We’re all familiar with the accomplishments of Carrabassett Valley Academy on alpine race courses, freestyle events and snowboards. Every year skiers and snowboarders from this school at the foot of Sugarloaf compete at the highest levels and consistently place high. Many of the athletes that don’t go on to skiing at the U.S. Team level can be found on the rosters of collegiate ski teams, where a number have achieved All-American status.

Dig a little deeper and find that except for those who have gone to the various U.S. teams, 100 percent of CVA graduates not only go on to college, but they excel. In order to succeed with a schedule that includes an extensive college preparatory curriculum, hours on the mountain, and for many a heavy travel regimen for competition, the student has to develop the organizational skills necessary to succeed in higher education. We hear mostly about the skiers and riders in competition, but there are other programs at CVA and a new one is coming.

Next fall some students will take a course in Outdoor Emergency Care. That will be the first step in ski-patrol training. By the time the mountain opens, they will be ready to learn how to apply their new skills and knowledge in the snow.

Heading up this new program is Ed Strapp, a certified athletic trainer at CVA with a decade of experience in both patrolling and athletic training. He came to Sugarloaf five years ago and now serves as a part-time professional patrolman along with his duties at the school.

Strapp was recently recognized by the National Ski Patrol by being named to a new safety team. The seven members were chosen from a long list of candidates, all well-qualified active patrollers who have made significant contributions to slope safety during their patrol careers. They will serve as visible ambassadors to promote safety over the next two years. The goal will be to develop programs and materials to get the safety message out.

When I talked to Strapp, he was in the process of developing materials and identifying students who will participate in the fall. He explained that ski patrolling was a natural extension of the ALPS (Alpine Leadership Pursuits) big Mountain program. ALPS helps students learn outdoor skills critical to big-mountain skiing, such as wilderness first aid, understanding avalanches, safety, judgment, leadership and expedition behavior. At the same time, they enhance skiing and riding skills and techniques.

For an idea of how demanding this is going to be, consider the normal curriculum and add 80 to 100 hours to it. That’s the classroom time for the OEC course, which was developed by the NSP in order to have a course that added specific winter training to other emergency care programs. CPR is another requirement.

Many ski patrollers also go on to full emergency medical technician certification.

Students will have to learn anatomy, symptoms, examination techniques and a lot more. Many people think most ski injuries are to the legs, but they actually make up less than a quarter of all injuries. Serious injuries, while rare, can place patrollers in charge of life-threatening situations. In the classroom, candidates will learn how to immobilize and transport in various circumstances.

When the lifts open, the students will work with Sugarloaf’s ski patrol under director Mark Adams. In addition to practicing the skills on the hill, they will shadow veteran patrollers to observe and assist in actual rescues.

Anyone who has ever worked with ski patrols knows that the job is a lot more than skiing with an occasional rescue thrown in. Among the skills they will develop are skiing with a bundle of bamboo poles over their shoulder, or a shovel so they can dig out toboggans and ropes to close trails after a storm. Lift evacuation is rare, but lifts sometimes develop problems, and a patroller must be prepared and know the plan for each lift on the mountain.

This is heady stuff for a high school freshman, but from my own experience I have observed that if you give a kid this age the responsibility, they will step up and get the job done. Strapp noted, “The students will learn something new every year, and after four years, the older kids will mentor the younger ones.”

He has ambitious plans. “We will be taking them to Mount Washington, so they can experience back-country rescue, and to Beaver Creek, where they can learn about patrolling a World Cup Downhill. They will see the birds of prey with all of the netting and backup preparation.”

The goal is to have each student finish school as a qualified ski patroller. Will they become full-time professional ski patrollers? Probably not. Nearly all will go on to college and prepare for some career, but the skills they develop will put them in good stead whatever they do. It is likely that some of them will wind up patrolling somewhere on weekends, and they are needed. As the training and time requirements of patrolling grow, fewer skiers get involved. There is a demand that needs to be filled, and this program will help fill that gap.

CVA has added a program that will prove of great value, and these kids will be working with a patrol that has been recognized as one of the best on the country.