Helping you keep your group safe on the mountain

Keeping kids safe in a mountain environment is everyone's responsibility and starts with how your school is setting up your safety and security protocols.  When your supervisors ask you to go through certain steps throughout the day, it’s not just to check the box or give you busy work.  These are safety and security protocols to keep your students safe and make your job easier. 

Check in and Pick-Up

Checking kids in and out of lessons can be one of the most vulnerable times of day, especially for younger kids that may or may not know who they’re supposed to leave with. With ProCard, your leadership team can build custom intake questions to help ease parent's peace of mind when parting from their child. Questions like allergies are to ensure that kids are fed the correct foods and prevent accidental allergic reactions. Leveling questions are designed to keep kids on appropriate terrain and make your group as cohesive as possible. If your school uses security codes or other parental check systems, these are in place to make sure children leave with who they are supposed to. You never know what might be going on within a family, and just because the kids say that’s dad, doesn’t mean that it’s ok for them to leave with him.

This rolls into pick-ups. Your school might use custom drop-down fields of who picked up the kids, like mom, dad, babysitter, etc. To add another level of security, requiring you to type in the name of that person, so they can't just claim to be mom. This is not to make your job more complicated at pick-up. It makes parents feel like their child was well cared for, and it's also great when dad shows up looking for his child, and you can confidently report that his child left with mom, Sarah. This feature also includes a time stamp of when the kids were picked up, so there is no confusion if there are questions later of when the kid was picked up.

Clothing Descriptions

While we all intend on keeping our group together, it happens occasionally when a kid might get separated from the group. When this happens, its hard to remember the important details. When and where did you last see Timmy? What does he look like? Was he wearing a green jacket, or maybe it was blue? I think he was 8, but he's tall, might be 10. The rest of the kids are chiming in, but it’s not helpful. It's ok, it’s hard to remember everything. That’s why you need to enter clothing description. There is a list of the most common colors for each, helmet, jacket, and pants and you just have to tap what each student is wearing. Now we've got it! Timmy is 9, with a shark helmet, blue jacket, and black pants. Descriptions carry from one day to the next, so you only need to enter their clothing once, or if they skied with someone else yesterday, it’s already recorded. Now, in the off chance that Timmy decided to take off on his own, you can report to your supervisor the details.

Terrain and Lift Tracking

It can feel a little like Big Brother, having your supervisor ask you a million questions, then be able to track your lift riding, I get it. It will happen though, a situation where you need their help and knowing where you are will make things easier. It could be a crazed stalker parent, a patrol emergency, or adverse conditions making something that was easy yesterday far more challenging today. Having your supervisors know where you are also makes it easier for them to give you advice on where the good snow is, move a kid that’s in the wrong group, or let them catch up with you for a few sneaky powder laps. Tracking isn’t about “catching” you doing something wrong, it's about helping you and your students have the best day possible.

Having lift and terrain tracking to ProVerified Levels and report card settings ensures students are in the right group for their next visit. Being honest is assesments makes it easier for supervisors to make cohesive groups that are working on the same skills on the same terrain. This in turn makes your lessons easier, more fun, and of a higher quality, because you're not wasting time moving kids or deciding between dragging that one kid somewhere they shouldn’t go or keeping the whole group on easier terrain.

Looking after kids on the mountain is a team effort, and with ProCard, everyone has the tools to help make each lesson safe and enjoyable. From simple check-ins and check-outs that give parents peace of mind, to handy clothing descriptions and lift tracking that make it easier to look out for every child, ProCard keeps things running smoothly. As an instructor, utilizing these features builds trust among families, so everyone can relax and focus on having fun. When safety is simple, mountain adventures are just that much better for all.