You ski to have fun, so you don't often think about when things go wrong for someone and they need help. Whether someone has an injury, illness, is over-terrained, or just tired and needs help from the patrol consider these points.
When you see someone that requires patrol’s help, it is crucially important to gather and report the following information, which will probably require that you stop for a minute:
- nature of the injury/incident. Patrol has equipment for trauma, airway, cardiac (probably), and meds (depending on the local qualifications). If they have an idea of what the problem is they can respond with the proper stuff, saving tons of time.
- person's condition. Walking, standing, sitting, lying down. Talking, screaming, moaning, silent.
- where exactly the problem is. “Hey, there’s someone hurt on Molly Hogan” isn’t near enough info. Where: run’s name, top, middle, bottom, skier’s left or skier’s right, in the trees, nearby features, lift tower number, etc.
- male/female, approximate age, skier or snowboarder, clothing/helmet description, whether someone is with them.
Make sure that the person you report it to gets all that info, and if it’s a busy lifty you may be asked to wait until all the info can be passed. If you witnessed the accident, wait for a patroller.
Too many people reporting accidents blow by without knowing what the problem is, or exactly where it is, or how to identify the person needing help. “I was in the trees, I don’t know the name of the run, but I saw someone hurt,” and then they split. Which sucks for patrol deciding what to bring, where to bring it, and who to bring it to.
It takes a little time (and fun) out of the ski day, but it will be a huge help to the person that needs help, and someday it might be you.
When you see someone that requires patrol’s help, it is crucially important to gather and report the following information, which will probably require that you stop for a minute:
- nature of the injury/incident. Patrol has equipment for trauma, airway, cardiac (probably), and meds (depending on the local qualifications). If they have an idea of what the problem is they can respond with the proper stuff, saving tons of time.
- person's condition. Walking, standing, sitting, lying down. Talking, screaming, moaning, silent.
- where exactly the problem is. “Hey, there’s someone hurt on Molly Hogan” isn’t near enough info. Where: run’s name, top, middle, bottom, skier’s left or skier’s right, in the trees, nearby features, lift tower number, etc.
- male/female, approximate age, skier or snowboarder, clothing/helmet description, whether someone is with them.
Make sure that the person you report it to gets all that info, and if it’s a busy lifty you may be asked to wait until all the info can be passed. If you witnessed the accident, wait for a patroller.
Too many people reporting accidents blow by without knowing what the problem is, or exactly where it is, or how to identify the person needing help. “I was in the trees, I don’t know the name of the run, but I saw someone hurt,” and then they split. Which sucks for patrol deciding what to bring, where to bring it, and who to bring it to.
It takes a little time (and fun) out of the ski day, but it will be a huge help to the person that needs help, and someday it might be you.