She Patrol provides mentorship for future ski patrollers

She Patrol 2025 wrapped up at Revelstoke Mountain Resort (RMR) Saturday, Feb. 8 with 30 girls ages 12 to 18 learning mountainside skills needed to work in the ski patrol industry and other ski and outdoor related fields. Participants traveled from as far as Red Deer, Alta. to take part in one of the few programs focused on getting more women into roles on the mountain.

“It is something that I’m proud of our team doing,” Keria Makinson, RMR ski patrol supervisor said. “Hopefully we can see a change and see more women in the industry.” 

Participants got front-row seats to avalanche blasting, avalanche and rescue dog work, and worked on rope rescuing skills, first-aid training, mountain awareness and more in the one day event. At the end of the day, participants set out with RMR’s patrol team to sweep the mountain in case riders needed assistance before the resort closed.

Acting as a mentor for the second time, Makinson was thrilled with the riding strength participants brought to the event and how quickly skills were picked up on the mountain during She Patrol 2025.

“We have knots that we teach our rookie patrollers, and there are 12-year-olds picking it up over the course of a day.” 

Launched in 2020 for International Women’s Day, some participants have returned year after year to continue growing their skills before taking the next step into the ski patrol industry.

“I’ve never found a program like this anywhere else in the world,” Makinson said. Having worked at ski resorts around the world, she knows first-hand how heavily male-dominated many patrol organizations, programs and classes still are.

“Patrol has traditionally been a male dominated industry, as is with a lot of the ski industry,” she shared, adding Revelstoke seems to be on the frontline of changing that demographic.

“There’s some of the strongest female influence in the industry here. Some really great female mentorships created here in Revelstoke.”

She Patrol, Open Mountains Project and Girls Do Ski are some of the initiatives here in Revelstoke that are helping create spaces for underrepresented communities within mountain culture and outdoor recreation fields. Makinson is seeing the effects of those programs.

“In my first year at Revelstoke, there actually were no female members of the senior patrol team. Now in my third year, I’m a supervisor. Last year we had two female supervisors and a female senior patroller. Even over those three years at Revelstoke, it’s great to see the progression.”

Selling out the day registration opened, and with participants from multiple provinces, She Patrol 2025 highlights the growing drive for women and girls to establish themselves within all aspects of the ski and outdoor recreation industry.

 Continued growth of women in the industry will be a key factor in keeping programs like She Patrol operating. It is past and current participants in She Patrol and other programs tailored to create space who will hopefully go on to continue running those programs.

“We just need to have more women that are able to run it. And that’s going to be a combination of hopefully being able to hire more female patrollers and pre-planning to have them here to support She Patrol,” Makinson said.