Qualifications
Where you train
Equipment sponsors
What the training covers
- Non-Urban Emergency Care Advanced
- Advanced Protocols
- AST 1 and Companion Rescue
- Rope rescue
- Toboggan handling
- Lift evacuation
- Patient extrication
- Heli rescue
- Risk management
- Incident investigation
- Shadow and mentoring days
- Optional volunteer day
- Optional CSIA or CASI Level 1 and 2
01 · The job
Vocational Training, Not A Gap Year.
Ski patrollers open the mountain before the public arrives, mark hazards, support avalanche control and are first on scene when someone gets hurt. Then they get that person off the hill safely, whatever the terrain and whatever the weather. It's a job, and our ski patrol courses treat it as one.
That makes this vocational training, not an instructor course and not a season off. Patrol isn't about being the strongest skier on the hill. It's about staying calm, being practical and being properly trained.
If teaching is what you're really after, our ski instructor courses or our All Mountain Freeride Programme are the better fit, and we'll say so on the call.
Before the lifts open.
Patrol opens the mountain. Boundaries, signage and hazards are checked before the first guest loads a chair.
Through the day.
Module work, drills on the hill and scenarios, repeated until rope systems and toboggan handling become automatic.
When it goes wrong.
Ten days alongside Panorama's Mountain Operations patrol, usually one to one or two to one, dealing with whatever the day brings.
Last chair.
The closing sweep. Nobody goes home until the mountain is clear.
See a full day on shift, hour by hour, in the Ski Patrol Guide ›
02 · The training
What Ski Patrol Training Covers.
One qualification sits at the centre of the programme, and everything else is built around it. Here's the short version. The full breakdown, week by week, is on the course page.
Non-Urban Emergency Care Advanced.
Remote emergency care, taught by paramedics. No medical background needed.
Advanced Protocols.
The extended scope Canadian patrol teams work to.
AST 1 and Companion Rescue.
Two days of avalanche skills, to the Avalanche Canada standard.
Rope rescue and lift evacuation.
Practised until your hands know it.
Toboggan handling.
The skill patrol teams notice first.
Ten days with Mountain Operations.
Mentored on real shifts by Panorama's patrol.
03 · Routes
Choose Your Route Into Ski Patrol.
One course, three lengths. The difference is how many tickets you want to take home. Skiers add CSIA, snowboarders add CASI.
Read this first
There's no paid job in the season you train.
You're training full time, so there's no wage to offset the cost. If earning through the winter matters more, look at our paid internships instead.
8 Weeks.Ski Patrol Training.
Patrol and nothing but. Advanced first aid, avalanche skills, rope rescue, ten mentoring days and a heli rescue scenario to finish.
From £6,950 · January to March
9 Weeks.Ski Patrol Training plus Level 1.
Starts a week earlier with your Level 1 instructor ticket. A second string to your bow, and patrol directors like people who can coach.
From £8,350 · January to March
13 Weeks.Ski Patrol Training plus Level 1 and Level 2.
The full toolkit, split across Revelstoke and Panorama. Patrol tickets and an instructing qualification that gets you proper work, so whichever door opens next winter, you can walk through it.
From £12,300 · January to April · Revelstoke and Panorama
Prices are per person in a shared room. Dates, private rooms and everything included are on the course page.
04 · Who we take
Who We Take.
Ten places per group, and only one group a year. We interview everyone before they join a ski patrol course with us, because a patrol team is only as good as the people in it.
You'll suit it if
You ski or ride strong intermediate to advanced.
Anywhere on the mountain, in any conditions, while thinking about a casualty rather than your own turns.
You stay calm when it goes wrong.
Practical, steady and happy to follow a protocol to the letter.
You're fit.
Fitter than for an instructor course. Digging, hauling and side-slipping with a loaded toboggan, then standing in the cold.
You want this as work.
Mountain safety and rescue as a job, now or a winter or two from now.
It isn't for you if
You need to earn through the winter.
There's no paid work while you train.
Teaching is the real goal.
Our instructor courses will suit you better.
You want a holiday with a certificate at the end.
The days start early and the standards are real.
You're not there yet on skis or a board.
Talk to us about building your skiing or riding first.
Not sure where you sit? Check the Skiing Ability Guide or the Snowboarding Ability Guide, then start the Fitness Guide well before you fly.
Ski Patrol Training for Snowboarders.
Yes, snowboarders patrol, and they're good at it. Every patrol team wants the same four things: a serious first aid ticket, avalanche training, rope skills, and someone who can ride anything in flat light without becoming the next casualty. The board is the least of it. You train on the same course as the skiers, and if you add instructor training, you take CASI rather than CSIA.
Patrol training in pictures
The Rogues' Gallery.
A few of the people who have trained with us at Panorama, on the hill and on the toboggan.
See it for yourself
What Patrol Training Looks Like.
The cold, the kit and the scenarios. Watch this before you apply, and ask yourself honestly whether this is the work you want.
05 · Guide
Read This Before You Book.
We wrote the most honest guide to ski patrol we could, with a working patroller at Sun Peaks and two of our graduates. It's free, it's long, and it'll tell you if this isn't for you.
The Ski Patrol Guide.
How to become a ski patroller in Canada: the job, the training, the visa, the money, the hiring, and whether you'd be better off instructing.
Read the guide ›A Day on Shift, Hour by Hour.
From the morning briefing to the head torch sweep
Read the chapter ›Seven Patrol Myths.
The things we correct on almost every patrol call
Read the chapter ›What It Costs and What It Pays.
The real budget, real starting wages, and what two graduates actually spent
Read the chapter ›How People Actually Get Hired.
What patrol directors look for, and the mistakes that cost trainees a job
Read the chapter ›The Readiness Check.
Six honest ticks and a kit list
Read the chapter ›Patrol or Instructor? Take the Quiz.
Ten questions, two minutes
Read the chapter ›
Also useful
06 · Careers
Where Ski Patrol Training Leads.
Panorama hire from the course.
If they don't offer you an interview, we'll help you apply to other resorts such as Sun Peaks. It's earned, never guaranteed.
Where patrol can lead
Patrol is the bottom rung of a long ladder, and the rungs go to some interesting places. Most take years, and none come free with the course. But they all start with the same first season.
- Ski patrol
- Bike patrol
- Search and rescue
- Avalanche clearance for road and rail
- Remote dogsled teams
- Mountain guiding
- Heli and cat ski operations
- Adventure guiding
- Remote scientific field teams
- Firefighting and emergency response
Career articles by Iain Satterthwaite, who patrols at Sun Peaks and is working towards CAA Operations Level 2.
The honest version
“This is a vocational course with limited places. It won't hand you a patrol job in your first year, and we'd never pretend otherwise. What it gives you is the training, the hours and the references to go and get one.”
07 · Graduates
Where Our Patrol Graduates Are Now.
No models in borrowed red jackets. These are people who trained with us, and where they ended up.
Charlotte Leishman.
At Panorama for over six years, first training with us, now working as a ski patroller.
Lachie Forbes.
Trained with us. Now patrols at Revelstoke.
Nicole Coquelet.
Trained with us. Now patrols in Chile.
Findlay Morrant.
Five or six summers of bike patrol, then his Level 1 and 2 and our patrol course. Fourteen applications, four offers, and now a Level 2 patroller at Revelstoke.
George Tubbs.
Arrived with a lifeguard background and about twelve weeks of skiing. Two seasons into patrol.
What Our Trainees Say.
Ski Patrol Courses: Straight Answers.
The questions serious candidates ask before they apply, answered the way we’d answer them on the phone.
Which ski patrol course should I choose: 8, 9 or 13 weeks?
If patrol is the whole plan, eight weeks. If you'd like a fallback and a CV that says you can coach, nine weeks adds your Level 1. Thirteen adds Level 2 as well, so you go home able to instruct properly too. It's the difference between a toolbox and a toolbox with a spare set of spanners.
Why do a course instead of just applying to a resort?
Most resorts hire rookies who already hold advanced first aid, avalanche training and some rope work. Collecting those one at a time, in the right order, in a country you don't live in, is slow and expensive. The course stacks them into one winter and puts you alongside a working patrol team for ten days, which is where references come from.
Why Panorama?
It's where our patrol training began, and it gives you the best realistic chance of work afterwards, because Panorama hire from the course. Big terrain, a proper mountain town in Invermere, and a patrol team that knows our people.
Do you run ski patrol courses anywhere else, like Revelstoke or New Zealand?
Not this winter. Patrol training runs at Panorama only. Revelstoke's patrol hires people with around three years' experience, so it's somewhere to aim for, not somewhere to start, and two of our graduates already patrol there. Patrol skills travel too: one of our graduates now patrols in Chile.
Can I do a ski patrol course and an instructor course in the same winter?
Yes, that's what the 9 and 13 week routes are for. Another sensible order is a paid instructor internship this winter, then patrol the next. Several of our patrollers did it that way round.
How far ahead should I book?
There are only ten places and one January start, so most people book in the autumn before. Book within seven days of your consultation call and you get the booking bonus. And if the whole winter would be a genuine stretch, wait a year and save. We'd rather tell you that than take a booking you'll regret.
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