Guest injury liability is the hardest risk to transfer through insurance markets. It is also the exposure most directly influenced by the quality of professional patrol. Yet it remains systematically underweighted by resort leadership relative to operational risk vectors that are easier to quantify.
The connection is direct: a patrol unit operating to a published, documented, and defensible standard of care presents a materially different liability profile than one that does not. The quality of documentation, the rigor of training, and the consistency of decision-making under APP's framework are not administrative exercises — they determine outcomes in litigation.
California's comparative fault environment — where several of the country's most-litigated ski resorts operate — makes this calculus explicit. APP's leadership has operated in that environment for decades. The doctrine we publish reflects what professional patrol actually looks like when it is held to account.
"The patrol unit is the primary instrument through which a resort manages its most consequential and least transferable liability exposure."
APP's history is the history of professional ski patrol in the American West — built by patrollers who understood that this work demanded more than skill on skis, and who built an organization capable of holding that standard across generations.
Established by professional patrollers in the western United States to create a formal credentialing standard for paid patrol — distinct from recreational patrol and grounded in professional accountability.
APP formalized Emergency Medical Technician certification as the professional baseline for all credentialed members — establishing the medical standard that defines professional patrol to this day.
The organization expanded its identity beyond the regional to reflect a national professional standard, adopting the APP name and beginning the transition toward a doctrine-based model of credentialing.
APP formalizes its patrol-unit membership model and publishes its doctrine program — including the Legal Risk Framework, the APP Study Guide, and the Professional Patrollers Primer — consolidating the organization's position as the institutional authority on professional patrol risk management.
Core propositions that define the professional patrol standard
The largest resort litigation arises from guest injuries — not workforce claims, not property damage, not lift mechanics. Guest injury liability is the hardest risk to transfer through insurance markets and the exposure most directly influenced by patrol quality. Resort risk officers who underweight this vector relative to operational risk are systematically misallocating their risk management attention.
Professional patrol quality is not a matter of perception or institutional goodwill. It is measurable through published standards, documented training, credentialing records, and incident reporting practices. APP's published doctrine establishes the framework through which that measurement is made — and through which it is defended in litigation.
An undocumented standard of care is not a standard of care at all. APP's doctrine program exists to give professional patrollers — and the resorts that employ them — a published, citable, and institutionally credible framework that can be produced in discovery, referenced in training, and held to across jurisdictions.
Bio coming soon.
David Moore holds the Associate in Risk Management (ARM) credential and brings over a decade of board leadership to APP. A professional ski patroller and patrol supervisor at Big Bear Mountain Resort — one of the most litigated ski operations in the country given California's comparative fault environment — Moore is the primary author of APP's published doctrine program including the Legal Risk Framework, the APP Study Guide, and the Professional Patrollers Primer. A long-time risk management insurance executive, he brings a dual perspective on patrol risk from both the operational and insurance transfer sides.
Bio coming soon.
Bio coming soon.
Bio coming soon.
Bio coming soon.
Bio coming soon.
Bio coming soon.
Charter Unit Membership is open to patrol units enrolling in APP's unit membership program during 2026. Start the conversation with APP leadership.
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