At Camp Fortune, ski patrollers are a familiar sight. But underneath the helmets, the goggles and the big red jackets is a compassionate team who dedicate themselves to ensuring the safety of skiers on the hills.
In a group of 90, a majority of them are volunteers who donate their time on the weekend to help ensure safety on the hill. From tenured patrollers to excited volunteers, these are some of their stories:
Geoff Skeggs, Patrol Leader
A lynchpin of the team, Skeggs has decades of experience in ski patrolling.
An avid skier, Skeggs decided to learn first aid after becoming a father, later deciding to join the Canadian Ski Patrol (CSP).
Skeggs has patrolled Fortune since 2005. In 2019, he became Patrol Leader, right before the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The pandemic with masking, restrictions, and curfews was a huge challenge,” he said.
With quarantine measures in place, many patrollers left, and visitors stayed home. However, since then, Skeggs said the team has been rebuilt, and skiers and snowboarders have returned.
“Despite the challenges, I find it very rewarding. I have a great team and we make it fun,” he said.
“When people get older - past their school years - they mainly come to ski but don’t have friends who want to ski with them. When you come out to ski patrol, you always have someone to ski with,” Skeggs said.
Skeggs admits patrolling can be thankless. It’s often unpaid, cold and sometimes stressful. But to him, the patrolling community and the ability to help people make everything worth it.
Pierre Pierre Blais, Assistant Patrol Lead
The longest serving member of the team, Blais has been at Fortune for 42 years. He is also the Vice-President of Communications for CSP — Gatineau division.
Growing up in Quebec, he says he skied regularly at Mont-Sainte-Anne.
After Blais moved to Ottawa in 1982, a coworker suggested that he join a ski patrol, given his love for the sport and extensive knowledge in first aid through his lifeguarding experience.
When he saw how much his love for patrolling grew, Blais became Camp Fortune’s assistant instructor the following year.
“My interest was in skiing for sure, but having this experience exposed me to medical knowledge and to mostly first aid,” he said.
The medical side of patrolling became a specialty for Blais. He’s since built a wealth of knowledge on patient treatment on the hill.
“I am not a paramedic, but a lot of people think I am, just on the basis of the knowledge I have,” Blais said.
Lian Stanley, Volunteer Ski Patroller
A conflict studies and human rights student at the University of Ottawa, Stanley is a busy woman and a passionate mental health advocate.
Outside of Fortune, Stanley is a volunteer at Tanner Steffler Foundation’s youth Advisory Council, vice president of communications with the UOttawa chapter of the Canadian Courage Project and co-president of Jack.org’s uOttawa chapter.
As an alpine racer in the past, Stanley said she wanted to find something more community-oriented.
Last year, she began training as a ski patroller. After 80 hours of online and in-person instruction,
On January 31, Stanley was welcomed by the team for her first shift. In the patrol community, it’s a tradition and an honour to receive your red jacket.
Stanley was grateful for the team at Camp Fortune to guide her through the process, and she’s happy to be a part of Fortune’s patrol family.
“I knew nothing going into it and they taught me everything I needed to know. Everyone is super nice and it’s such a random group of people, but they are so welcoming,” Stanley said.