Code of Professional Conduct of the Swedish Mountain Guide Association
The Swedish Mountain Guide Association (SBO) welcomes all IFMGA guides to execute the mountain guide profession in Sweden. The Code of Professional Conduct for the work of an IFMGA-guide working in Sweden is described as below. Please do not hesitate to make contact if anything should be unclear or if you need assistance in any matter.
Contact information:
https://www.sbo.nu/cm/sidor/kontakta-oss/
Guide - Client Ratios for Guiding in Sweden
Ski touring: 6 clients per guide
Nordic skiing: 6-8 clients per guide
Rock climbing and alpine climbing:
- 1 clients per guide, long or complex climbs
- 2 clients per guide, most routes
- 3 clients per guide, short and/or tours with little climbing
- 4 clients per guide, rock climbing courses
Aspirant Work
Types of Supervision:
- Direct Supervision: The candidate/aspirant is in continuous direct contact (more or less visually or by voice) with the supervisor. These are the conditions required for the practice days of the mountain guide training.
- Supervision: The Aspirant may be acting (working) independently but must have discussed his/her plans for the day with a supervisor in advance (in person, by phone or by text) and report back at the end of the day. The supervisor must in this case posses local knowledge and know the aspirants and his/her capabilities.
For work in Sweden the regulation of the Swedish Mountain Guides Association (SBO) is that Aspirants associated with the Swedish or Norwegian Mountain Guide Associations may act under Supervision but that Aspirants from any other IFMGA-nations must be under Direct Supervision.
Should any Aspirants from other nations, have the desire to act in Sweden under the same conditions as the Swedish and Norwegians (Supervision instead of Direct Supervision) the Board of SBO would be open to discuss facilitation for this for that individual.
Heliski and Heli-Touring
So far Sweden has had very limited regulation around heli-skiing which has allowed the volume of the industry to increase from year on year. Obviously there is a limit to how much traffic an area can tolerate out of respect to the ecosystem, reindeer keeping, local inhabitants and other tourism. Recent friction between conflicting interests indicate that a limit has been reached at which action needs to be taken to address the current situation and future development. In November 2017 the heli-skioperators within the Swedish Mountain Guides Association jointly decided to operate according to the following Code of Conduct:
In order to guide heli-skiing one shall hold a IFMGA-certificate.
Visiting guides must cooperate with the established operators within the Swedish Mountain Guides Association. This is to facilitate safety, ensure adherence to local regulation and ensure a sustainable development.
In respect to other mountain tourism there shall be no landing at STF-mountainhuts.
All demands from the reindeer-industry must be respected and daily communication according to their requirement must be fulfilled. While heli-skiing radio channel Sverige P, 168,9375 MHz must be serviced. Note that reindeer herders cannot be required to communicate in English so capacity to communicate in Swedish must be available while heli-skiing.
Other tourism such as nordic skiing, skitouring, dog-sledding, skidoos and other mobile tourism must be respected. For example, this entails not planning to make a run which is approached by ski-tourers - this is achieved by gaining an overview via for example fly-by before landing.
Local regulation for the Kiruna mountain range:
It is accepted to land at the Kebnekaise mountain station and the Låkta cabin
During the opening period of the Kebnekaise mountain station or the Tarfala cabin heli- skiing shall not be carried out in the following areas:
- Kebnekaise summits
- Björlings glaciär
- Kebnetjåkka including personalbacken and Jökelbäcken - Toulpagourni
- Sydöstra Kaskasachåkkaglaciären
- Liljetoppsrännan
- Kebnepakteglaciären
- Isfallsglaciären
- Storglaciären
- Hydrologrännan
Established operators, points of contact:
Andreas Bengtsson: andreas@mountainguide.se
Anders Bergwall: anders@arcticguides.com
Dick Johansson: dick@abiskomountainlodge.se
Johan Lindblom: info@bigdreams.se
Stefan Palm: stefan@mountaintime.nu
The Swedish Mountain Guides Association requires all guides considering working with heli-skiing in Sweden to contact any of the managers of the established heli-skioperations associated with SBO (above) to get informed about, and, involved in how to operate safely, sustainably and according to local practice and regulation. Contact must be made in advance of each season annualy and repeatedly during the season in order to at all times be updated on current conditions and situations.
Emergency, Rescue, Support and Reporting
Emergency number: 112
Number for medical advice: 1177
Emergency number from Satellite Phone: +46 63 107 112
Emergency App: https://www.sosalarm.se/112-och-andra-viktiga-nummer/112-appen/
Rescue as well as Mountain Rescue out of resorts is free of charge.
The Swedish Mountain Guide Association is offers support to the best of our capacity to any visiting IFMGA guide.
The Swedish Mountain Guide Association asks any visiting guide to report all serious incidents happening in Sweden during the execution of the mountain guide profession.
Serious incidents is defined as any event:
- assisted by the rescue service or,
- needing medical treatment
Avalanche and Weather Forecasts
Weather: https://www.smhi.se/en
Avalanche: https://lavinprognoser.se/en/
Legal Regulation
Regulation of guiding in Sweden is by the Consumer Board which is the governmental body regulating safety of products and services:
https://www.konsumentverket.se/languages/english-engelska/
Within the regulation, two terrain types are defined for which the operator must have IFMGA competence or equivalent:
- glacier, and
- alpine fall risk terrain.
https://www.konsumentverket.se/for-foretag/produktsakerhet/produktsakerhetslagen/sakra-tjanster/fjall--och-vinterturism/
https://www.sbo.nu/_files/_upload/Kovfs_2008_5_Glaci%C3%A4rs%C3%A4kerhet.pdf
This enatails that any IFMGA-qualified guide, also Non-Ski Guides, may execute the profession as a mountain guide in Sweden.
Reference to a case where an non qualified operator was informed about the consequences if breaching the regulation:
https://www.sbo.nu/_files/_upload/Konsumentverkets%20f%C3%B6rbud.pdf
National Parks
Commercial activity within national parks is regulated and might require permission (such as for example Abisko and Sarek National Parks). The regulation is handled by the County administrative boards of Sweden (Länsstyrelse) and fines have been issued to guides failing to fulfill the permit process. Permits take several months to process.
https://www.lansstyrelsen.se/english.html