realskiers

Patrol Autonomy:

Depends on the mountain...ultimate ly management runs the mountain.  But, for the most part, patrol makes all the decisions and opens and closes trails.

And this not only varies patrol to patrol, but patroller to patroller.  When I am the weekday pro-I tend to open up the most terrain (with liberal use of 'thin cover' signs) of anyone on my patrol.  But you might come the next day and find the pro's that day had a much more conservative approach.

Different philosophies and sense of safety and patrol responsibility guide the choices of different patrollers.  I do not argue that one is better than the other (honestly, I deeply respect the decisions made by the pro's/ hill chief's on any given day as they bear the ENTIRE RESPONSIBILiTY for ALl SKIER SAFETY on those specific days).

also, if Management says open a trail, we open it, if they specifically to close a trail, it's closed.  But those cases are rare and most decisions are made by individual patrollers.