Looking for Dartmouth Ski Patrol's website? Or are you a '26 looking to join? Head to patrol.host.dartmouth.edu for current info.
The Dartmouth Ski Patrol was formed more than 60 years ago by students at Dartmouth College who recognized the need for first responders to serve the growing number of winter sports participants at the College. Today, the patrol serves the college’s own ski area, the Dartmouth Skiway, located in Lyme, NH, 20 minutes by car from campus.
As an organization, our goals include Safety, Rescue, and Education.
Safety - We work to promote safe practices at the Dartmouth Skiway. The patrol works with ski area staff to mark obstacles, maintain trails, and to provide service to the Skiway's customers in order to promote a safe and enjoyable experience.
Rescue - Dartmouth Ski Patrol is responsible for the rescue and emergency care of customers, employees, and visitors to the Skiway.
Education - Dartmouth Ski Patrol serves as a key component of its members' Dartmouth education, providing real-world experience in medicine, leadership, business, and more.
All Dartmouth patrollers are members of the National Ski Patrol and are certified as Outdoor Emergency Care (OEC) Technicians. OEC is based on the standard EMT-Basic Curriculum. Most Dartmouth Ski Patrol members are Dartmouth undergraduate students who work as unpaid volunteers. A number of Upper Valley residents and Dartmouth alumni also volunteer. A handful of members work full and part-time as paid patrollers each year. Dartmouth patrollers not only service the Upper Valley community but also form a tight-knit community with the other members.
New members of Dartmouth Ski Patrol participate in our Apprentice Program. Through this program, Dartmouth students learn CPR and OEC, as well as toboggan handling and other snow skills in on-hill training. Apprentices aid vested patrollers on calls, participate in patrol-wide training as mock-patients, and receive on-the-job training under the direct supervision of experienced patrollers. Dartmouth patrollers undergo an average of 200 hours of training before they are qualified for first-response to emergency calls. The process to become a Dartmouth patroller is competitive and challenging.
In light of Covid-19 and first-year students being off-campus this winter, we are doing everything we can to adapt our apprenti process and new-member training so that Dartmouth 24s will be able to join DSP. Importantly, 24s will have an opportunity to join DSP! We have tentative plans for how 24s will be able to join us, and we outline these plans on our “How to Join” page on this site. If you have any questions, please reach out to us at pipermollyliaisons@gmail.com. We can’t wait to meet all of you!
About Us
Meet DSP
Our Student Leaders
Charlotte Driscoll '21
Denver, CO
Director
Everett Magnuson '22
San Francisco, CA
Treasurer
Christina Schoeller '21
Concord, MA
Assistant Director
Blake Daugherty '22
Dallas, TX
Administrative Officer
Colin Fennely '21
Warren, VT
Training Officer
Nick Schoeller '22
Concord, MA
Equipment Manager
Sophia Kocher '21
Dover, MA
Assistant Training Officer
Catie Stukel '23
Seattle, WA
Assistant Training Officer
Molly Wilson '23
Newton, MA
Apprenti Liaison
Piper Stacey '23
San Francisco, CA
Apprenti Liaison
How to Join
In light of Covid-19 and first-year students being off-campus this winter, we have needed to adapt our new-member process for the 24s. Importantly, 24s will have an opportunity to join DSP! We have tentative plans for how 24s will be able to join us, and these plans are outlined below. However, please know that our plans for the 24s may change due to the state of the pandemic and the College’s and CDC’s policies.
Winter 2021
While only some 24s will be on campus this winter and we will not begin our new-member process until the spring, we will try to use the winter to give you a better sense of what a shift at the Skiway looks like and what the responsibilities of a Dartmouth patroller involve (we may even livestream some shifts for the 24s to watch!). Be sure to check your emails throughout the winter and check out our instagram @DSP_for_24s for more info.
We are also asking that, if possible, those who are interested in joining DSP submit a video of them skiing or snowboarding at some point this winter. We recognize that many of you may not be skiing this winter for various reasons. We want to make it clear that regardless of whether or not you are able to submit a ski video, you will still be able to join DSP and we will simply need to assess your skiing ability by discussing your skiing experiences and learning more about your skiing background. Most importantly, we do not want anyone to feel pressured to ski this year if they were not already planning on doing so. Not submitting a ski video will not count against you in the selection process.
For those who are planning on skiing this year, we are looking for 20-30 seconds of you skiing, preferably on blue or black terrain. You can send us multiple short clips of you skiing the same terrain over and over if that’s all you have access to, or a few clips of you all over the mountain. In addition, we would love to see a separate clip of you in a side slip and a “pizza” because these are important maneuvers when handling a toboggan with an injured patient. If possible, please also include a 15-30 second clip of you skiing in which you start in a pizza, transition to a side slip on one side, transition back to pizza, transition to a side slip on the other side, and then transition back to a pizza while moving in a straight line down the slope. A steep, groomed run would be ideal for this clip, but whatever you have access to will work.
For those who are snowboarders, here are three things that we are looking for: 1) A video with you starting in a heel side snowplow and then transitioning to a toe side snowplow. (Preferably this would be done on steeper terrain if you have access to steep terrain) 2) A video of you boarding a blue with emphasis on carving. 3) A video of you boarding a black, with an emphasis on moving quickly / getting down the hill quickly while staying in control.
If you happen to live in a snowy place but will not be going to any resorts this winter, we will happily take a video of you skiing down a sledding hill or golf course. Or if you happen to have videos of you skiing from previous years, feel free to send those along as well or instead. We know that this is an unusual year and ski season, and we will be flexible and understanding when it comes to ski videos!
If you are able to submit a ski video, please share your footage with us some time between now and March 29th (the first day of spring term)! The best way to share this footage with us will be to upload your videos to a google drive folder and share the folder with us (pipermollyliaisons@gmail.com). Please make the title of the folder “Your Full Name - Ski Videos.”
Spring 2021
We plan to run a hybrid Outdoor Emergency Care course for the 24s this spring. However, doing so is dependent on Covid-19 campus restrictions staying as they are or becoming more relaxed by spring. During the first few weeks of the spring (most likely during the initial quarantine period), we plan to hold Zoom interviews for those who are interested in DSP. After these interviews, we will select a cohort of 24s to join DSP. As long as all members of this cohort do well in the OEC course and meet our expectations once we start patrolling, these members will become patrollers and we intend to complete our selection process during the first few weeks of the spring.
Fall 2021
Right now our priority is to find ways for all 24s who are interested in patrol to have an opportunity to join DSP. Next fall (2021) we plan to run an OEC course for the 25s and for any 24s who were not on campus during Spring 2021 or who were unable to participate in our apprenti process during the spring. Through offering OEC for the 24s during both Spring 2021 and Fall 2021, we hope to give all 24s an opportunity to join Dartmouth Ski Patrol regardless of their ability to be on campus during one specific term. Also, in the scenario where we are unable to run an OEC course during Spring 2021, we will need to push back the apprenti process for all 24s and 24s will likely take OEC during Fall 2021.
Please reach out to us with any questions about this process or for more information!
Frequently Asked Questions
Sign up with your Dartmouth email to receive emails about DSP events and updates!
For more information, check out:
Dartmouth Ski Patrol website: https://patrol.host.dartmouth.edu
Dartmouth Skiway website: https://sites.dartmouth.edu/skiway/
Don't forget to follow us on instagram!
@dskipatrol & @dsp_for_24s
