By Kerri Loudoun, Communications and Marketing portfolio leader (kerri.loudoun@skipatrol.ca)
Patrollers across the country will be testing Helly Hansen gear on our Nordic trails starting in December 2023
After months of work behind the scenes, the CSP is ready to have testers across Canada using a selection of HH gear, to find clothing that will be the most useful for Nordic ski patrollers.
Through multiple surveys sent to our Nordic membership, and communications with division presidents, zone presidents and patrol leaders of Nordic teams in different regions of the country, we are pleased to announce we will have 12 CSP members testing products at the following areas (one tester per area):
- Grey Mountain – Yukon Zone.
- Mark Arendz Provincial Park at Brookvale – Confederation Zone.
- Hiawatha Highlands Ski Area – Sault St. Marie Zone.
- Kawartha Nordic Ski Trails – Kawartha Zone.
- Thunder Bay Nordic Trails – Superior Zone.
- Highlands Nordic – Central Zone.
- Peter Lougheed Provincial Park, Kananaskis – Calgary Zone.
- Parc National de la Mauricie – Mauricie Zone.
- Station touristique Duchesnay – Quebec Zone.
- Rivière Amédée – Baie-Comeau Zone.
- Caledonia Nordic Ski Club – Prince George Zone.
- TBC – in Quebec Division
What it means to be a tester for this program
We have tasked our 12 testers with a rather lofty job. They are required to write a comprehensive review of each clothing item, every time they wear it. For every shift they wear it. And, we are requesting our testers to test these pieces as much as possible.
The information they provide will help guide us to determine if the pieces HH has provided for testing are going to meet the needs of patrollers regardless of where in Canada they patrol.
Testers are receiving a selection of items, including outer shell and mid-layer jackets and pants. All products in the kit will have white crosses screened in the appropriate spots on arms, chest and back, and a Velcro patch to place an HH-sized name badge, for uniform compliance.
So, are we getting a full Nordic uniform offering in 2024-2025?
Well, the short answer is – maybe. It depends on what our Nordic patrol testers learn after using this gear during the 2023-2024 season. The CSP is committed to finding the best-suited uniform clothing to meet as many of our Nordic patrollers’ needs as possible. That means, there’s a chance the offering we test from HH this year might not meet our needs. As such, we may be required to test further items, either from HH in 2024-2025, or consider a different uniform supplier.
However, we are hopeful, based on the extensive consultation we’ve done with the membership and with HH. We have shortlisted some useful pieces from HH’s search and rescue, racing, resort and consumer catalogues. It wasn’t easy to narrow down these options, but we are grateful that HH has such a robust line up of products and they are willing to make products from catalogues available to us to try. Many we often don’t get access to.
Keep a look out for our testers in your areas
If you patrol at one of the Nordic areas outline above, be sure to keep an eye out for your tester. I strongly encourage you to ask them questions and see what these test pieces look like, their features, etc.
We hope that these pieces from HH will meet the needs of our testers and give the national office confidence to place our bulk order in early 2024, for purchase availability by the entire membership in the fall of 2024.