Every day is different and presents its own challenges. The snow conditions, weather, and crowds all have a significant impact on planning and how any particular day unfolds.

Patroller Duties

Hyak is mostly staffed by volunteer patrollers, who work with a couple of paid staff to run our hill. The paid staff primarily interacts with the area management while the volunteer staff primarily manages the hill and supports the daily needs of the public.

While volunteers are expected to complete about 15 to 20 shifts a season, they can set their own schedule and come up to the hill when it works best for them.

Most Patrollers arrive on the hill by 7:30am to be ready to go at 8:00am for the daily briefing. Prior to our morning meeting, patrollers will sign in, signed up for ‘bump’ and/or ‘FAR’ shifts, opening and closing runs, checked out their radios, and gotten themselves ready to head out into whatever weather we have for the day.

The Designated Patrol Leader (DPL) gives a briefing which includes current, recent and past weather conditions, inbounds and backcountry conditions, events on the hill, training opportunities, etc.

First runs are used to replace signs, place bamboo and rope off problematic areas.

During the day we attend to accidents, answer questions, and generally do what we can to ensure the public is safe and has a great time.

Sweep is the last and likely the most important thing we do. All patrollers meet at the top of the hill and get an assignment to sweep a portion of the hill. Once the public has emptied the last chair, we gather in our teams and proceed slowly down the hill, ensuring that no one is left out to spend a cold night on the slope. Ropes and signs are moved out of the way for the snowcats to groom the hill.

A Unique Mix of Alpine and Nordic Patrollers

One thing that makes Hyak Ski Patrol unique is that we have both Alpine and Nordic Patrollers on our patrol. Our hill has an extensive network of nordic trails that operate Friday through Sunday, and unique mix of lift serviced downhill alpine terrain that operates Saturdays and Sundays and Holidays. We are a blended patrol, and some patrollers will switch between Nordic and Alpine duties as they wish.

Our Patroller Community

We are a friendly group who not only enjoy the work we do to give back to the mountains, but we also enjoy hanging out with each other before and after our shifts. Our patrol building includes dorms for patrollers to stay overnight, a shower to clean up after a hard shift, a kitchen and day room where we gather to celebrate a successful day of keeping the public safe on the hill.

Many patrollers will start their weekend mornings with a pre-dawn ski tour up to the top of Hyak, and then fresh pancakes, bacon or sausages, and coffee as the rest of the patrol rolls in for the morning meeting. We often have delicious potluck lunches brought in by one of the many patrollers who love to cook. And after the hill is closed down and all the public is off the hill safely, we will hang out, have dinner, tell jokes, write poetry (no really, we have several Haiku aficionados on the patrol), laugh about our adventures, and wind down to prepare for the next day of patrol.

We are a varied group of patrollers who come from many different backgrounds. We are young and old in body, but all young in spirit. We are veterans, techies, farmers, entrepreneurs, school teachers, engineers, construction workers, sales people, medical professionals, and more. We are men and women who come from both sides of the political aisle. We are husbands, wives, partners, and happily single, parents of babies, parents of adults, grandparents, and children of other patrollers. We are Alpine Skiers, Snowboarders, Telemark Skiers, and Nordic Skiers. We may travel on snow differently, but we have a common love for the mountains. We come from small towns and big cities, some of us live at the pass, and others come from Seattle or Ellensburg or all points in between. We have new patrollers joining us every season, and we welcome anyone who loves the mountains and wants to join our community in keeping our mountain safe. If this sounds like the community for you, please consider joining us today!