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National Ski Patrol

organization

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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 3, 2026
Entity authorityQ6978450 ↗
Source-derived summary

The nonprofit National Ski Patrol (NSP) is the largest winter education organization in the world. The NSP provides education, outreach, and credentialing related to outdoor recreation and safety. It is currently composed of more than 31,000 members who serve in over 650 patrols. NSP members, both volunteer and paid, ensure the safety of outdoor recreation enthusiasts in ski areas throughout the United States of America and certain military areas of Europe. For its dedication to the promotion of public safety in skiing and other winter sports, the group was granted a congressional charter under Title 36 of the United States Code in 1980.

History

The National Ski Patrol was founded in 1938 in Stowe, Vermont, when the president of the National Ski Association, Roger Langley convinced the founder and leader of the Mt. Mansfield Ski Patrol, Charles Minot Dole, to form a national ski patrol. Dole was convinced of the need for a national ski rescue organization due to both the loss of a friend due to injuries suffered in a ski-related accident the year prior and an on-slope accident in which he was seriously injured. With Roger Langley's assistance, Charles Minot Dole organized and formed the National Ski Patrol Committee of the National Ski Association. The resulting organization became the National Ski Patrol.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “National Ski Patrol” as organization. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewA strong contextual entry point for chronology, institutions and public events when official records are distinguished from later interpretation. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1980, 1938—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1938. The account is most persuasive where National, Patrol and organization can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the history & society register because the source frames it as organization. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

The record creator and administrative purpose are central evidence, because official documentation reflects both action and institutional priorities. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 3, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q6978450. VIAF identifies the subject as 132517199. The Library of Congress control number is n80014734. 3 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1980 and 1938.

Critical limits

Official terminology may obscure informal participation, dissent or communities documented only indirectly. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Compare institutional narratives with records created by participants and affected communities. Dates and formal titles are useful anchors, but not substitutes for context.

Best used for
  • Event chronology
  • Institutional context
  • Locating named record creators
Verify next

Contemporary correspondence, government or organizational records, oral histories and cited historical scholarship.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “National Ski Patrol”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow National Ski Patrol primary sources, National Ski Patrol archive and National research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “National Ski Patrol”?
  2. What chronology connects this entry to wider political or social change?
  3. Who created the surviving record, and for what administrative purpose?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “National Ski Patrol” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.