was quarter sticks of dynamite with the fuse time guessed to explode under my chair at the low point on the ride up in the morning, live charges with lit fuses spinning through the air above me when I was cross checking new snow on faces and bowls (they leave a little curly-cue of smoke in the air), and having to be the brunt of all their jokes for the rest of the season as they bullied me tirelessly.

What makes this story wage-relevant is that, little did these asshats know, I'd been getting paid chair operators wages all season and kept my mouth shut. On the next to the last weekend of the year, they were being complete dicks. And it was payday. The patrol chief would always go to the office and get the checks. He also happened to be a real dick, an ex-golden gloves boxer always punching on me. He was definitely the punchy kind. When he handed me my check I pulled it out of the envelope and said " God, I love my job." He and a couple other guys looked over my shoulder, almost shit their pants and ran out of the patrol room and straight to office. Nothing bothered them more than to realize the 14 year old kid was making three times the money they were all season while they were telling me what a dumb punk I was....

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Originally Posted by AltaPowderDaze

chances of getting rich from patrolling are slim to none.

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You just need to hook a sugar momma cougar that has a house below Superior, then you'll be rich.

Bogus Basin was around $7.50 to start in '98 and when I quit I was around $9. It took 5 seasons to get there. Screw that.

Patrollers get paid?

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Originally Posted by Trackhead

You just need to hook a sugar momma cougar that has a house below Superior, then you'll be rich.

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follow trackhead's plan and tell one of the coolest presidents around they make 20 bucks an hour;).

APD,
where are you working? I think your name may be a bit misleading. Good luck with the $

Small hill, southern CO, NOT Purg. Started at $9 in 2000, left at $15 after five years. I went part time though, I would have gotten better raises if I'd stayed full time. Prolly average about 3,000 lbs of explosives per season. I don't think this is the typical payscale.

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Originally Posted by snowdork

APD,
where are you working? I think your name may be a bit misleading. Good luck with the $

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grom, i was the guy helping you out with the dogs under east baldy last week. yeah, the name came long before the job but i can't find a better one. ask pat about his exchange day. he got put to work but i think he had some fun as well.

thanks to all who pm'ed me with some info. any more from western resorts would be greatly appreciated as well.

9.25 as a rookie, plus one dollar per year working. If you go 10, you're probably a supervisor (Our director is a 10th year). We through about a case of bombs a year (basically nothing).

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Originally Posted by snowdork

APD,
where are you working? I think your name may be a bit misleading. Good luck with the $

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... well, looky who decided to come 'round these parts :)
nice save of the skier in the High Boy fences late yesterday afternoon ;)

FKNA splat! Great story!

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Originally Posted by AltaPowderDaze

grom, i was the guy helping you out with the dogs under east baldy last week.

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OK, now I have a face to put with the name, thanks for all of you help with that dog screw er school. Really apreciate your hard work.

Xover, shh. don't tell.
-Grom