Trainee ski patrollers take to mountain

The men and women keeping the country’s skifields safe are trained right here in Wānaka every year.

Tai Poutini Polytechnic runs the only Ski Patrol qualification in New Zealand which consists of a 28-week fulltime programme based in Wānaka.

Course manager Paula Roberts said the programme was at full capacity with about 12 students this year.

Students began their learning journey from the middle of May in Wānaka and once the skifields opened, they wasted no time getting into the practical work.

Last week, the class was taken to the Cardrona Skifield, where students were taught by local ski patrollers what to do in the event of an avalanche.

The students were all in their natural element as almost all of them had a background in skiing and a love for the fields.

"I found myself here because I love being in the mountains," student Charlie Leaper said.

Originally from Nelson, Mr Leaper discovered an interest in skiing when he was young and spent some time visiting Cardrona while studying at Otago University.

This interest flourished into a passion and he completed his level two ski exam in Canada and worked as an instructor for about a year.

His work as an instructor then led him to consider patrolling as a way of furthering his career in the skifields.

"I think it’s such an awesome way to get involved with the community down here and also put passion into practice," he said.

The course had also caught the interest of a student overseas.

Leo Liyutian made his way to Wānaka from China for the Ski Patrol course, which he said was not offered in his home country.

"In China, the ski industry is super young. We are a young generation," he said.

"... So we don’t have too much knowledge about that. That’s why I came here to study that."

He said his goal was to learn as much as he could from the course and then take his knowledge back home to China to further enrich the young industry.

The class includes how to use toboggans to carry injured people, first aid training and avalanche risk management.

A significant amount of the course is practical and training is done at Cardrona or Treble Cone until mid-August.

After the training, students go on to do a six-week work placement around New Zealand before coming back to Wānaka to wrap up the programme and become certified ski patrollers.