What a FIPS it was! – 5/5 for Patrollers / Blogue 5/5 des patrouilleurs

By Brian Low, Canadian Ski Patrol FIPS delegate (brian.low@skipatrol.ca)

In mid-April of this year, 22 Canadians travelled as far as 6,000 km to Riksgränsen, Sweden, and quickly became a part of a ski patrol community of more than 130 ski patrollers and supporters from 16 countries. They were attending the 24th World Congress of The Fédération Internationale des Patrouilles de Ski (FIPS).

Arriving on Sunday, April 21, a seven-day adventure began that included cultural, food and language awareness, incredible professional development, amazing skiing, friendship building, awesome social events, and continual smiles and laughter. This is what FIPS isa all about.

This is the third in our series on What the FIPS is this all about? We are focusing here on the experience of four first-time FIPS attendees who will convince you that this experience is not one to miss in the future. We are better ski patrollers, and better people as a result. Meet Danielle Cayer and Jacques Bouchard from Calgary Zone in Mountain Division and Minna Harjupanula and David Peer from Wabanaki Zone in Atlantic West Division. Enjoy this FIPS through their experience.

The Canadian Ski Patrol has been selected to host the FIPS 25th World Congress in 2026. Presently we are finalizing plans for the site and beginning the development of the professional development program. Following the program this year will be challenging, with recognized world leaders in a variety of medical and environmental fields that are important to ski patrol services.

Continuing with our series on FIPS, next time we will share some more on what we learned at FIPS 2024, the activities of FIPS between world congresses, and more on the specifics for FIPS Canada 2026. You will want to be there! Enjoy this read and please, delight in the pictures.

From: Danielle Cayer and Jacques Bouchard (CSP Mountain Division – Calgary Zone)

Reflections on the 2024 FIPS congress in Riksgränsen in Lapland Sweden (above the Arctic Circle) as first-time delegates. Being proud Canadians, it was a little intimidating to be the newbies at the meeting and part of the Canadian contingent.

How to put this all in writing:

Welcome to Sweden’s northernmost and renowned ski resort, Riksgränsen, founded in 1900 with the construction of the railway and bordering with Norway. Delegates from 14 countries attended the congress.

Amazing hospitality (gästfrihet): an old hotel, with dorm-type skier rooms that did not take away from the raw beauty of the ski hill. Yes, there were poma lifts and chair lifts from the 1970s). Marie, Sven, Hooke, Erik, Jenny, Sandra to name a few, made us feel at home and like locals, and to try eating like locals: “Kalles” (Swedish fish-egg spread) used on boiled eggs (could not eat it …) to reindeer jerky (not bad). The songs on Slao Skidpatrol night, hunt of the wolf, that will be talked about for some time.

Amazing instruction (utbildning): there is always something new to learn in life; from new ways of dealing with hypothermia with intermittent CPR, to rescues in running water, to avalanche survival and the use of the RECCO beacon search, demonstrations on mechanical CPR in a toboggan, dog rescue, and yes, even a new presentation from CSP member Dr. Marc Antoine Despaties (université de Sherbrooke) on SMR using the Frank the Sim dummy. There were so many more presentations and workshops on incident psychotrauma, issues of women as patrollers, risk management for resorts. What mattered was how every country deals differently with ski trauma, some are paid patrollers, paid rescuers, and others, like us, are volunteer patrollers. We valued their input and knowledge.

Social life (evenemang fest): we made so many new friends. From the Canada- U.K.s ski patroller relay team made up of two Canadian physicians (Jacques and Marc Antoine) and two U.K. physicians; to visiting/skiing at Narvik (Norway), to the camaraderie of just chatting about patrol issues and what other delegates do in their own country. And yes, Canada night was a blast!

Language wasn’t a barrier although after trading his Canadian shirt for a Swedish ski patrol hoody, Jacques was being addressed in Swedish until his deer-in-the-headlight eyes made it clear that he understood nothing. We were all there for the love of learning, skiing and patrolling. The skiing was unique, with no trees in Riksgränsen, to incredible views of the fjords below Narvikfjellet ski resort.

And last but not least, kudos to our own Terry Abrams of the CSP Mountain Division and CSP Calgary Zone, who received the prestigious Mark Labow Award, as an individual who has demonstrated outstanding dedication to the aims and objectives of FIPS.

Canada is hosting the next FIPS congress in 2026. Get involved, Nordic or alpine CSP patrollers. Jacques and I are planning to attend and volunteer our time. We are now both members of the SIG medical (medical special interest group) as well. Experience FIPS!

From: Minna Harjupanula and David Peer (CSP Atlantic West Division – Wabanaki Zone)

Ski Patrol Sweden Rescue was our host for the 24th FIPS Congress in Riksgränsen, Sweden, 300 km north of the Arctic Circle, just near the Norwegian border.

This was our first FIPS world congress. We found out about FIPS in 2023 at the Canada Winter Games in a casual conversation with Brian Low. We’d always wanted to visit the Nordic countries and a congress in the north of Sweden seemed like a good opportunity to do both.

We expressed our interest to Brian, connected with FIPS and when the world congress was announced, we registered. We really didn’t have anything but Brian’s recommendation to convince us to go. What a great event it was. We were able to tie-in visits to Stockholm, Finland and Narvik, Norway in a three-week vacation.

The location was really unique. We were above the Arctic Circle and the sun was setting at 10:30 p.m. and rising at 3:30 a.m. It and jet lag played havoc with our sleep patterns. There were barely any trees and none on the ski hill. We swear we were skiing on bedrock with a covering of snow. It was rock everywhere.

The accommodations were basic, but we were all in the same area. It made it easy to participate in seminars and to ski with other participants of the congress. Once we were at the resort, we felt well looked after. Meals were provided, social activities were organized, and skiing was readily available.

The learning opportunities were excellent. The medical program and its discussions on hypothermia and CPR showed us that other countries have different protocols. We had never seen chest compression machines. We participated in some of the avalanche training and learned that avalanche rescue techniques are useful off the hill too, like when snow falling from a roof buries someone. We ended up participating in almost every workshop because they were so interesting. We still had time to ski for about three or four hours a day, which was plenty, as we skied every day.

When we first arrived, it was clear that many people had built relationships with delegates from other countries. There were happy reunions and laughter and chatter. As first timers, we were impressed with the collegiality. Our social life started to gel during Canada and Chile night. David helped organize it and that was the catalyst to get to know Canadians and international delegates.

We liked that many delegates came dressed in their countries’ FIPS regalia. We could pick out the Canadians easily during meals. Some of the delegations sponsored an evening of snacks and drinks. Trading of regalia happened during these social evenings. For first timers this is a little daunting. There is a tradition of trading your FIPS regalia with other countries, which can only be explained by experiencing it. We came home with Korean ski patrol hats and fleeces and Argentinian ski patrol T-shirts – and a boatload of pins.

One of our favourite memories is meeting so many like-minded people from ski patrols all over the world and from every continent. The front-end loader used to move our luggage from the bus stop to the hotel was unique.

A few thoughts about the logistics of attending a FIPS congress: We arrived three days in advance to acclimatize from the jet lag and tacked on an extra week of vacation at the end. We found out at the congress that many people did the same thing. It worked well for us. We had a great time and plan to go again.

Luggage can be an issue. Bringing your ski stuff plus skis and boots can be trying at times. Also, if you have different segments of your trip with various airlines you will find that luggage charges will vary and can be costly. Minna chose rentals but David brought his skis. Both were good options.

Riksgränsen was certainly not a destination ski resort but it was perfect, with the added advantage that we got a day of skiing in Narvik where the ski hill faced a beautiful Norwegian fjord. For skiers from Crabbe Mountain on the East Coast these hills were two to three times the vertical of what we were used to. We got plenty of good skiing! We even managed to learn about “ski sickness,” but that’s a story for another day!