 Poster: A snowHead
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Excuse my awful spelling but could any one explain or tell me how the men who drive the piste bashers get there jobs. How qualified are they and what are there duties. Are the blokes who drive the bashers the same as the ones who blow the avalanches ? Do they really start there careers running the ski lifts and get promoted, are they fantastic skiiers, and ex ski school instuctors and what do they do in the summer. Any one know. A couple of pints of the black stuff rest on this !
boo
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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| boo907 wrote: |
Excuse my awful spelling but could any one explain or tell me how the men who drive the piste bashers get there jobs. How qualified are they and what are there duties. Are the blokes who drive the bashers the same as the ones who blow the avalanches ? Do they really start there careers running the ski lifts and get promoted, are they fantastic skiiers, and ex ski school instuctors and what do they do in the summer. Any one know. A couple of pints of the black stuff rest on this !
boo |
Pisteurs (in French) ou Les patrouilleurs de pistes or securité des pistes (piste patrollers in English). No they are all different jobs nowadays and increasingly specialized.
Driving a modern piste basher requires a lot of skill - the latest ones are linked with GPS to a central computer to optimize the grooming. I don't know what exact qualifications are required, some kind of mechanical diploma would probably be a prerequisite for getting a job then there would be training on the individual machines used. In general people who have worked say for the highways department driving snow ploughs or other such equipment would be hired.
Piste patrol - in France you need to complete a ski test a bit like the Eurotest. It involves a timed descent. There are regular exchanges between US/Australian and European ski resorts for patrollers. The French exams are at three levels with the higher levels (Formation pisteur secouriste) run by the ENSA in Chamonix, the same people who organize the ski instructors and guide exams.
The basic exam has the following ski part:-
An off-piste descent over 300 vertical meters and a descent of at least 200 vertical meters both with a time limit.
The avalanche patrol are generally taken on as apprentices but would complete an exam such as pisteur-artificeur, maitre de chien or other qualifications in order to handle explosives, avalancheurs, dogs etc. They may also have weather and snow forecasting training. It is a very specialized job and generally you would move into this area having worked for the piste patrol which means you would have done a team first aid training + ski test.
You could start out as a liftie but this is essentially unskilled work whereas the above jobs are skilled. I doubt the above jobs would interest instructors much. Many lifties work as farmers in the summer or they have seasonal jobs in summer resorts. Some of the more specialized staff are full time employees of the ski resorts.
There are also specialist jobs in snowmaking etc.
My local manpower is looking for piste patrollers for the Isere resorts so that is one way of finding a job.
The above only applies to France, no idea about other countries.
Last edited by Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person on Thu 28-12-06 20:08; edited 1 time in total
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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I skied with a bloke in Whistler who was trained in the use of explosives, but was having to learn to ski in a month to join the piste patrol in January. 
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Davidof , thank you for that excellent and informative reply. In my proffesional life in the UK I work on high voltage transmission towers ( electricity pylons ) so every time i go skiing i marvel at the engineering problems overcome by Alpine engineers, loadings of the cables on gondolas and chair lifts and indeed my field of work, the electricity supply to the winch rooms. And as an ex sapper, I love making things go BANG.
All the best
boo
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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My understanding is that pisteurs have a tougher (if that can be imagined) job getting qualified than instructors. The best pisteurs I know ski a lot better than instructors but I guess they get more challenging tasks and more free skiing.
Just my opinion.
PS I have it on good authority that if you're young free and single, pisteurs "get it" more often than instructors.
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