Highline Magazine: Summer 2015, The Current Issue by Highline Magazine

features: A Flyfishing Odyssey If You Build It, They Will Come Feature Artist: Agathe Bernard

issue Ć?o 15

Summer 2015

the current issue H I G H L I N E O N L I N E . C A

INDIE

FREE

WILD

FOLK ON CJSW 90.9 FM (CJSW IS NOW AVAILABLE IN THE BOW VALLEY - WOOT!) THE PHONOGRAPHIC FROLIC (Mondays, 1:00AM - 3:00AM) This show focuses on music that’s heard at 78 RPM. Jeff focuses on music made between 1900 and 1940, with a healthy dose of historical context. Tune in for the crackle of vintage vinyl and some storytelling. SOUTH LOUISIANA GUMBO (Mondays, 7:00PM - 8:00PM) The Legendary Chef Wayne brings you his own special recipe of zydeco, blues, soul, and traditional and contemporary music from Louisiana. Keep your ears on the airwaves for special episodes and artist features from our resident Chef. THE ROAD TO NOWHERE (Tuesdays, 12:00PM - 2:00PM) Spend your lunch break with Will as he spins folk, country, and a little bit of rock. These two hours are filled with strumming guitars and beautiful vocals. It’s your pathway to radio heaven! TOMBSTONE AFTER DARK (Tuesdays, 7:00PM - 8:00PM) Join the CJSW Holy Trinity of Keri, Daren and Leah for some country, both classic and contemporary. This is music for big fans of the country genre, complete with banjo-pickin’, bluegrass, western swing, country blues, traditional, and more! THE BLUES WITNESS (Wednesdays, 7:00PM - 8:00PM) This one’s a solid hour for the blues fans! Join Cindy as she spins blues from all over time and space. The Blues Witness has a special focus on Canadian and local blues music, so tune in to hear what’s happening in the local scene! FOLKCETERA (Thursdays, 7:00PM - 8:00PM) Les and Bruce bring you the best in folk music week after week. Tune in for special artist features, insights into the local scene, and music from all around the world. Perfect music to enjoy your dinner by, Folkcetera is a great snapshot of the folk scene, then and now! DIXIE FRIED (Fridays, 10:00AM - 12:00PM) Hayley’s got a mix of country, folk, rockabilly, soul, R&B and more. This show has everything you’ll need to start your Friday: comedy, French lessons, food recommendations, and a selection of some very fun tunes.

SUMMER EVENTS AT THE BANFF CENTRE ROYAL WOOD SUNDAY, JULY 26, 1 P.M. GATES 12 P.M. | SHAW AMPHITHEATRE

JENS LINDEMANN AND THE ALL STAR BRASS SATURDAY, AUGUST 1, 6:30 P.M. GATES 5:30 P.M. | SHAW AMPHITHEATRE

SATURDAY NIGHT JAZZ SATURDAYS, AUGUST 8, 15, 22* SHAW AMPHITHEATRE | *ERIC HARVIE THEATRE Above events: $25 | Senior/Student $22 | Child $12.50 | 

Visit banffcentre.ca for the full line-up of summer events including concerts, opera, dance, author and artist talks, and much more!  Indicates Arts Lover Membership Event. Visit the website for more info.

Box Office: 1.800.413.8368 banffcentre.ca

Packages available: Accommodation tickets from $199

contents IS SUE 15 - SUMME R 2 015

letter from us

contributors

what's up with Highline

bear hugs + mooseknuckles

reader feedback

the local conundrum

handpicked hotspots

know your neighbour

head for the hills

book reviews

feature artist: Agathe Bernard

photo contest

the agony

if you build it, they will come

a flyfishing odyssey

bushcraft

summer festivals

free art

5 Photo by Callum Snape. @ calsnape

54 recipe

SU M M E R 2 015 ISSUE 15 FOUNDING PUBLISHER + EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Kristy Davison · kristy@highlineonline.ca MANAGING EDITOR

Corrie DiManno · corrie@highlineonline.ca HEAD DESIGNER

Lin Oosterhoff · linoosterhoff.com ADVERTISING SALES + SPONSORSHIPS

Lachlan Mackintosh · lachlan@highlineonline.ca COPY EDITOR

Paul Davison EVENT COORDINATORS + CREATIVE CONSULTANTS

Camara Miller (Chief Fun Officer) Chloe Vance (Neighbour in Chief) BUSINESS MENTOR

Pierre Doyon DISTRIBUTION

For more locations check bit.ly/pickupacopy. CONTRIBUTORS

Jerry Auld, Agathe Bernard, Amy Blair, Doug Campbell, Erin Cipollone, Corrie DiManno, Tony DiManno, Colleen Gentleman, Taryn Hajnrych, Andreas Lie, Jeremiah Marsh, Dan Rafla, Jill Sawyer, Georgie Silckerodt, Callum Snape, Fonda Sparks, Gerry Stephenson, Kristen Sydoryk, Stu Tripney, Dane Ulsifer, Darren Umbsaar, Joanna Croston, and AV Wakefield. FOR MORE INFORMATION

info@highlineonline.ca  Highline Magazine

 @HighlineMag

 HighlineMag

HIGHLINEONLINE.CA

Highline Magazine is soul food for mountain people. An indie, wild, and free quarterly publication. We acknowledge and honour that we stand on Treaty 7 land, the traditional lands of the Stoney Nakoda, Blackfoot, Tsuu T'ina people.

Printed in Canada on FSC Certified Recycled Paper.

 Cover: The Bow River from below by Dane Ulsifer.

LETTER FROM US

ver the winter a colossal shift took place behind-the-scenes here at Highline. The change was spurred by having come very close to closing our doors in the fall. Eight years of giving heart, soul and all of our free time to Highline was taking its toll on the team, and I was feeling lost, unsure of how to continue. But without struggle, there can be no progress. What changed? Everything. I changed. The team changed. Our perspectives and understanding of the hows and whys changed. Our plan for pulling it all together changed. But amidst all that movement, our roots in the community have become even stronger, thanks to you, mountain people. It’s been a wild ride ever since we launched this thing back in 2008, and we’re now embarking on the next phase of Highline’s life. Organizations like the Canmore Folk Music Festival, the Banff Ave Brewing Co, TEDx Canmore, the Alpine Club of Canada, The Banff Centre, artsPlace, CJSW 90.9FM, and the Banff Coffee House have all jumped enthusiastically on board with our new vision. Highline is a collective creative project, brought to life by a wild contingent of mountain folks who care about the Rockies and all of the critters (human and otherwise) that make their homes here. These are folks who feel grounded, invested in making a difference here in the mountains, whether they have an address here or not. We’re connected by a feeling, a knowing that this is a place we can belong. Highline is an expression of that search for belonging, for deeper understanding of ourselves and of our place here in this powerful landscape. It is soul food for mountain people. Drink it in.

Photo by Andreas Lie

 @artworkbylie.

— Kristy and the Highline team

contributors

GEORGIE SILCKERODT Raised in a ghost town in rural Australia with nothing but gum trees and her dogs to keep her company, Georgie spent a lot of time as a child reading and playing in the dirt. A German seamstress for a mother and a German erotic oil painter as a father proved to be potent to her relentless need to create. She now resides in Canmore with her 16-year-old rescue cat, Ghost and muse, Michael.  silckerodt.com

JERRY AULD

Jerry lives in Canmore and writes fictional stories about mountains, focusing on the forgotten tales of the Rockies. His first book, Hooker and Brown, was shortlisted for the Boardman-Tasker award, and his second, Short Peaks, for the Banff Mountain Book Festivals fiction award. He expects his latest novel, A Jazz Guide to Banff to come out this summer.  jerryauld.com  @rexfuego

TA RY N H A J N RYC H

Now a resident of “the big city,” Taryn keeps herself busy by exploring the vast wonders of Calgary's suburbia. Bike rides through Fish Creek Provincial Park and competitive sessions of extreme mini golf keep this mountain culture enthusiast satiated between her much-anticipated trips to the Bow Valley.  @TarynHajnrych

 TarynHajnrych

DANE ULSIFER

Dane is a 4th year design student majoring in photography at the Alberta College of Art and Design. He spends most of his spare time with a fly rod in hand, exploring Alberta’s rivers, lakes and streams. Dane’s photos can be seen on the cover and in Erin Cipollone’s Bushcraft article.  daneulsifer.com

 daneulsifer

GERRY STEPHENSON After 16 years working in England and India, Gerry and Avice arrived in Canmore in 1968 where he became chief engineer of Canmore Mines Ltd. Gerry built Quarry Lake by reclaiming an old strip mine, and, in the late 70s, he and Avice successfully led the fight against proposals to build two airports adjacent to Canmore. At 83, Gerry is still working whenever anyone is foolish enough to employ him. Find him on the Highwood, the Livingstone & the Oldman Rivers.

AV WAKEFIELD

AV lives in Canmore and is the artist behind North Birch Grove. She owns more cookbooks than cameras, has a trusty four-legged sidekick Metsä and loves exploring nature with her outdoor and wellness community, named Hike365.  northbirchgrove.com  picobac

 hike365.org

 hike365

W h at ’s U p w i th Hi g hl ine

We’ve been busy.

THE DRE AM TE AM Please give a big warm welcome to the newest members of our dream team, Lachlan Mackintosh, Lin Oosterhoff and Pierre Doyon. Lach is your man for all things advertising and sponsorships, and he’s out there daily, busting his butt on the streets for the love of local culture. Lin takes the reigns this issue as our new head designer. Gotta say, guys, she’s a keeper. Pierre is our priceless voice of reason, making sure we “stay calm, be brave and look for the signs.” Thanks a million to Nicole (ad sales) and Julie (design) who left some big shoes to fill in their roles. Cheers, ladies!

MIGHT Y NEIGHBOURLY THE HIGHLINE MAG A ZINE PUB STAGE Sweet tunderin’ cheeses, our dreams have come true! Highline is sponsoring the pub stage at the Canmore Folk Festival August 1-3. Yes indeedy, the Miner’s Hall will be swinging with the musical stylings of live local musicians, the sultry scent of Valbella’s bratwursts will be dancing on the air, and our beautiful team of mountain-loving volunteers will be hawking merchandise like it’s going out of style. Entry is virtually free (you don’t need a festival pass to get in), so we don’t want to hear any excuses. See you there!

PASSING THE TORCH All you music lovers out there will be happy to hear that despite its founder, Kat Topolniski, departing from Banff for the big city, the heart Banff Coffee House music series will live on under the stewardship of your friends here at Highline. The local indie music and culture scene is alive and well and in good hands. Watch for upcoming events and creative contests beginning with our official torchpassing ceremony at Know Your Neighbour Night at the Canmore Legion, June 26th. Get your tickets at bit.ly/know-your-neighbour.

Things are heating up with TEDx Canmore, the Canmore Folk Festival, the Banff Mountain Film and Book Festival, the Banff Ave Brewing Co, artsPlace and the Alpine Club of Canada. We couldn’t be more excited about what we have in store for you this year, mountain people. Hold onto your toques.

INTRODUCING: THE NAKED NUT After years of working together to bring you some good ol’ fashioned fun at our Know Your Neighbour Nights, the Banff Ave Brewing Co has teamed up with the Highline gang to create a brand new brew for the Bow Valley: allow us to introduce the Naked Nut - Brown Ale. Slip into your Sunday best and get yourself down to the Brew Co for a sip of nutty brown nectar coming this summer. Best keep your eyes peeled for the official launch and follow us online for up-to-the-minute updates.

A LE AN, GREEN PRINTING MACHINE We’d like to take this opportunity to give a long overdue shoutout to the folks at McAra who print Highline Mag. We are stoked about their environmental leadership, and it feels good to know we’re working with people who care about making a difference where they can. Check out their environmental commitment at mcara.com/environment.

AND

BEAR HUGS AND MOOSEKNUCKLES ARE YOUR OPPORTUNITY TO SHARE THOSE OH-SO-SWEET OR NASTY LITTLE THOUGHTS FOR THE WORLD TO SEE!  @highlinemag #BHMK

 info@highlineonline.ca

MOOSEKNUCKLES to the person stealing the trail tools

MOOSEKNUCKLES to Mad Max: Fury Road. There, I said it.

stashed up on Prospector Trail in Exshaw. If I see you hoeing your garden with my Pulaski, I'm going to come pee on your lettuce when you are sleeping.

I feel better already.

Big BEAR HUG to the trail grooming crew at the Canmore Nordic Centre. For months of our so-called “winter”, every night they turned s%*t into gold. If you watched the grooming report, they were grooming any time between 2:00 and 6:00 am to leave us with the best possible ski conditions. Great job guys! BEAR HUGS Bear hugs to Adrienne Cunnings, so many

other friends and this kick ass community (and communities beyond) for all of your help and love during the Shake Off Lyme campaign, and well… all the time! Your heartfelt generosity is mind blowing and met with so much gratitude and much love sent back. Making the hugs extra giant with lots of hearts. BEAR HUGS to Parks Canada for working actively for the

return of the plains bison to their home in Banff National Park. #wildandfreeforever #IloveParks #cantwait2017

MOOSEKNUCKLES to people who bring iPod speakers

to backcountry huts and campsites. Musical taste is very personal, and just because you love (insert band name here), doesn’t mean everyone does. Save it for your car or home and appreciate the birds, breeze, creeks and waterfalls when you’re in the wilderness. BEAR HUGS to my good friend Sarah Hutchison who

continues to inspire me and others in the Canmore community with her laughter and smiles while battling Lyme disease and all its persistent symptoms. BEAR HUGS to the President of the Snail Mail Society

who, on the occasion of her departure, left in my charge the prettiest Underwood No. 5 this side of the Mississippi. Both the gesture and the piece of machinery have me feeling some type of way. BEAR HUGS to Greg, you tall glass of water, you. You make

miso. Very happy.

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READER FEEDBACK

We always like to know what you think of our magazine; email your feedback to  info@highlineonline.ca for a chance to be featured.

Received and read Highline in a single sitting — indeed, "a mountain triumph, my dear, another publishing triumph” — may such pure mountain oxygen fill our literary lungs and longings with hope for grander vistas. — Ron D., FRASER VALLEY

Got the latest issue from MEC and loved it. You all do such wonderful work to make it so creative, quirky and artistic! Really is more than a magazine. — John R, CALGARY

come from the other side of the planet and are often associated with questionable conditions when it comes to harvesting, production, packaging, transport, environmental footprint, etc.

being able to send someone to where they can find the best latte, or where my favourite run at Sunshine is or the best bike ride that can be done in under two hours.

Coconut should be consumed as a delicacy: very occasionally. After all it’s a long way from Indonesia or the Philippines to the Rocky Mountains. I think it is very wrong to promote coconut products, one way or an other and I hope this buzz around them is just a trend. — Stephane B, REVELSTOKE

We locals are ambassadors for our communities and if an establishment chooses to give me a little deal or discount, then it's much more likely that I'm going to send visitors to those places. So I'm all for the discounts for the locals, it can bring us together as a community of ambassadors helping each other prosper. — Chad F, CANMORE

Dear diary, In light of the fact that Alberta is literally burning at the time that this magazine goes to press, should we or should we not feature a story teaching readers how to build the perfect bush fire? — Kristy D, Conflicted in CANMORE

I’ve just read the Winter 2014/15 “Material Issue” of Highline Mag and really enjoyed it. One thing though, a detail indeed, but a shocking one to me: the triple promotion of coconut products (milk, oil, flakes) on the page 18 recipe… in an issue that mostly talks about caring for the environment and our consumption habits. Coconut products, despite the fact they are apparently healthy for humans,

RESPONSES TO “CAN I GET A DISCOUNT?” BY CORRIE DIMANNO, HIGHLINE WINTER 2014-15, PAGE 14.

The subject of discounts is something that had been on my mind since the first year I moved to Canmore. As someone who has lived in Jasper, Lake Louise and now Canmore, I was surprised to find that there wasn't much of a locals discount culture. But wouldn't it be a good idea to treat locals even better than tourists? After all they are the people we have to live with. In my opinion a local is like an ambassador for the tourist town. They are often asked directions; where is a good place to eat, where to rent a bike, what to do on a rainy day. I get asked these questions almost every time I'm out in the town, and I love it. I love

Great point you make there. I have been in the Bow Valley for 42 years and I am still not considered a local in many circles. I left in disgust in the late ‘70s as I felt like an outsider and un-welcome. I came back to climb and conquer. I have lived in other parts of the country and never have seen this "I am more local than you are" syndrome. I laugh when I see people like some realtors advertise in the paper that they are “born and raised” in Banff or Canmore, like they are better than others who are not. Many of the born and raised folk have an unhealthy sense of entitlement and feel they should always get a discount. PS. - Love the publication. Quality all around! — Mike K. BANFF

going local

THE LOCAL CONUNDRUM

he need to define who is and who isn’t a local is a phenomenon common to small towns, and our mountain towns are no different. In the Winter 2014-2015 issue of Highline, we explored this conundrum in Can I Get A Discount? [p.14]. But, we stopped short of actually defining a local. We’ve been pondering the question ever since, and we think we’ve finally landed on an answer: The definition of a local is someone who has forgotten what it feels like to be new to town; what it’s like to not walk by and exchange a “hello” with a minimum of five acquaintances on the street every day; what it’s like to not know which secret spots his coworkers are referring to when chatting around the coffee station; what it’s like to be blown away by the view from his office window; or what it’s like to not have friends. Or, wait a sec; maybe it’s the opposite. Maybe a local is someone who remembers: who remembers trying to find the obscure doorway to his new place on a crowded residential road; who remembers the kindness a new friend showed him by helping to move boxes into the small room inside a basement suite apartment; or who remembers how difficult it was to find that overcrowded and overpriced place to sleep at night in the first place. But despite whether we forget how we arrived or remember why we stayed, we are here together. So let’s focus on sticking together, rather than dividing ourselves into “long-time locals,” “born and raised,” or “not from here.”

Deep down, we’re all Rocky Mountain black sheep: folks who are more concerned with making a life than with make a living. We feel at home here in the quiet morning hours before the rush of visitors takes over the main drag, and then again 12 hours later, when the streets empty as the crowds rest up in their hotel rooms for their next day of adventuring in our shared backyard. We feel at home both with wanderlust and with feeling lost. We feel at home thriving in survival mode. We feel at home living the dream (and the nightmare of working three jobs to make ends meet). We feel at home alone in the wilderness and in our friends’ kitchens surrounded by neighbours. Maybe now we’ve got it. Maybe a local is anyone who feels truly at home in the mountains. Whether that home is a tent, car, passenger van or a little slice of homey heaven shared with family and friends. We all belong to this tribe that calls the mountains home. Yeah, we like that. That feels pretty good. — Corrie

What do you think? Can you relate? What do you think makes a mountain person? Share your thoughts and ideas with us using #mountainpeopleunite online, or by emailing us directly. Your bright ideas could appear in the next issue of Highline.

Canmore Health and Wellness Centre

Our Integrated Wellness Group provides a centre for a multidisciplinary team of experienced practitioners committed to providing you with individualized quality care to help educate, empower and support you in your wellness goals.

Dedicated to serving your individual wellness needs. To book directly with a practitioner of your choice and to see a list of services offered please go to www.canmorewellnesscentre.com

H E A LT H + W E L L N E S S

EMBODY We are a 3000 sq ft Classical Pilates Studio offering equipment, mat, private classes and a teacher-training program. Check out our boutique on the main floor to find unique eco-friendly activewear.  403.678.6765  embodypilates.ca  info@embodypilates.ca #101, 830 Main St. THE YOGA LOUNGE Voted Best Yoga Studio in Canmore the past three years! Our teachers are dedicated to supporting your practice through awareness, compassion, inspiration and movement. We are honoured to serve!  403.678.6687  theyogalounge.ca  2nd Floor, 826 Main Street, Canmore RED EARTH SPA Boasting an extensive treatment menu, The Red Earth Spa at the Caribou Lodge makes spa-ing a perfect post ski activity.  403.762.9292  redearthspa.com  521 Banff Avenue, Banff CANMORE HOT YOGA Canmore Hot Yoga offers Hatha, Vinyasa, and Aerial yoga classes designed to strengthen, heal, and rejuvenate your body, to calm your mind, and to awaken your soul!  403.675.9642  canmorehotyoga.com  101 - 1002 8th Avenue, Canmore BACK AT IT MASSAGE Specializing in deep tissue and sports massage. Featuring a special prenatal massage cushion for all those pregnant mamas. Also: cupping, reflexology, crania sacral, and TMJ massage.  403.688.1561  backatitmassage.com  203 - 1205 Bow Valley Trail, Canmore

Temple

therapeutics

TEMPLE THERAPEUTICS Canmore's newest massage therapy clinic! Specializing in assessment based treatments that are effective, efficient and deeply therapeutic.  403.431.0643  templetherapeutics.ca  105 - 1001 6 Avenue, Canmore FOUR PEAKS PILATES Fine tune your alignment. Balance your strength and flexibility. Reach your peak. Offering private and small group STOTT Pilates classes.  403.609.1265  fourpeakspilates.ca  826 Main St - Suite 205, Canmore ONE WELLNESS AND SPA At One Wellness and Spa, we are passionate about promoting life balance, well-being and long-term health and our facilities and services are designed to keep you Active for Life!  403.679.7179  info@onewellnessandspa.com  187 Kananaskis Way, Canmore

E AT S + T RE AT S

VALBELLA GOURMET FOODS Where European traditions meet Canadian classics. Specializing in artisan sausages, European style cured meats, smoked hams and much more!  403.678.4109  valbella.ca  104 Elk Run Blvd, Canmore THE BANFF TEA CO. This summer we’re celebrating our 8th year infusing the Bow Valley with tea. Thank you to all our wonderful customers! Come in and use your 10% locals discount.  403.762.8322  banffteaco.com  208 Caribou Street, Banff WILD FLOUR Banff's artisan bakery cafe, Wild Flour is authentically local and independent with a bustling neighbourhood feel. Wild Flour makes organic, healthy, and nourishing food right in the heart of Banff.  403.760.5074  wildflourbakery.ca  211 Bear Street #101, Banff CHEZ FRANCOIS Simply fresh and tasty. Voted best breakfast by the locals! Breakfast served daily until 2pm. Also featuring a daily three-course dinner from $32. Offering gluten free and vegan meal options.  403.678.6111  restaurantchezfrancois@shaw.ca  1604 2nd Ave, Canmore CANMORE PASTA CO. Canmore Pasta Co. is your source for fresh pasta in the Bow Valley. Find us at your favorite restaurant, local grocer and our location on Bow Meadows Crescent. Open M-F 9am-4pm.  403.678.5266  canmorepasta.com  1 - 113 Bow Meadows Cres, Canmore

WHITEBARK CAFE We are passionate about serving the perfect cup of coffee with fair-trade, organic beans from Moja Coffee. Enjoy on our warm sunny Banff Avenue patio all summer!  403.760.7298  whitebarkcafe.com  401 Banff Avenue, Banff COMMUNITEA CAFE Keeping it fresh, healthy & local. We're a restaurant/ live music venue that is really just a front to bring amazing people together. Open daily at 9am serving breakfast, lunch, coffee & tea.  403.688.2233  communitea.ca  Corner of 10th St & 6th Ave in Canmore RAVE COFFEE RAVE Coffee is a specialty coffee roaster sourcing some of the highest graded coffee in the world. Our goal is to serve you the best coffee you've ever had!  403.675.7777  ravecoffee.ca  700 Bow Valley Trail, Canmore

M O U N TA I N C U LT U R E + E X P E R I E N C E S

ALPINE CLUB OF CANADA We've been passionate about climbing, hiking and skiing in alpine environments for over 100 years. Everyone is welcome, so come join us!  403.678.3200  info@alpineclubofcanada.ca  201 Indian Flats Road, Canmore RAVEN RESCUE Technical rescue training, equipment & services. Internationally recognized courses held in Canmore: Swiftwater Rescue, Surface Ice Rescue, Technical Rope Rescue, Wilderness First Responder, and Technical Rescue Academy.  1.800.880.0287  ravenrescue.com  PO Box 861, Smithers, BC, V0J 2N0 WALK A MILE IN HER SHOES YWCA Walk a Mile in Her Shoes is coming to Canmore, September 16. his event raises funds, friends, and awareness to prevent intimate partner violence and promote healthy relationships in the Bow Valley.  403.762.3560  ywcabanff.ca  102 Spray Avenue, Banff VALHALLA PURE OUTFITTERS Locally owned and operated adventure outfitter offering a great selection of brands and products with friendly, helpful service. And now collect Adventure Bucks! See store or website for details.  403.678.5610  vpo.ca 726 Main Street, Canmore PAINTBOX / COOKING AT THE BOX Canmore's favorite downtown boutique hotel. Join us for a feast for the senses at a cooking classes or a private dining experience.  403.609.0482  paintboxlodge.com  629 10th Street, Canmore CANMORE CAVE TOURS The greatest adventure IN the Rockies! Wild cave tours under Grotto Mountain. Open year-round, rain or shine. Ask about special rates for locals and groups. You will not be disappointed!  403.678.8819  canmorecavetours.com  129 Bow Meadows Cres., Canmore WHYTE MUSEUM OF THE CANADIAN ROCKIES Through our exhibitions, events, archives + library and museum shop, join us in exploring the culture created when peaks and people meet!  403.762.2291  whyte.org  111 Bear Street, Banff BISON BELONG Promoting the return of wild bison to Banff National Park.  403.760.1223  bisonbelong.ca  Box 4887, Banff, AB T1L 1G1

know your neighbour

CHRISTIAN WRIGHT

words: Corrie DiManno

photo: Georgie Silckerodt

lthough he’d humbly deny it, Christian Wright is a big dill. One of the most recognizable faces of urban farming in Canmore and a bartender at The Drake Pub, he’s both a people and a plant person. Through working these two gigs, he’s found inner peas: channeling his inner Buddha while pulling weeds alone in the garden as well as when he has to tell a customer that he’s been cut off for the evening. Not that he focuses on the negative or anything — Wright is too busy digging life. In fact, the grass hasn’t been greener on his side since he moved to the mountains from Toronto in 2007. New to town and working as a prep cook at a downtown restaurant, he saw how much pre-consumer waste was being thrown away, mostly carrot and potato peels and onion ends. This led to his self-guided study into vermicomposting and soil remediation. It’s also how he became a part of the Canmore Community Gardening Society (a volunteer-based, not-for-profit) and Farm Box (a fresh food delivery business) family. “Christian came to the Canmore Community Gardening Society’s spring annual general meeting in 2012 and said to us, ‘I want to start a composting business.’ We knew he was so legit because his mom was even there,” says Farm Box co-founder Avni Soma. Last summer, Wright conducted small-scale tests in his shed, turning food scraps into vermicompost. The compost extract was then used to experiment fertilizing a tee box at the Canmore Golf and Curling Club. Dubbed Sweet Earth, a pilot program for the real deal is currently pending approval from the province. In addition, Wright helped to start Alpine Edible Schoolyards, the not-for-profit offshoot of Farm Box, which has turned the rooftop garden at Canmore Collegiate High School, as well as a quarter-acre of land at Lawrence Grassi Middle School, into outdoor classrooms. And when he’s not asking Alpenglow School students to refrain from eating clover or listening to customers confiding in him about their love lives from behind the bar, Wright is playing Settlers of Catan at the Canmore Hotel on Monday nights, where he strongly advises securing good numbers and a diversity of resources when selecting settlements. But basically, this 33-year-old, weekday vegetarian is cultivating fresh food culture 24/7/365 in the Bow Valley because he’s a firm believer of taking organic materials into our own hands. “I’m sick of people pointing palms to the sky and blaming government and corporations,” says Wright. “We can be the biggest drivers of positive change, and, if we work together, we can create a lot more positive change than waiting for someone else to do it.”

To nominate a neighbour for this feature, email Corrie at corrie@highlineonline.ca.

Bow Valley Parent Link

Bow Valley Parent Link offers free programs and services supporting families with children 0 - 6 years of age with a focus on the following 5 core areas: • • • • •

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Parent Link Hours September - June Canmore Monday and Wednesday: 1:00 - 3:45 p.m. Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday: 9:00 - 11:45 a.m. Address: 600A - 9th Street, Canmore l Phone: 403.678.2529

Banff Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday: 9:00 - 11:45 a.m. Address: 101B Bear Street, Banff l Phone: 403.762.1116

Exshaw Monday: 1:00 - 3:00 p.m. and Thursday: 9:30 - 11:45 a.m. Address: 27 Mt. Allen Drive, Exshaw l Phone: 403.678.2529

July - August Please visit our website at www.canmore.ca/parentlink or contact your nearest Parent Link Centre for summer hours, programs and holiday closures. Learn more by visiting www.canmore.ca/parentlink, contact your nearest Parent Link Centre or ‘Like’ us on Facebook to receive program updates.

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GUIDEBOOK

Head for the Hills

Rawson Lake by Kristen Sydoryk.



W O N D E RIN G W H AT T O D O T HIS W EE K EN D ? S EE K A N D Y E S H A L L F IN D, M O U N TA IN P E O P L E .

he fine folks at Hike365 and Highline Magazine have joined forces with our local audiences to create a top twelve list of the locals’ favourite hikes in the Rockies. The survey we hosted in April came back with some incredible results, and we’ve pared it down to a top three in each category. Let us know what you think of the list, and read on for details about a sweet prize from The Juniper Hotel. All trailheads are within a two-hour drive from Banff. Now get out there and show this summer how it’s done.

GENTLE HIKES Our definition of a gentle hike: A walk. A meditation. Hiking for relaxation. A great dog walk. A hike you’d take a visitor on to show them the goods. Great on a rainy day.

 Less than two hours return.

• Troll Falls

 Minimal elevation gain (1m - 300m).

• Consolation Lakes

 More than three hours return.

• Heart Mountain

 Elevation gain (200m+) and/or moderate distance.

• Sentinel Pass

 More than four hours return.

• Mount Bourgeau

 Moderate-intense elevation gain (600m+) and/or long distance.

• Cory Pass

 More than 10 hours return or could require at least one overnight stay.

• Rockwall

• Rawson Lake

G O -T O HIK E S Our definition of a gentle hike: It’s a workout. Great views. Never gets old. Could be a great after/before work micro-adventure (if you’re adventurous). Moderate grade, single track, minimal exposure.

• Iceline Trail, Little Yoho Valley

PUSH YOURSELF HIKES Our definition of a gentle hike: Ridge lines, scrambles, alpine lakes and tarns, remote locations. You feel a definite sense of accomplishment when finished. Moderate to intense grade, single track, switchbacks, monderate-intense exposure.

• North Molar Pass

DREAM HIKES Our definition of a gentle hike: A bucket list hike! Ridge lines, scrambles, backpacking trips, remote locations, alpine lakes and tarns, glaciers. Aggressive grade, single track, glacier travel.

 Intense elevation gain (900m+) and/or long distance.

• Berg Lake and Snowbird Pass • Birdwood Pass to Burstall Pass Get the dirt on the Berg Lake trail online, article at bit.ly/berglake

Rawson Lake by Amy Blair.

Bourgeau by AV Wakefield.

Iceline Trail by Darren Umbsaar.

TA K E A HIK E , M A N Share your photos from these incredible spots with @highlinemag and @ hike365 on Instagram or Twitter using the hashtag #highlinehike365. Up for grabs is a free night stay with breakfast in the Juniper Hotelâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Valley View room in Banff.

23 Berg Lake by Callum Snape. @calsnape

Make us laugh or inspire us by captioning your images with a tale from the trip.

FIVE CLASSIC READS THAT WILL INSPIRE YOU TO FOLLOW IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF THE ROCKIES’ MOST LEGENDARY ADVENTURERS by Joanna Croston

o ld s c H o ol

cool 24

book reviews

Climbs and Explorations in the Canadian Rockies J. Norman Collie & Hugh Stutfield, 1903

J. Norman Collie was literally obsessed with locating the two fabled “giants” of the Canadian Rockies, Mts. Hooker and Brown. Reputedly 16,000 and 15,700 ft high, these two peaks would have been amongst the highest in Canada, so he hired famous Banff outfitter Bill Peyto to take him to the Howse Pass and Columbia Icefields areas in search of them. The ensuing journeys were amazing, but the real joy in this book is the true “wild west” feel of it. The pages are filled with personal anecdotes, not science. References to “picturesque” profanity, escaped ponies, misfired guns and whiskey-fueled mishaps all add to the mountain magic.

Must-do adventure: Mt. Wilcox scramble. The view from the summit of Mt. Wilcox is bananas with Mt. Athabasca, Mt. Andromeda, Mt. Kitchener and the Athabasca Glacier splayed out before your eyes. Reference: Scrambles of the Canadian Rockies, Alan Kane, Rocky Mountain Books. Insider’s tip: If you schedule your scramble for mid to late July, you’ll be overwhelmed by the wildflowers on the trail to Wilcox Pass on your way to the peak.

“This is the record of our mountain memories, which may perhaps have the power of shedding afterglow, even though the light be dim in comparison to realities. And yet, if you glimpse but a bit of it, great indeed will be our reward.” - J. Monroe Thorington

The Rockies of Canada Walter Wilcox, 1900

Walter Wilcox ventured into many corners of the Canadian Rockies, but one of his most remarkable journeys was to Mt. Assiniboine. Get this — he and his team of rugged outfitters managed a complete circumnavigation of the entire peak by exploring the never before visited eastern and southern slopes of the mountain. They pushed through challenging conditions of heinous blow downs and burns, primarily surviving on bacon and tea for four days.

Must-do adventure: A long weekend at Mt. Assiniboine. Hike in from Sunshine Meadows and be sure to plan a car drop or shuttle and hike out to the Mt. Shark trailhead via Wonder Pass. Reference: The Canadian Rockies Trail Guide, Brian Patton & Bart Robinson. Insider’s tip: Wilcox and his team went into the Assiniboine area via Simpson Pass, but these days you can start your hike from the top of the gondola at Sunshine Village. White Mountain Adventures offers summer shuttles to the meadows for a nominal fee. Do it! (whitemountainadventures.com)

Where Clouds Can Go Conrad Kain, 1935

As one of the godfathers of prolific first ascents in the Canadian Rockies, Conrad Kain tackled the most challenging mountains he could find. Kain’s route on Bugaboo Spire was once considered the most difficult in Canada and a formidable achievement in 1916. Kain also solved the Mt. Robson problem, one of the most sought after peaks of the day, by making a stunning first ascent in 1913. Where the Clouds Can Go was first published in 1935 and is a wonderful personal record from this old school guide and climber. Wrought with

humility and charm, it definitely deserves a place on your bookshelf as a Canadian Rockies classic. Must-do adventure: Climb the Kain Route (5.6), Bugaboo Spire, Bugaboo Glacier Provincial Park, B.C. Reference: The Bugaboos by Chris Atkinson and Marc Piché, Elaho Press/High Col. Warning: Guys! Don’t be fooled by what seems to be an easy rock grade. Kain’s route has benighted a few very competent climbers over the years.

A Hunter of Peace Mary T.S. Schäffer, 1911

Mary Schäffer was one of the most ambitious women adventurers of her time. Proof: in the early 20th century she took on several of the most brazen, difficult exploratory trips in what are now Banff and Jasper National Parks. Like a good boss, Schäffer was unconcerned with gender issues or public opinion. She simply loved the adventure. Her most celebrated journeys of 1907, 1908 and 1911 can be found in A Hunter of Peace, a modern compilation originally published as Old Indian Trails.

Must-do adventure: Backpack the Brazeau Loop, Jasper National Park, AB. Reference: The Canadian Rockies Trail Guide, Brian Patton & Bart Robinson. Insider’s tip: The Brazeau Loop throws you deep into Schäffer’s exploration territory, but the terrain was not new to local Indigenous people. The knowledge they shared helped Schäffer on her annual expeditions.

The Glittering Mountains of Canada J. Monroe Thorington, 1925

James Monroe Thorington was a Princeton graduate who was hooked on the mountains of Western Canada. He spent 15 summers in Alberta and B.C. making 50 first ascents including North Twin, the highest peak solely in Alberta. In The Glittering Mountains of Canada, Thorington shares tales from life on the trail during explorations and ascents from 1914 – 1924. One of the most memorable passages cites the explorers finding a lone baby mountain goat, which the cook manages to catch as it tries to scamper away. Luckily, the poor goat is released before dinner talk gets serious.

Must-do adventure: Hike up Mt. Fairview at Lake Louise. One of Thorington’s favourites, he considered it training for bigger objectives, and it’s a wonderful day trip in September when the larches are aglow.

Reference: The Canadian Rockies Trail Guide, Brian Patton & Bart Robinson. Insider’s tip: The Lake Louise and Paradise Valley areas have been overrun with larch seekers in the past few years. It’s best to call in sick and visit Mt. Fairview and the Saddleback during the week.

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feature artist

A G AT H E B E R N A R D

by Kristy Davison

29 Agathe Bernard by Colleen Gentleman.

AG AT HE BERN A RD

Home base: Revelstoke Home town: Lac-Saint-Charles, Quebec

Agathe Bernard is a photographer, filmmaker, educator and geologist with an appetite for adventure. An avid outdoorswoman and athlete, she is passionate about educating others about sustainability in our daily lives using her favourite tool, the camera, to share her vision. “I have always loved spending time in nature by myself and just observing and being present. When I was a kid, I could watch a snail cross the road for an hour. I can get totally lost in the details and patterns in a rock or a bunch of moss. Looking at things from different perspectives to see if there is a pattern is probably why I ended up becoming a scientist,” she jokes. Though she travels constantly for work and play, she stays connected to the mountain community through her creative work and through her involvement on the board of the North Columbia Environmental Society (NCES), as well as her work as staff photographer for the Revelstoke-based women’s ski organization Girls Do Ski. Bernard is set to embark on a sailing trip from the Ivory Coast to Brazil this autumn in the role of filmmaker on the “Ascension 2015” mission hosted by exxpedition. During the voyage 14 female scientists, engineers, doctors and creatives will gather data regarding plastic and toxin levels in the water with the intent to educate others about plastic toxins and how they enter the food chain causing adverse health effects like cancer. Check out exxpedition.com for details about this amazing adventure. You can contribute to a fund to send Agathe to represent the Rockies on this epic trip through her Kickstarter campaign at bit.ly/agathe-bernard.

 agathebernardphotography.com  Agathe Bernard Photography  agathebernardphoto  @AgatBernard

Life is that perfect fine line between ironies. â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Serj Tankian

32 Photo by Agathe Bernard.

INDIE

FREE

WILD

Photo by Agathe Bernard.

contest

MOUNTAIN PEOPLE, UNITE!

Tag your mountain moments with #mountainpeopleunite for a chance to be featured right here in the next issue. Highline’s favourite shot wins a Fjallraven Kanken backpack from Valhalla Pure Outfitters in Canmore. Winner selected October 1st.  HIGHLINEMAG

#M O UN TAINPEO PL EUNIT E

MORETHANLYME

ANDAIRADES

CARALLINI.TRAVELS

SCREE _DUST

NATHANIEL ATAKORA

LEONAL ANE

SHANEPENDY

BLIGHGUY

SANTIAGO_ESPINOSA _PHOTOGRAPHY

feature

THE AGONY

words: Jerry Auld

artwork: Fonda Sparks

igh on a blunt of dolomite, out of sight from the road, two men scaled a new and hard line.

They had quarrelled on the mid-sections as the difficulty increased, and as they worked the final pitches, the leader grew impatient for victory while the second grew exhausted. At a belay stance on a small ledge, Richard brought Cary up and stepped aside for him to lead. The wall above seemed impossible. Richard proposed a traverse out under a hanging bulge toward a crack system. Cary questioned if they were off route. Richard said, “It’s our route. How could we be off it?” Cary told him that the climb was too hard. Richard was tired as well, and grew angry, questioning Cary’s commitment. They shouted, pressed arm to arm, their voices assaulting each other from inches away and then evaporating into the vacuum at their backs. Cary was the type who would never do something if pressured. He needed the pull of his own conviction to take risk. The more Richard urged, the more Cary withdrew. Richard grabbed the gear from Cary’s harness, glared, told him to watch closely and then started the traverse. Cary stared bated, knowing he couldn’t lead, yet fearing his attempt to follow. Richard managed to fit only one piece of protective gear into the rock through which to thread the rope before he reached the crack and started up. Cary asked him if he could see the top. “I can’t see anything higher.” Richard’s feet disappeared. When Cary felt the rope tug, he fed it out carefully. The day was very hot, and they were out of water. After a long time, Cary studied the mesmerizing shift of the rope braid against the rock until he couldn’t remember how long it had been since it had moved. He yelled for Richard. A thunder of rockfall poured down from the corner accompanied by sparks, dust, the smell of burnt lime, leaving long white scars on the rock face. The rope swayed. Cary held the belay tight and called. There was no answer; the rope stayed the same—not slack, not weighted. Indifferent. With no way to hear one another, they would normally rely on jerks of the rope to communicate. Cary glanced around. The forest spread out in thousands of distinct spikes like wet fur. “The forest is not so far below that birds are aliens.”



The memory of an old poem came to Cary like the voice from a calm stranger as he held the belay. His mind scratched at the poem. He dozed in the heat, watching the rope blur. He heard tapping, metal on stone, intermittent, trailing off. Cary wondered what he should do, as if he could force his question along the rope like a telegraph pulse. The day was fading. He thought: If Richard is anchored, why doesn’t he call or tug? Is he furious waiting for me? How long should I hold the belay? Was he injured in the rockfall? He looked at the rope pooled at his feet. There wasn’t enough length to climb or descend. If he moved up the rope on a sling, would he dislodge Richard? He needed the rope tight for that traverse. What would a mountain guide do? All Cary could imagine was the imperturbable façade of a guide, but no answers came. As the darkness grew, he felt relief that he would not have to do anything. But he hadn’t bargained for how long the night would stretch, how cold he would become, how the rock would turn to ice and his hips would ache, and his will would plead for dawn. “ A mountain is too huge She hears the cries of birds. ” Lines from the poem kept occurring to him. He remembered it was at an Alpine Club party, beneath crowds of lean rock climbers, a quiet room of alpinists, sipping scotch, a fireplace in embers. A man stood reciting a poem by rote as he slapped the mantle with a worn and heavy hand. Then Cary remembered: the story of the Stones. A true story: “On a ledge not much bigger than this, mind you,” the man had growled. “They were an accomplished couple, the Stones. He was president of Purdue University in an age when that was very respectable; back then a scandal could ruin a man’s career and prospects instead of starting it, as it seems to do today.” “Winthrop Ellsworth Stone was a stern man, but Margaret was one of those rare mountain flowers. Unremarkable in a city, but out in the mountains, in her battered Trilby hat, very quiet and reserved, and with eyes dark with patient regard…”

“Ahem,” said someone, and everyone laughed. “Yes,” he said, “I suppose everyone was a little in love with her.” “At the Club’s 1920 camp at the base of Assiniboine, there were many peaks not yet climbed, and the Stones were anxious to bag one of the big ones. Just to the south, over Wonder Pass and Marvel Lake, rose Mt. Eon. They attacked the southeast ridge.” “Both were in first-class condition, and late afternoon had them near the summit. One obstacle remained: a solid wall split by a chimney. Dr. Stone started, climbed out of sight. Margaret called, and Winthrop said he could see nothing higher. “Then a rock dislodged and took Winthrop with it. Margaret braced herself, expecting to be pulled off, but Winthrop had untied to explore further. Margaret watched him fall a thousand feet. “All of their supplies were in his pack. Evening came before she recovered her wits, so she endured, without water or jacket, forty feet from the summit, which is near eleven thousand feet. “It took two days for her to descend the ridge, then she saw a talus slope that lead off to Wonder Pass. She used the rope to lower to the last ledge, but the rope was too short. Exhausted, she dropped the last six feet. “Only then did she realize the ledge was isolated and would not allow her off the mountain. She could not reach the rope. She was trapped. She waited seven days for a rescue.” Cary imagined what he would look like, retrieved after a week. The arguments in editorials, letters explaining what they had done wrong. In his imagination he tried to read those criticisms. He had always imagined a more immediate situation in which to be heroic and suffer. He had never considered suffering to take so long. His dream was foggy and fragmented. In the fog he saw Dr. Stone wedged in the chimney. “It’s just within our grasp, Margaret!” “I see this chimney as the only way up.”

Cary imagined what he would look like, retrieved after a week. The arguments in editorials, letters explaining what they did wrong. In his imagination he tried to read those criticisms.

“We’ll have to be careful; it is very loose here —” “Are you near the top?” “I can see nothing higher.” Cary awoke with a start, shivering uncontrollably. Someone stood beside him. Cary scrambled to resume the belay, alarmed. “Richard?” The figure was too small, wore no helmet, but a soft brim curved like the gables of a Swiss farmhouse. Cary squinted. Finally, he whispered, “Margaret?” She stood in bare feet, with shreds of a heavy skirt, in silhouette, and spoke as if deeply sad. “ I always fall, never climb. Break rock, soothe skin. Why is a person not a rock? ” He realized the stone was freezing him through his thin pants, and he shuffled to turn against the anchor shackled to his hips. The rock didn’t move, he couldn’t push his fingers into it. When he slapped it, there was no sound other than his own cold flesh hitting frigid rock. More words of the poem came as he chattered in the dark.

By mid-morning, he stamped the cold out, but the sharp thirst in his throat was pushing him like a knife to the edge. A call to Richard frightened him with its sound. He dismantled his anchor and his balance wavered. He shook so badly that he knew he could not hold the first move. He rebuilt the anchor, vomiting nothing, terrified to slip off the small shelf before he could lock himself to it. He squatted and stared at the traverse. He did not question that he had spoken to Margaret. She was as real as his impossible position. Instead he wondered why she would speak in riddles. The broil of the sun seemed equally impossible after the frozen night, a night so cold that it could break rock. Then he understood her riddle: what could break rock, but soothe skin. What falls and never climbs. Water. Without it we are no more than a rock; dead. Under the sun, his eyes blurry, water became his only thought. “ Thinks about the water bottle in his pack. Things become more important than thoughts.” He opened his eyes. Beside his knee he saw another’s, pressed tight on the ledge. Her eyes were soft under the brim.

“ Puffed eyes, burnt arms, stiff and thickening fingers. No longer thinks about thinking his death”.

“If you sit in this place you will find it. If you go down it will find you. If you leave you will meet later.”

Long after he’d given up on dawn, when his ears and fingers and toes felt like wood, the horizon and then the staggering drop reappeared. His lashes gritty with dry salt, the rock moist with dew, like a miserly sponge.

When he realized she was not there, he tried again to make the traverse, but his fear would not let him release the last sling, and the loose rope pulled relentlessly on his hips. He listened to her words. Who was he supposed to meet?

“ A mountain is too huge. She hears the cries of birds. The forest is not so far below that birds are alien. ”

What had happened to Richard? He imagined him struck by rockfall, hanging by a jammed wrist like a chock, the

slightest weight pulling him down; then he imagined the rope tied off to a piton anchor next to the trail leading down. Would Richard have abandoned me, thinking I would just climb the rope? He watched a contrail boil across the sky. In 1921 Margaret would have seen nothing. It startled him when night fell again behind darkening clouds. The cold wind and the realization of another night. He was frantic, tugging the rope, wishing he had tried something. Even dying might be better than another night. He froze on cramped legs. Was that what Margaret warned? If he stayed he would find his death; if he tried to go down it would find him. His only chance at longer life was to go up. Easy to say, he thought.

sharp, stripped wires. He slipped and caught, mumbled and screamed. He moved slowly in lunging stiff moves, clawing his will into the stone. I am not rock, he thought, I am water. He reached a crack and wiggled his fingers deep into the stone until he could feel its ribs. He looked up and saw the rope trailing higher, over a lip. Then clear pale sky. “I can’t see anything higher,” Cary said aloud in the silence. He moved up, slowly, pulling on a finger jam. The stone was solid, he was doing it. “I can’t see anything higher.”

He was hallucinating, pondering Richard’s empty harness swaying in the wind, a victim of alien abduction. Then he felt her once more beside him at the anchor. “If you have one, you have two, until you have none.”

This tale appears as one of 33 short stories in Auld’s Short Peaks, published

It was an eternity, he thought. Riddles are easy when you have so much time. Or maybe when you live a decision between a terminal fall, an agony of waiting, or an agony of movement? He knew she referred to choices. He still had the rope, the choice that she never had. If he had a choice, he had two outcomes. Until he committed. With dawn, he stood, stretched without plan, then pulled the anchor. He led himself out with a long runner, then stepped hard on the gritty, sweating rock, his fingers like

Canmore-based

Imaginary

Mountain

Surveyors.

Ask for the book at independent bookstores in and around the Rocky Mountains, such as Café Books in Canmore and Pages on Kensington in Calgary. Fonda Sparks is a contemporary painter and printmaker living in Canmore, AB. Her paintings are done in bold, opaque colours that lead the mind's eye to show much more complex images. Fonda’s linoprints are a natural extension of her original painting style, resulting in an image that has many layers of colour and depth. Her work can be seen at fondasparks.com and on Facebook at FondaSparksArtist. Follow her on Facebook for a chance to win a limited edition print of the illustration featured in this article.

feature

Behind the scenes with the trail builders of the Rockies

IF YOU BUILD IT, THEY WILL COME. by Taryn Hajnrych

ake a deep breath. Shut out the sounds around you. Go ahead and close your eyes for a moment. It isn’t difficult to return to that very moment when you last stood at the crest of a towering peak, inhaling the exhilarating air as a cold wind whipped against your sun weathered skin. Now take a look upwards and try to imagine these mountains as they once were, pristine and untouched; not a step trodden on their steep faces, nor a single climbing bolt fastened to their jagged cliffs. If the true purists had it their way, this would still be the reality of the mountain landscape. The wild would be its wildest, but we hikers, bikers and climbers would not know the deep rewards so many have felt while standing on top gazing down a sprawling valley of velvet forests, high above the stark reality of the daily grind. It isn’t easy to wrap your head around the thought that this deep, soulful connection that we share with our mountains might not have ever been what it is for so many of the people who have moved through this valley over decades past. Without these handfashioned passages and the countless hours of selfless labour given by our dedicated volunteers, Mother Nature could have simply been a passing acquaintance rather than the ultimate best friend of all time that she is now. We’ve heard the many dramatic stories of exploration by famed prospectors, noteworthy adventurers and renowned Swiss mountain guides. Now let’s give some props to the lesserknown heroes who make it possible for modern day adventure into the mountains. Disguised in everyday plaid shirts, khakis and down vests, they blend right in. They are humble, but their impacts are far reaching: our intrepid mountain trail builders.

43 Newspaper clippings courtesy Doug Campbell.



THE TALE OF THE TRAILMINDERS You might be surprised to know that some of the most popular trails in the Rockies today did not exist even as late as the mid-90s.

Owing to foresight and diligent planning by Doug Campbell, a longtime Canmore resident, an organization called the Trailminders was founded in 1992. As housing development increased dramatically in Canmore, so did the interest in exploration and recreation in the surrounding peaks. The group’s vision was to build new trails that would be safe and enjoyable and have the least possible impact on the local landscape and wildlife with this increase in use.

To get the rock rolling, Campbell recruited his fellow comrades, a clan of axe-wielding senior citizens, and rounded up his contacts in the mountaineering world. “Canmore needed good trails, especially ones that led somewhere significant like the top of EEOR (East End of Rundle),” shares Brian Carter, one of Campbell’s mountaineering friends and a core member of the Trailminders. “So I wrote to the authorities about this and they wrote back saying, ‘Oh no, we shouldn’t encourage this. People might fall off the cliffs,’ and this and that. And I thought it was nonsense. There needs to be a trail. So I just got to work.” Like a boss. Carter lent his vast mountaineering expertise to the group and was instrumental in the development and maintenance of the Trailminders (notable trail projects include Ha Ling peak, Lady MacDonald and EEOR). Coupled with Campbell’s fierce dedication to community and his knack for organizing a group into a formidable force, the Trailminders would go on to leave a lasting impact on the landscape over their 15 years in existence. Both Campbell and Carter believed strongly that Canmore’s peaks should be accessible to all, so the group officially went rogue in the fight to open up summits to hikers, rather than just to those who were able and willing to navigate cliffs and scramble through scree.

When Trailminders first formed their coalition and set out to create access to various summits, the necessary channels and permissions needed to accomplish this had not yet been mandated.

Friends of Kananaskis crew by Jill Sawyer.

“We didn’t have any permissions; we hadn’t asked for any, but there wasn’t any indication that permission was needed at the time,” Carter says, while adding with a chuckle that the Ha Ling trail was “definitely covert.” Covert as their missions may have been, this group can only properly be described as well-intentioned, safe, responsible and fuelled by unrelenting generosity. These descriptors are not only important, but are necessary to accurately explain the methods and purpose behind the intent of the Trailminders' projects. “I like to say the Trailminders did everything by the book, and that was recognized,” says Campbell. It was paramount to the group that they endeavour to produce a finished product that was meant not only to last, but also to preserve the integrity of the mountain landscape.

“On Ha Ling there were only animal trails leading up the mountain, and people were skidding down through the forest and tearing up the ground and the mosses, and eventually I thought, ‘This won’t do. This is going to ruin the mountain,’” said Carter. “So I planned the trail and the Trailminders joined me the next year and we cut it in. “Ninety five per cent of it wasn’t there before,” he explains, in reference to the state of the trail when the group started their route. “Whenever possible, I would find an animal trail that was the right grade, and even at

the end where I was at tree-line, I would take a straighter path,” he says, as he clarifies the process of choosing how and where the new trail would be cut with the least negative impact on the mountain as possible. The goal was to create a finished trail that was of limited steepness, keeping in mind that the focus was on making summits accessible for the walkers in their community As Carter had said before, official permission hadn’t been sought for such a project as there was no formal avenue for doing so. But as was the case, the powers that reigned at this time took a strong disliking to the newfound efforts to expand the Ha Ling routes and even went so far as to abscond with the tools the Trailminders had left behind on site. This didn’t deter them, however, and they forged on, refusing to give in. “Brian Carter was pretty bold,” says Campbell of his comrade’s ambitions. “He had installed a map at the bottom of the trail, on a sign board.” But one day Carter headed over to Ha Ling, and, to his dismay, discovered that his map had been removed. Right there beside him, listening to his angry declarations was a warden, and, according to Campbell, “Not only a warden, but the warden.” “Brian immediately took off up the trail to where we had our axes, and he started hacking away. The warden followed and asked what he was doing. Everything we’d been working on was officially out in the open at that point. Fait accompli; it was already done, and they allowed Trailminders to officially maintain the trail from that point on,” explains Doug.

PLANS FOR THE HA LING TRAIL

46 Sketch by Brian Carter, courtesy Doug Campbell.

Relentless in their refusal to stop working, these men ultimately succeeded in not only finishing their project, but also managed to build what is now regarded as one of the most popular, well known hikes in the area that serves as a marker of endurance and accomplishment for hikers of all abilities.

As time went on and the Trailminders projects reached completion, legalities came into play. Over the years, legislation had come about that hadn’t been in place 15 years earlier when the group was formed, and the requirements strained the members beyond what they were willing to endure for a volunteer project. “Just about the time they were telling us we needed insurance — essentially making it very difficult for us to exist — we considered joining the Friends of Kananaskis,” explains Doug, in reference to their dealings with the various parks and municipal organizations that had also been evolved in the area. “All it takes is somebody, maybe a tourist, breaking an ankle and saying ‘Who put that rock there?’ and suing you for a million dollars; so we thought better of it,” he says. Although the group officially disbanded in 2007, many of its members still live in town and regularly hike the same trails that they had laboured over tirelessly for so many summers.

FRIENDS WITH BENEFITS

One person’s foe can be another’s friend. When it comes to trail development in our mountain region, the same rings true for the groups leading the way. For the Friends of Kananaskis, those same government regulations that became problematic for the Trailminders are the mandates that keep them in business today. The Friends of Kananaskis is a non-profit organization that was created in 1996. Nancy Ouimet, the program co-ordinator and only staff member on payroll for this force that sometimes numbers in the hundreds, says the group has undergone some important changes since its inception. “Organizationally, a lot of things have changed, but the group has always kept up with their trail care programs throughout the years,” Ouimet explains. Over the last few

years the trail care component has become the primary component of the Friends’ programming. Though closely aligned with many major players in the community ranging from government to private and public firms, the Friends of Kananaskis works primarily with Alberta Parks and Environmental Sustainable Resource Development (ESRD). Together, these organizations strive to maintain trails that are safe for recreational use in K-Country. Information provided by Alberta Parks explains that of all the trails in Kananaskis Country, the ones that are properly designed and maintained, are the ones that are ultimately safer for users and, in the long run, can provide for a more enjoyable wilderness experience. In addition to being safer, Alberta Parks believes that these trails are most importantly, from an environmental perspective, far more sustainable than those that are unsanctioned and lack routine maintenance. In a region that is overwhelmed with an influx of visitors, Kananaskis manages to maintain a sense of genuine wildness, providing a deep connection to the natural elements that make the mountains such a coveted destination.

THE PRICE OF PRESSING ON

According to Alberta Parks, many of the existing “trails” that have been formed and/or created through routine, unsanctioned use are often poorly located and have been built in areas that have a high risk of human-wildlife conflict due to the lack of commitment to proper ongoing maintenance and standards. Ouimet says that, although there have been some issues in the past that have led to fingers being pointed in the direction of their organization, the purpose of their trail building efforts is always to create stability in an area. “There is a balance between having good quality trails and a reasonable number of trails, and then having too many trails, and a sprawl of people. If you’re not careful, it can take away from wildlife habitat and the prestige of what the habitat can offer.” Summer 2014 for the Friends was a demanding season, and moving forward Ouimet says she foresees about a 30 per cent increase in work from last year, and predicts that this is going to be a busy summer for their team.

“Some of the projects that are currently high priority for Alberta Parks and ESRD are the flood repair projects,” she shares. “Ninety per cent of what we’re doing this summer is still just dealing with the damage that was caused in 2013. Thanks to some provincial funding that has been designated to repairing these trails this year, we have the capacity to hire bigger crews to undertake the work that needs to be done.”

COMMUNIT Y DRIVEN

When it comes to work crews, Ouimet emphasizes that this is where their organization really stands out. “It’s a pretty neat structure. Aside from myself, it’s all volunteer driven.” In addition to fundraising their entire budget, they also rely on the generosity and labour of members of the community. Last year alone the Friends of Kananaskis hosted 35 trail events and were able to count on a total of 160 individuals who graciously filled just over 300 volunteer shifts. “The program is really all about people having the opportunity to give back to Kananaskis trails and to be able to nurture stewardship-based relationships with nature,” says Ouimet. “It’s really fun as well; you go out and you do some work and you’re like ‘Wow, that was really fun’, and you go back to those sections of trail, and you’re like ‘I was a part of this’. The ownership that people have following their contribution is pretty powerful.” Doug Campbell agrees with Ouimet’s sentiments and explains that the remaining members of the original Trailminders group still labour as much as they can. Campbell says that the seniors have carried on with their own tradition of hard work, heading out with a unit of trail maintainers who work in co-operation with Friends of Kananaskis. Ouimet concludes by sharing what she believes to be the great strength of their program; that their efforts are truly official and authorized. In terms of partnerships and in terms of the trails that the organization works on, they are the more sanctioned trails, and the group makes an honest effort to ensure that the standards of work they are doing is of high quality. As is the current situation in Kananaskis, official trails are the only ones that receive formal maintenance by the Friends, and these are projects that are meant to withstand the test of time.

Despite the formalities and the official so-on-and-soforth, don’t let the process fool you. These trail builders are just like you and me; they’re out there for the love of the mountains. They aren’t seeking riches, and they aren’t doing it for the fame – the guide books not yet written won’t be stamped with their names, and they’re okay with this. For them, the gratitude of their neighbours is payment enough. “The appreciation that recreational users have for us when we’re out there on sections of trails is really interesting as well,” says Ouimet. “They are stopping and thanking the volunteers and appreciating people taking time out of their day-to-day lives to give back.”

LE AVING YOUR MARK

“Leave only footprints, take only memories” is a famous quotation by Chief Seattle, and often graces the pages of the many guide books available to advise you on how to make the most of a trip to the mountains. When the first visitors arrived in the mountains, guidebooks didn’t exist because there were no trails to write about. As time went on, individuals chose to get their hands dirty and took it upon themselves to create the trails that now exist, making it possible for so many footprints to lead to so many special, enduring memories. This advocacy has added incalculable value to our lives. What would our connection to the mountains look like had we not been given the chance to ascend summits and breathe deeply the same crisp air upon which a raven in flight sets its wings? How would our perspectives differ if we had never seen how simplistic and small our home can appear when seen from a towering mountain top? As the title suggests, if you build it, they will come. And did they ever! For decades tourists have been flocking to the mountains in droves. The ongoing search for pristine mountain beauty, and the soothing solace of a profound spiritual connection to whatever it is that you believe lies beyond the skyline, continues to draw people from the far corners of our earth to the Rockies, and this little valley we call home.

LO OKING TO MAKE AN IMPACT ? This summer, crews will break ground on the High Rockies Trail, an alpine route that will help knit together the last remaining linkages of the Trans Canada Trail. This high altitude traverse will start at Goat Creek, located along the east boundary of Banff National Park. The approximately 80 km section of trail will cross over the Three Sisters Dam and will continue along the east and north sides of Spray Lakes Road, gradually gaining elevation until it reaches its end point at Elk Pass. Of the 80 kms of trail, nearly 40 kms are new and will require intensive trail development, which will happen over the course of two years. Of the existing 40 kms, it is expected that 20 kms will need a good dose of TLC. If you would like to pitch in, contact the Friends of Kananaskis (bit.ly/trail-crew) and give what you can. Whether itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a little or a lot, every swing of an axe and every spade in the ground brings this project one step closer to completion.

49 Photo by Dan Rafla.

BY GERRY STEPHENSON

50 Photo by Stu Tripney.

feature

A F LY F I S H I N G O D Y S S E Y

“I fish because I love to: because the environs where trout are found are invariably beautiful, because trout do not lie or cheat and cannot be bought or bribed but respond only to quietude and humility and endless patience; because I suspect that men are going along this way for the last time and I for one don’t want to waste the trip.” Robert Traver, Anatomy of a Fisherman, 1964

eventy-three years ago, when I was 10, my father took me fishing in his heavy, clinker built boat. Powered by a 1¼ horsepower British Seagull outboard motor, we braved a stormy ocean to fish with hand lines for plaice and cod. I was violently sick and frightened by the huge waves, but I caught fish and was deliriously happy. I was also infected with a bug that has given me some of the most exciting, rewarding and beautiful experiences of my life. Thanks, Dad. “ A host of golden daffodils, Beside the lake, beneath the trees, Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.” William Wordsworth, 1770-1850

In the 1940s I fished the streams of the English Lake District where I lived with my parents, in the same area where William Wordsworth and his fellow poets lived and wrote in the late 18th century, inspired by the beauty of England’s wildest landscape. Tumbling from England’s highest mountains, clear waters held small trout. Making a rod and reel from the aerial off of an old WWII tank, as well as parts from my Mecanno set, I began a journey that would last a lifetime. Learning about the behaviour of the trout (sporadically getting everything right), I began to catch the small, eightinch variety on wet flies settled just under the surface, encountering the occasional monster of 10 inches. Having left home at 18, I spent three years at Nottingham University, scraping through the exams to finish with a mining degree. I was living a short motorcycle ride from the trout streams where Izaac Walton, author of The Compleat Angler, had fished for trout 300 years before, and, having acquired a real fly rod, I went to fish the River Dove, its spring fed waters home to some of the most beautiful, vigorous and canny trout in England. They lay in numbers, finning quietly in translucent water between the beds of weed that nourished the insect life where the fish fed. Every so often I would see the wink of a trout’s white lip, exposed as it sucked in a sub-surface nymph. I watched as hundreds of nymphs swam to the surface where they struggled to break out of their nymphal husks while hungry trout lingered hidden

beneath the water’s surface. Then ephemeral clouds of hundreds of mayflies would appear, dancing and mating in flight above the stream, dipping to the water to brush away the eggs of unborn mayflies before alighting on the surface, only to expire. I saw the trout rising to sip these mayflies from the surface before, and even after, they took flight. My hands shook as I tied my best impression of a suitable imitation fly on the (hopefully) invisible leader, then flicked it out, upstream of a rising fish. My breath caught as the fly carried to the feeding lane of the fish and over my quarry. Nothing. Not even a flicker of interest, even after a hundred casts. Total rejection. Cast after cast, different flies, but the same result. Despite going home fishless, a miracle was about to happen. As I trod solemnly, homeward, my sodden and bedraggled “imitation” glided over a gap between weed beds, and a large fat trout rose calmly to show its olive green, red and black spotted back and pure gold sides. Slowly, it rose towards my meager offering, slipped beneath it, and drifted downstream with its nose under the fly. Then, with a disdainful flick of its tail, it vanished. I had just witnessed what I would realise was the most rewarding of fishing experiences: attracting a visible trout feeding on natural insects, my homemade fly having the right size and shape of an artificial, and then manipulating the line, so that my offering floated dragless over a feeding fish. The wild trout was, for a few brief seconds, drawn to consider my artificial to be a real insect. If the trout was not hooked, I was… for life! Working in the British coal industry from 1952 to 1960, I dug coal by hand from a 20-inch coal seam under the Irish Sea for $2.50 a day. Later, as an underground manager, I flyfished the Lake District streams every spare moment. “ …about fishing. Though the sport of kings, it’s just what the deadbeat ordered.” Thomas McGuane, 1978 In 1968, after five years in a trout deficient part of Northeast

India, I worked for a consulting company in London who ordered me to the Sinai Desert in Egypt to build a new underground coal mine. Thankfully, I refused to go; so they fired me. Always wanting to go to Western Canada, I hopped on a plane for Calgary and the mining town of Canmore — population 1,000 lucky souls — for an interview as chief engineer of Canmore Mines Limited Walter Riva, the president, offered me the job at $900 a month. Tempted to say yes, instead I answered: “Walter, I had better talk to Avice and make sure she is okay with this.” Walter suggested we look at a piece of riverfront land that I could have for $500. Walking through the bush to the Bow River, I saw mayflies drifting down, with good-sized brown trout sipping them. Fly-fishing was not a high priority for “she who must be obeyed,” but I decided to risk wifely wrath (not for the first time) and go back to Walter’s truck. “You know Walter I’m sure my wife is going to be happy here.”

the Oldman flowing off the eastern slopes of the Rockies. The clear, green-tinted water, the riffles and pools, the waterfalls and the canyons were astounding. Cutthroat trout aplenty, often willing to take a dry fly, could be seen, stalked, sometimes caught, but always released. I began to appreciate the unspoiled wilderness areas from which these lovely waters flowed, whilst also realising how this dream could end if we did not keep a watchful eye on timber extraction, mining, drilling and development. If 68 years of fly fishing has taught me anything, it is that the waters we love are fragile and easily destroyed by incompetent management, ignorance and, ultimately, greed,— all of which seem to proliferate in our “modern world.” “ Greedy little minds are ever busy turning landscapes into slag heaps, freeways and shopping malls, a perversion they zealously pursue under the ragged banner of progress.” Sheridan Anderson, The Curtis Creek Manifesto, 1978

To arrive in Alberta and discover that, for the price of a licence, I could fish any water in the province. This surely was what nature intended — rivers and streams were never intended to be owned and commercialized, as in Great Britain and Europe.

Now, well into my eighties, a carbon fibre rod has replaced the tank aerial of 1946, though I still have my first real fly rod made of split cane. Battered and bruised, its wrappings frayed and ferrules loosened, I will keep it for a while yet, for a treasured rod, like a good friend, cannot be replaced. I still use fly reels made in Great Britain 40 years ago, with a

Back then, the Bow was a fine river with a good population of brown trout. Soon, I found out the value of small, blue winged olives on cool cloudy days and of grasshoppers and ants on hot windy days. I would walk up the game trails on the Mt. Rundle side for three or four kilometres then return in pitch darkness. There were only three fly fishermen in town with 13 km of river to share. I would mark trout over 15 inches long with a tiny identifying cut on the adipose fin and soon calculated that half of the fish I caught were trout I had netted and released up to four times. “George” was a particular favourite since he rose in the same place, at the same time, for three years.

click drag that screams like a banshee when a good fish runs hard. Two years ago this ancient reel landed my biggest trout ever, 11 and a half pounds on a four-pound leader; a fish that led me on a merry chase through 200 yards of white water.

Gradually, though, fishing on the Bow deteriorated; perhaps too many fishermen or perhaps siltation. Many trout were there still, but most were quite small. Then Gary Ellenton, a fishing buddy, introduced me to streams in Alberta like the Highwood, the Livingstone and

I fish mainly with the Two Garys, Ellenton and Anderson, both of them spectacularly crazy about fly fishing. Ellenton, about my age, who, born and raised in Alberta, loves the same streams he fished as a boy and, when we fish together, spends half of his time sitting on a rock, contemplating the stunning beauty of the water and our surroundings. Anderson was born and raised in South Africa, and, after 28 years fishing and playing football in the United States, he saw the light, arrived in Canmore with Kay for a week’s vacation, and has been here for 10 years. He levered me down a steep cliff face to fish the Livingstone River last year and, equally importantly, hauled me back out at the end of a long day.

recipe

SPICED CHICKPEA WRAP

words + photos: Amy Victoria Wakefield

INGREDIENTS

Spiced chickpeas: 1 tbsp grape seed oil 3 cups canned chickpeas 1 ½ tbsp lemon juice ½ tbsp lime juice 1 tsp Tamari 1 ½ tsp Canadian maple syrup dFD 1 tsp garlic powder 2 tsp smoked paprika 2 tsp ground cumin ½ tsp cayenne pepper

The dressing:

t’s worth adding extra weight to your backpack if it means lunch on the summit is as good as it is at home. Keep the dressing separate and drizzle it on when you’re ready to nom.

DIRECTIONS

1. Heat up oil on med-high heat. Grape seed oil has a high heat tolerance. 2. Add drained chickpeas and fry ‘em up until they turn golden and start to jump around in the pan. This takes about three to four minutes. 3. Meanwhile, mix the maple syrup, Tamari and lemon juice in a mason jar. 4. When those chickpeas are jumping and golden, pour the mixture from the mason jar over the chickpeas and let it absorb while stirring. 5. Turn off heat, sprinkle in the dry spices, and stir it up.

2 tbsp warm water 1 ½ tbsp lemon juice ¼ cup tahini 1 ½ tbsp rice vinegar 1 tbsp grape seed oil 1 ½ tsp Tamari 1 tsp Sriracha 1-3 cloves of garlic The rest: Spinach Thinly sliced cucumber Carrot ribbons Fresh mozzarella sliced 4 large wraps of your choice

SERVING

Grab “the rest” and make up a wrap with a little bit of everything including the chickpeas. Drizzle with tahini, wrap it up, put it in a bag with an elastic, and put it in the middle of your pack where it’s cool for safekeeping until lunchtime. Enjoy! For more recipe ideas visit hike365.org or follow on Instagram @hikes365

bushcraft SUMMER

COME

2015

BABY

LIGHT my

FIRE BUILDING A FIRE IN THE BACKCOUNTRY BY ERIN CIPOLLONE PHOTOS BY DANE ULSIFER

how -to

he word bushcraft likely conjures visions of being dropped out of a plane onto a hostile landscape with only a sewing kit and your bare-knuckle brawling skills to keep you alive. The term has been in use for centuries by colonizers, explorers and the military, but was recently popularized in Canada thanks to the reality TV show Survivorman, which follows a wilderness expert’s bid to stay alive while navigating remote locations with only his wits and minimal equipment. Here in the Rockies, Dave and Brenda Holder of Mahikan Trails are practicing a kinder, gentler, more accessible bushcraft. Bushcraft can be a means to connect with our natural surroundings – an alternative way to be in nature rather than the usual hiking, biking, skiing, etc. In this issue of Highline, Dave Holder walks us through how to build a fire in the backcountry.



HOW

BUILD

FIRE

THE

BACKCOUNTRY

plan ahead Be Prepared: the motto of the Boy Scouts and Girl Guides. To Holder, that means carrying his “fire bag” of tricks – for the rest of us, pack at least three methods of lighting a fire: matches, a lighter and Dave’s favourite, a ferrocerium rod, which is easily purchased at Canadian Tire and provides a shower of sparks when scraped against hard metal. Also pack cotton wool found at any drug store or in the dressings of a First Aid kit.

location + prep Holder advises choosing an open area without any low tree branches that risk creating a larger-than-intended fire. Ideally, pick a spot with wind blowing through to assist the movement of the flames. Once a good piece of real estate is located, clear away the first few layers of the forest floor in an area about 30 centimetres square.

location + prep Gather wood ranging from matchstick-thick to leg-thick. Potential sources are the low, dead branches of spruce trees or entire dead pine trees. Once all the wood needed for the fire is collected, start construction on the beast. For the base, Holder uses a Siberian fire lay – essentially a raft of branches about 2.5 centimetres in diameter each. On top of the raft, build two walls of thin branches in an inverted V shape, then fill the centre with kindling such as fine grass.

3 58

Spread out the cotton wool and, using matches, a lighter or a “ferro” rod, ignite it and hold the flame to the teepee of kindling. In place of cotton wool, Holder says any “fluffy” material found in nature can be used. Once the V of branches is lit, the wind will carry the flames through the wood. Fuel the blaze by slowly piling on wood. Start with matchstick-thick pieces, move on to pencil-thick, then finger-, arm- and finally legthick logs.

Kick back + get toasty Next up, gather around and enjoy the crackling warmth of a well-built master-ofbushcraft fire. If friends are present, ask them to crack you a beer because the evening just got a whole lot more enjoyable.

Extinguish the blaze Depending how long the fire raged, you’ll either be left with a pile of ashes… or a fire. Pour water on the fire. Don’t have water? Pee on the fire. Separate the logs and make sure they are fully extinguished. Stir up the ground around the fire and feel it with your hand. If there are any warm spots, pour water on them. Don’t have water? Pee on them. Warm spots could potentially rekindle the fire.

CALL BEFORE YOU GO?

Depending on the park and the current fire risk, campfires may or may not be allowed while "random camping." Make sure to check with the following contacts before heading out: Parks Canada at 1-888-773-8888, Alberta Parks at 1-866-427-3582. albertafirebans.ca

Light the fire + make it grow

Next issue: how to pee on demand in front of a group.

events

 SLED ISL AND

June 24-28 // Calgary Sled Island aims to open up as much of Calgary’s downtown core as possible and fill it with as many types of people as possible using the appreciation of thoughtful, fun music as the impetus to get together. We can dig it. Tickets here: bit.ly/1B6mgbJ.  

SUMMER STREE T FESTIVAL

Late June to end of August // Revelstoke

SUMMER ARTS FESTIVAL

June 2-August 29 // Banff

Quite possibly one of the best music festivals known to man, every night locals gather at Grizzly Plaza to embrace a range of unique artists — all performing live at the local bandstand. You read right — a bandstand. Mingle, eat ice cream, dance in the streets and let loose. Details about the Summer Street Festival and performance listings are available at bit.ly/1KeP7Tw.

The Banff Centre has been running their Summer Arts Festival since 1933, showcasing an array of elite performances that encompass all aspects of the arts from dance, opera and theatre, to folk and classical music, literary readings, films and Indigenous arts. Highlights for 2015 include: Royal Wood, Blue Rodeo, and the Art of Time Ensemble. Check the website to keep up-to-date with artist announcements and ticket information. banffcentre.ca.

 MOTION NOTION



July 23-27 // Golden If electronic music is what you’re looking for this summer, head on over to Golden for the Motion Notion festival which celebrates everything the genre has to offer from music to art, as well as a supreme love for the great outdoors. Check out the lineup at motionnotion.com.

PERFORMANCE IN THE PARK

June 19-20 // Banff Hello, 9-1-1? Yes, we’ve got a Joel Plaskett Emergency on our hands! He’s in Banff with Matt Andersen & the Mellotones, along with K-OS, Rural Alberta Advantage and Hannah Georgas. We’re a little worried we won’t be able to handle dancing for two days straight at Performance in the Park. Send help and get your tickets at bit.ly/1EdfTDx.

 CANMORE FOLK MUSIC FESTIVAL

August 1-3 // Canmore



Treat yourself to the sweet crooning of folk artists from far and wide, including Martin Sexton, Mike Farris, Bahamas, and Amelia Curran, while taking a leisurely stroll through the global artisan village at the Canmore Folk Music Festival. Buy your tickets at canmorefolkfestival.com while you still can!

N AT IO N A L A B O RI GIN A L DAY

June 20 // Jasper Sample fresh bannock and bush tea while taking in traditional dancing and drumming at the annual National Aboriginal Day celebration in Jasper National Park. The colourful traditional regalia will be sure to catch your eye and melt your heart. Go to bit.ly/1Fiy8vt for more info.

***Pro tip: be sure to grab a pint at the Highline Magazine Pub Stage at the Miner’s Hall, sponsored by yours truly!

 WAPITI MUSIC FESTIVAL

August 7-8 // Fernie

OF EV ERY B OTTLE SOLD SUPPO RTS LOCAL ARTS & CUL TURE

What’s not to love about indie music, hosted in a beautiful mountain town in a park that is bordered by the rushing waters of the majestic Elk River? With acts the like of The Harpoonist & The Axe Murderer and Lovecoast playing? If you answered nothing, then you would be absolutely, 100 per cent correct. Just do it, trust us. Go to wapitimusicfestival.com for tix.

 T HE JA SPER HERITAGE RO D EO

August 12-15 // Jasper Despite the historical significance that outfitting companies have here in the Rockies, when you think of summer festivals in the mountains, a rodeo isn’t usually the first thing that pops into your mind. The Jasper Heritage Rodeo changes that by celebrating mountain rodeo culture since 1926. Get your tickets here: bit.ly/1FmzMNH.

 CANMORE HIGHL AND GAMES

September 5-6 // Canmore To kilt or not to kilt? Regardless of your garment selection, it’s time to get your Celtic on at the 25th anniversary Canmore Highland Games where participants demonstrate skills in a range of events from piping and drumming, to traditional dance and the ever-popular heavy sport. More info at canmorehighlandgames.ca.

 G RIZ Z LY C A N M O RE U LT R A M A R AT H O N

October 11 // Canmore Get this — the Grizzly Canmore Ultra Marathon and Relay is one of Canada’s largest and most popular Ultras. And!…this event sold out in 2014 with 1,300 spandex- and costume-clad trail runners, making for some bigtime energy and hilarious people-watching. Get ahead of the pack by signing up for the 50km solo or two or five person relay categories. Visit grizzlyevents.ca for more information.

KEEP AN EYE OUT FOR HIGHLINE MAGAZINE NAKED NUT BROWN ALE. T HIS SUMMER AT BA NF F AV E BRE WIN G C O. banffavebrewingco.ca

FREE ART

PHOTO BY JEREMIAH MARSH  jeremiahmarsh.com 62

 jeremiahbanff

Where community meets creativity

Canmore’s New Community Arts Centre Grand opening September 25-27!

WE ARE PARTNERING WITH HIGHLINE TO MAKE ARTSPLACE YOUR HUB FOR MOUNTAIN ARTS EXPLORE, DISCOVER, and CELEBRATE the adventure of art by matching your interests, experience and creative spirit with a full range of classes, workshops, performances, films and exhibits.

GET A SNEAK PEEK THIS AUGUST! SUMMER ARTS CAMPS 2015 FUN ~ IMAGINATIVE ~ HANDS-ON painting - drawing - sculpture - eco-art - ceramics printing - sewing - pottery - drama movement - music - architecture & design Ages 4 to 18 – Limited Space, Register NOW!

Jeff Kovitz, QC artsPlace - 950 8 Ave., Canmore (the old library building) ~ 403.609.2623