Mountain Life – Rocky Mountains - Fall/Winter 2023/2024 by Mountain Life Media

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TABLE of CONTENTS UPFRONT P.15 Editors' Message: Outta Sight P.16 Behind the Photo: Shoulder Season P.19 Know Your Neighbour: Caz Vary

DEPARTMENTS

P.46

Losing Blue

P.65

Trail Mix

P.68

Gallery

P.75

Gear Shed

P.82

Back Page

FEATURES P.20 Doug Ward’s Receding Lines

Big Mountain Skiing in a Warming World P.32 We All Need Each Other

Lessons in Travel from the Trans Canada Trail P.52 L’Impossible

Teamwork Makes the Dream Work on the Freeride World Tour P.59 Ski Mo, Not Less

A Beginner Ski Mountaineer Goes All-In On the Uptrack

ON THIS PAGE Purple haze. Chuck Morin floats on a sea of end-of-day clouds and intersects snow and sky in the Revelstoke backcountry, B.C. RYAN CREARY ON THE COVER Father and son, Matt and Ben Parkin, deepening their turns and connection in the Selkirk wilderness. AGATHE BERNARD

In the spirit of respect and truth, we honour and acknowledge that Mountain Life Rocky Mountains is published in the traditional Treaty 7 Territory which includes the ancestral lands of the Stoney Nakoda First Nations of Bearspaw, Chiniki and Wesley, the Tsuut’ina First Nation, the Blackfoot Confederacy First Nations of Siksika, Kainai, and Piikani, and the Métis Nation of Alberta, Region 3. We acknowledge the past, present, and future generations of these Nations who continue to lead us in stewarding this land, as well as honour their knowledge and cultural ties to this place.

Banff Centre is the only place you can wear hiking boots to the opera.

PUBLISHERS Kristy Davison Jon Burak Todd Lawson Glen Harris

kristy@mountainlifemedia.ca jon@mountainlifemedia.ca todd@mountainlifemedia.ca glen@mountainlifemedia.ca

EDITOR Kristy Davison

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CREATIVE & PRODUCTION DIRECTOR, DESIGNER Amélie Légaré

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MANAGING EDITOR Erin Moroz

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DIRECTOR OF MARKETING, DIGITAL & SOCIAL Sarah Bulford

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CONTRIBUTORS Agathe Bernard, Jeremy Bernard, Ryan Creary, Corrie DiManno, Dan Evans, Meghan Fenton, Andrew Findlay, Eric Frigon, Rob Heule, Kevin Hjertaas, Will Lane, Maxime Légaré-Vézina, Bruno Long, John Marriott, Maur Mere, Erin Moroz, Steve Ogle, Kenna Ozbick, Bjarne Salen, Kristin Schnelten, Cody Shimizu, Georgi Silckerodt, Laura Szanto, Dianne Whelan.

SALES & MARKETING Kristy Davison Jon Burak Todd Lawson Glen Harris

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Published by Mountain Life Media, Copyright ©2023. All rights reserved. Publications Mail Agreement Number 40026703. Tel: 604 815 1900. To send feedback or for contributors guidelines email kristy@mountainlifemedia.ca. Mountain Life Rocky Mountains is published every October and May and circulated throughout the Rockies from Revelstoke to Calgary and Jasper to Fernie. Reproduction in whole or in part is strictly prohibited. Views expressed herein are those of the author exclusively. To learn more about Mountain Life, visit mountainlifemedia.ca. To distribute Mountain Life in your store please email Kristy at kristy@mountainlifemedia.ca.

OUR COMMITMENT TO THE ENVIRONMENT Mountain Life is printed on paper that is Forest Stewardship Council ® (FSC ®) certified. FSC ® is an international, membership-based, non-profit organization that supports environmentally appropriate, socially beneficial and economically viable management of the world’s forests. Mountain Life is PrintReleaf certified. It measures paper consumption over time automatically reforested at planting sites in Canada.

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EDITORS' MESSAGE

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JOHN MARRIOTT

Outta Sight It's that time of year again: Mother Nature is layering up, slipping into her shiny winter onesie and, this year, an earexposing, longshoreman, hipster toque. The lacy layers she wore in the fall deepen into puffy white down, beckoning us to the hills; to connect with nature’s magic and with ourselves, to bust out of that cozy spot by the fire and get amongst the white stuff. The Outta Sight issue of Mountain Life is a collection of stories about finding the extraordinary in the everyday of winter; the hidden treasures, small miracles, the overlooked, unsung heroes. Read about how the avi techs at Kicking Horse Mountain Resort work tirelessly behind the scenes to pull off a Freeride World Tour stop; smile and wave at the back of the pack as a first-timer takes on skimo; gape at big mountain ski lines with Kevin Hjertaas then strap on two sticks and translate that into your own adventure; consider new science about the changing colour of alpine lakes and what it means to lose nature’s mic drop; chuckle at the unnecessary just-for-fun escapades of a couple of Bow Valley kids in Behind the Photo; and think of a way to leave your mark like Vrato and Lada on the Back Page. Your task, should you choose to accept it: find inspiration amongst the pages of this mag, and hey–it doesn't matter if no one’s watching. In fact: don’t take a selfie at the summit, and put the GoPro away. Do it just for you. For the feeling you get playing in nature. Do it for the core memories. Then warm up a cup of cocoa, and read about some of the MVPs out there making tracks in the snow this winter. Stay warm, stay curious, and remember to layer up. –Kristy and Erin

MEGHAN FENTON

BEHIND THE PHOTO

Canmore locals Lou Panning-Osendarp and Dexter Bateman grew up skiing together and dreaming big together. While ripping it up as members of the Rocky Mountain Freeriders, the pair often skied under and launched off the well-known Tombstone feature at Lake Louise Ski Resort. Then as mountain kids do, they started to consider combining a couple of the valley’s most popular pastimes: a first ascent of Tombstone and a springtime huck. Five years in the making, the ideal conditions finally materialized in April 2022 and the pair contacted photographer Meghan Fenton to record their shenanigans: Dexter claimed the FA of Tombstone while Lou backflipped over him. The result? Shoulder season personified.

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Caz Vary.

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Bus Driver Barbie With wild, blonde hair usually tucked under a hat or helmet, this charismatic and hardcore Barbie’s job is just bus, bike and snowboard. She’s as fierce as she is fun-loving and she’s equal parts playful and patient. Originally from Saint-Basile-le-Grand, QC, Caroline “Caz” Vary first went west when she was 20 years old to snowboard in Whistler, British Columbia. Then, she stayed on this side of the country because of mountain biking. And in the last decade she’s learned how to drive an ice explorer at the Columbia Icefields, a ski shuttle in Japan, a garbage truck in Canmore and a Roam Public Transit bus throughout the Bow Valley. “Transportation is my passion,” she says, adding it’s fulfilling to be a part of someone’s day by helping to take them from A to B. In a traditionally male-dominated industry, Caz also talks about having to earn the green light from some of her Ken co-workers early in her career. “Driving is a bit of a boy’s club, I had to prove myself and I did.” But she said this sentiment is changing because of organizations like the Town of Canmore (shout-out to the solid waste operators!) and Roam, where they pride themselves on fostering a diverse workforce and inclusive workplace. Currently Roam’s transit system lead, Caz has been a driving force behind the organization since 2018. Through her role, she teaches new drivers the ‘pull cord’ ropes and supports them in navigating roadblocks as they get fully up to speed. She is especially encouraging of women becoming drivers: “Women drive differently,

and I love hearing their perspectives on how they drive; they are inquisitive during training too. Women put their own touch on driving.” Caz’s own touch to the job is staying calm amidst all of the moving pieces, or rather, pieces stuck in traffic or stranded on the side of the road. (This coming from the kid who attached her Barbie dolls to garbage bags before tossing them off the roof, pretending they were parachuting.) She finds her Zen by focusing on the problem(s) in front of her, finding solutions alongside the team and then going for a ride on the trails after work to decompress. “I’m an overthinker. My brain doesn’t really stop. The only thing that makes me not think about anything is mountain biking.” Caz always says ‘yes’ to adventures, particularly if it involves a trip to a backcountry hut with friends and fondue. She’s a selfproclaimed open book with a spicy personality who cares a lot about her buds. “It’s hard to explain but friends are your family in the mountains, they are your emergency contact. You look at friendships differently, you need to have those ‘ride or die’ friends here. And I’m really lucky to have mine.” Usually rockin’ a pair of Blundstone boots year-round and often with a pair of overalls when it’s chilly, Caz recently went through a pink phase: her ski jacket, her sheets and curtains—and even her hair—were rose-coloured. “Anyone can be a Barbie, you just have to find the right one.” –Corrie DiManno 19

Doug Ward’s

Receding Lines Ski guide, Kevin Hjertaas, ponders the changing of three classic Rockies ski lines in a warming world and what it means for the future of big mountain skiing.

words :: Kevin Hjertaas

Kevin Hjertaas in 3/4 Couloir above Moraine Lake.

BRUNO LONG

Every mountain sport has its cutting edge, its outer limits: backpackers look to FKT (fastestknown-time) fast-packers for inspiration or gear insights, mountain bikers with no interest in massive airs benefit from equipment created first for extreme athletes, and generations of armchair mountaineers have been stirred to more humble adventures by the exploits of bold alpinists pushing the boundaries of risk and reward. During the ‘70s, ‘80s and ‘90s, Doug Ward pushed those boundaries for Canadian skiers by bringing the European style of extreme skiing, known for its unthinkably steep descents climbed with mountaineering techniques and skied with flair in often firm, unforgiving snow conditions, to the Rocky Mountains. He laid first tracks down numerous local faces and couloirs, but three stand out and remain some of the most sought-after descents anywhere: the 3/4 Couloir, the Aemmer Couloir and the Skyladder. Years later, with all the advances in ski technology and technique, they still give accomplished skiers something to aspire to; and for beginners working towards their first blue run, an outer marker for context. Most skiers will never attempt them, which makes sense, they have all proven fatal multiple times over, but these three lines show how mountains are changing, what’s left behind to challenge us and where we’ll find inspiration in the future. I came to the Rocky Mountains to chase Doug Ward’s legacy. One of the cornerstones of the life I’ve built here is the inspiration I gained from his skiing exploits. But decades have passed and the steep mountain faces he first skied, the ones on which snow just barely clings, are melting. I’m left to wonder what that means for Ward’s legacy and for those of us still chasing it.

The 3/4 Couloir:

Abridged

From Moraine Lake, thousands of sightseers take in the grandeur of the Valley of the Ten Peaks every summer, a landscape that lifts your spirit as it dwarfs you. Most are content with that beauty from a distance, but for some, the knowledge that climbers are up there summiting these peaks and forging paths through those giants inspires them. For skiers there’s an obvious line that draws attention and ignites imagination: the 3/4 Couloir. Named for its placement between peaks 3 and 4 in the Valley of the Ten Peaks, the chute features in hundreds of postcards, paintings, tourist’s photos and even the old 20-dollar bill. Framed above tranquil Moraine Lake, the imposing wall of glacier-capped mountains is cleaved directly down the middle by a hanging ribbon of white. In 1978, Doug Ward, a firefighter from Calgary, and Banffite, Greg Hahn began a new era of steep skiing in the Rockies when they made the first descent of the 3/4 Couloir. Skiers have been trying to catch up to that example ever since. It wasn’t until May 2004 that I finally made my way up the famous chute. I’d ingratiated myself with a mentor named Troy Leahey, who was leading the climb. Hours into the effort, we neared the top, and the pitch pushed back into our faces. The bulging convexity at the top was the steepest slope I’d ever climbed, and I was scared, but lit with excitement. I’d dreamt of this moment since first reading about Ward and Hahn’s descent in Powder Magazine as a teenager. Once on top, with skis attached to my feet, I watched Leahey tiptoe out across that stomach-tightening rollover that links the flat glacier above to the 50-degree drop of the couloir. I was intimidated. We all were. And when Leahey ski-cut the slope and snow rocketed down the mountain, my eyes bulged.

Kevin Hjertaas skating the road up to 3/4.

ROB HEULE

Prudence should have trumped valour. The 3/4 Couloir has proven itself deadly with some frequency since before skiers even looked at it, when only climbers were tempted to use it as access for the peaks above. But I wanted to impress my mentor in that moment, and I dropped in with all the bravado and style I could muster. By the time I pulled up to Leahey in a safe enclave, a quarter of the way down, I was ecstatic. Moments later, a snowboarder who had joined our party when his friends abandoned the climb, slipped out on the first steep turn. He began tumbling and didn’t stop for 300 vertical metres. Right then, on my very first attempt at one of Ward’s lines, I learned how near the highs of this sport are to the lows, how dizzying and swift the contrast can be. But the man’s snowboard stopped him eventually, and though rattled, he was relatively unharmed. Years later, I learned that our experience mirrored Ward’s more than I would have expected. Doug Ward is everything we expect ski heroes to be: fit, handsome and an unending well of energy. He ski raced and competed in moguls (both professionally) before turning to the challenge of the backcountry. Undeniably a gifted skier, he still felt the need to push it in front of his peers in the 3/4, like I did. He recounts, “Greg made these perfect giant slalom turns straight down it. It’s a picture I’ll never forget. I had to try and copy it.” He skied over that upper bulge with all the panache he could, and to this day, it makes him smile. On another occasion in the 3/4 Couloir, a friend who wasn’t entirely invited joined Ward’s team. The young man was on borrowed skis and blew out of them on that steep start. He, too, tumbled the first 300 metres and recounting it, Ward’s smile is replaced by bewildered eyes and shaking head, “He cartwheeled like a doll thrown from a crib.” Like our snowboarder, Ward’s friend walked away and everyone was left to contemplate the tension inherent when joy is so near disaster. Ward recalls, “I skied 3/4 13 times, sometimes solo, but it never got any less intimidating.” Now maybe it has. As the glacier above has receded and shrunk, the entrance bulge, one of the famous couloir’s defining characteristics, has all but disappeared, creating a less intimidating start to the run. In 2021, with a couple of friends, I approached 3/4 from the back side, and as our ski tips inched over the edge, we looked down between them to Moraine Lake, 1,000 metres below; a warped, reverse image of the iconic postcard. But the imposing bulge was gone. We smiled with relieved tension and dropped into a fun, enjoyable run. At the bottom, our cheers echoed off the walls and up the valley. After high-fives, I looked up at the iconic ski line, stoked but wondering, “Is it diminished if it’s any less intimidating?” It’s still impressive and dangerous, but what happens to a legend that becomes easier to repeat?

“There’s a sadness there. It seems an era has passed.” -Doug Ward, 2023

Kevin Hjertaas descending 3/4 Couloir.

BRUNO LONG

“There's a pride there, but with it, there's a humility...I was the lucky guy, and those lines were in.” -Doug Ward, 2023

Aemmer Couloir:

Endures Fraser Sprigings staring down the guts of Aemmer Couloir searching for the bits of powder further down before releasing his edges and dropping in from the icy firm entrance of the couloir. Mount Temple, Lake Louise, AB. RYAN CREARY

From Wiwaxy, the classic beginner slope at Lake Louise, new skiers can easily aspire to dozens of more challenging runs around the resort. Above them though, on the Summit Chair, an expert skier likely looks south towards Mount Temple for similar inspiration. There they see the most iconic chute in the Rockies: the Aemmer Couloir—an elevator shaft through quartzite on the northern shoulder of Temple. It is perhaps the most coveted couloir in the Canadian Rockies, and it was a highly-coveted first descent back in the late ‘70s. “I knew of seven trips that had [attempted but] not made it. A lot of people were trying. It’s all about figuring out the timing and the conditions,” Ward says. Ward made the first successful descent with Kevin Hahn and Bruce Hanson in 1979, and they did it on hard spring snow. “All of those lines I skied from May onwards,” Ward explains. Instead of exposing himself to the avalanche danger of a winter snowpack, he would wait until the snow had melted and refrozen several times and could be trusted. But that meant he had to ski hard, icy slopes up to 55 degrees, where a fall would be uncontrollable and potentially fatal. Last spring, a few friends and I were hunting similar conditions, though not by choice. The sound of our skateboard wheels on asphalt woke wildlife along the Moraine Lake road that morning. The road was still closed for the winter, but a startling heat wave had melted away the snow. We were hoping to find a Ward-style descent on firn

snow somewhere. Firn is snow that has survived through at least one summer but is not yet glacial ice. It’s harder and more stable than winter snow, and there was a time when you could count on firn to keep the Aemmer skiable year-round. Years before, in 2012, I’d made a similar trip on the same dry road but in the fall as a friend and I sought somewhere to ski before winter arrived. We enjoyed a fun adventure-ski in the legendary couloir, but it was a long day, and as we walked the dry pavement in the dark for the second time that day, I swore to bring a skateboard for the trip home if I ever did it again. So that’s what we did last May. Only this time, there would be no skiing. The winter’s meagre snowfall was all but gone and the base of firn snow had shrunk—the anemic snowpack that remained did not look skiable. So we turned around near the base of the couloir and skateboarded home in ski boots along a picturesque mountain road. A month later, no snow was left on the lower third of Aemmer, firn or otherwise, making a Ward-style descent on spring/summer snow impossible for the foreseeable future. Luckily, most skiers today prefer to ski Aemmer in soft wintery snow. It’s more dangerous from an avalanche perspective but also more enjoyable and forgiving to ski or ride. In fact, even as the line has lost firn snow and become slightly narrower, the number of people enjoying it every season has increased. Unlike the 3/4, Aemmer has changed only subtly and lost none of its allure. 25

Skyladder:

Bygone Further north, another of Ward’s iconic lines tells a different story. For the thousands of visitors who drive to the Columbia Icefields every summer, wonders abound. The size of the peaks alone would impress, but draped in broken ice and surrounded by wind-swept alpine, the icefields are awe inspiring. Those who take the time to walk the year-markers which show the great glacier’s recession are left with a different type of awe, a tactile lesson of climate change. Hanging above their heads is the ski mountaineer’s example. “I question if ya think Skyladder goes anymore?” It’s 2022, and Ward is skeptical. “The snowpack is hollowed out and doesn’t have consistent hold on there because portions have deteriorated.” He’s not wrong. Skyladder is disappearing. It’s such a classic that the name alone stirs fantasies: Skyladder on Mount Andromeda. Ward skied it solo in 1996 and the photos were mesmerizing; the face a white blanket drooping over the shoulder of 3,450-metre Andromeda down to the iconic Athabasca Glacier. In 2008, when I finally laid turns down the face, the surroundings were all I’d imagined, with views spread across the continent’s apex. But a lack of snow on the face made it less enjoyable than I’d hoped. We had to skirt the edges due to exposed ice, and wind had crusted the lower run. After years of coveting the line, the reality of it came up short. As seasons passed, Skyladder shrank, and my desire to return faded. I’d written it off entirely until an American ski superhero named Cody Townsend captured the snow world’s attention with his ambition to ski all of the lines featured in the book, 50 Classic Descents of North America. In that glossy coffee table book is a glorious, though already shrunken, picture of Skyladder. In that image, it is 100 per cent a “classic descent.” In the spring of 2022, when Townsend came, it was

LEFT PAGE Skyladder Couloir.

BJARNE SALEN. ABOVE Doug Ward.

DAN EVANS

a scrawny version of itself. But Townsend’s story was too compelling for me to resist; his race to ski all the most iconic lines on the continent first and before they disappeared. So I packed a rope and crampons and drove north for one last day on the fading legend. We awoke in beautiful pre-dawn and made good time, gaining the North Andromeda Glacier easily, where in years past seracs had blocked the glacier and presented a real challenge. Easy travel through the lower rock bands gave way to the upper face, which still showed ice but had carveable styrofoam snow around it. The views remained entirely undiminished. And the skiing was fun. The mood was almost carefree as we traded snapping turns and snapping photos. Soon we were down, and it was time to shoulder skis again to walk the gravel road back as diesel monster buses chugged past, taking tourists onto the shrinking Athabasca Glacier and leaving us in a cloud of dust. One other party skied Skyladder that season. I doubt any have skied it since. As I stare at the Columbia Icefield Centre webcam now, I see for the first time the rock face hidden by Skyladder’s snow and ice all these years. For now, at least, this classic is gone. 27

Full Circle

Kevin Hjertaas (front) and Cody Townsend approaching Skyladder Couloir. BJARNE SALEN

Through the ‘70s, ‘80s and ‘90s, Ward was unbelievably prolific, making numerous first descents all across the Canadian Rockies, like the north face of Mount Stanley, which, though it is changing with thinning ice and receding glacier, gets numerous repeats by happy skiers and boarders every year. In Kananaskis Country, Ward’s descents of mounts Marlborough, Northover, Warrior and Defender are less famous, though impressive all the same. But it’s Mount Joffre that nags at me. An ideal Rocky Mountain north face, it has always held snow from its lower glaciated slopes up its steep triangular face and right to the summit at 3,450 metres. I mention it to Doug in late spring 2023 and he reflects inward, “I still have desires to get out there, too. I haven’t hung them up. But it’s harder now. You have to go further, and with it comes extra risk sometimes… That physical prowess and unending energy isn’t there anymore. Admitting that is a hard thing.” At 64, Ward still skis hard and well. He has more energy than almost anyone I’ve met. But he looks around and sees the future. “You don’t want to fade away. It’s interesting to be in this transition.” Our conversation has circled between the snowpack, his ski lines, his age and his legacy. I’m not sure at that moment which one he’s talking about but as he pauses, I dream of skiing Mount Joffre before it melts much more. When he speaks again, he may be addressing me or thinking aloud, “We’re witnesses to the time we are in.”

JEFF RICHARDS IMAGE BY JACK DAWE

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We All Need Each Other Life and Travel Lessons from Six Years on the Trans Canada Trail words :: Kristin Schnelten

COURTESY OF DIANNE WHELAN

MAXIME LÉGARÉ-VÉZINA

t’s late fall, deep in the dense bush of northern Ontario. Well into her third year trekking the Trans Canada Trail, filmmaker and adventurer Dianne Whelan awakens with a sigh in her frost-covered tent. Stiff and bruised, she prepares herself mentally for what’s ahead—another day of cold-water paddling, another set of arduous, frigid portages. Outside the zippered door, however, that prognosis becomes far worse: What was yesterday a choppy inland lake is now a solid sheet of ice; in the forest, 60 centimetres of cement-like wet snow encases everything. Overwhelmed by her predicament, a stunned Whelan thinks, Holy crap. What are we going to do? A paper map and satellite phone offer a sliver of hope: Her cousin could plow his way through a closed road that intersects with her route only eight kilometres away, but from her frozen-over campsite, reaching that potential rescue seems impossible. For this leg of her trip—a 1,200-kilometre paddle with 168 kilometres of portages, stretching from Thunder Bay all the way into Manitoba—Whelan has enlisted the help of a friend. That one-

in-a-million kind of friend who can easily step away from life for a few weeks and will enthusiastically carry 20-kilogram dry bags across multiple laps of a four-kilometre portage. A friend who, serendipitously, also packed an axe. It may have been a tiny, token axe meant for little more than splitting kindling, but it proves a godsend. Zip-tying it to the end of a ski pole, Whelan’s friend sits in the bow of their canoe, alternately chopping the ice and pulling the canoe forward while Whelan, having switched from her usual double kayak paddle to the wooden one she carries in reserve, chops and paddles from the stern. Every second there is the danger of capsizing into icy water. As if that weren’t enough, the storm has rendered the portages virtually impassable. The sheer weight of snow on tree limbs has bent and collapsed many of them, freezing them into place like an icy web of tangled rebar. It takes seven days of chopping and schlepping to travel those eight kilometres. One swing of an axe, one heave of gear, one brutal slogging metre at a time.

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hen she finally pulled her canoe ashore at mile zero in Victoria, Bristish Columbia, three years later, Dianne Whelan became the first person to complete the Trans Canada Trail—the world’s longest official land-water route. The historic 2021 landing marked the end of a six-year cross-country odyssey, during which she pedaled, paddled, snowshoed, backpacked and skied from the Atlantic to both the Arctic and Pacific Oceans. Amazingly, Whelan’s grassroots journey and the film she was hoping to make of it had no corporate backing and zero sponsors. Her bike was decades old, her canoes and kayaks all borrowed. When she lost a tent (and she lost many), she reached out to friends and family or received help from random strangers on her path (such as the ATV driver who happened upon her on the trail, head in her hands over a lost tent, and gifted his tent to her on the spot).

“It isn’t your typical adventure story,” she says. “It was a journey of the spirit. Not in a religious sort of way, but in a ‘follow your heart’ kind of way. There’s an old saying, ‘When you commercialize the sacred, it loses its meaning.’” Thus, given the particularly personal nature of the trip and her age—50 at the time—Whelan had thought, Let’s just try it this way. The result? Both the journey and its documentation were paid for by human kindness. The generosity of Whelan’s own mother had planted the seed for the project. “My mom always wanted to walk the Trans Canada Trail; in 1995 she donated to it on behalf of each member of my family,” she recalls. “Then in 2014 I found myself at a place where I had the opportunity to do it. I had just finished a decade-long film project, gone through a divorce, and my dog died. So all the things

ABOVE

MAXIME LÉGARÉ-VÉZINA. BELOW

COURTESY OF DIANNE WHELAN

OUR ALPINE WAY OF

[Rudolf Aemmer and Catharine Whyte hiking]. [ca.1930]. Peter and Catharine Robb Whyte fonds. V683 / III / A / 1 / PD - 1. Archives and Special Collections,

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that would have tied me to one place were gone. And I’ve always gone to nature to sort myself out when I feel like I’m losing the sense of purpose in my life, or I’ve missed the mark or made a wrong turn.” She spent that winter in her family’s farmhouse on the east coast, training and planning in isolation. Orchestrating a July 2015 start in St. John’s, Newfoundland, she estimated she’d reach Victoria in two years. The reality was a six-year commitment few of us can fathom. Whelan kicked off the journey by riding, and ultimately pushing, her loaded mountain bike over an abandoned railroad bed, taking 10 days to cover what she’d hoped to do in two: “I realized, Wow, the mind doesn’t age. It still thinks you’re 20 or 25, and it remembers that last big trip you took. But your body is a reality check.” Catching herself obsessing over her elapsed time and the number of kilometres she’d covered, she realized she had to rethink the entire thing. “I was like, What the fuck are you doing? This schedule is a self-created reality. You planned your little trip, and now instead of just surrendering to the moment you’re focused on being behind. So I thought, You just gotta let it go, man—and burn that schedule.” Realizing it was time to connect and not to race, she “took off the rabbit suit and put on the turtle shell,” finding that connection in countless interactions with strangers, extended visits in Indigenous communities and long hours spent simply sitting with nature. “Probably the biggest change that happened to me over the six years out there was that my resonance changed,” Whelan reflects.

MAXIME LÉGARÉ-VÉZINA

“The animals got closer and closer and closer, and my quiet time of being in observation with them got longer and longer and longer.” What started off as butterflies and squirrels became moose and grizzlies, even stumbling upon an indifferent mother and her cubs, quietly devouring berries adjacent to the trail. Whelan credits her slight hearing impairment for some of those close encounters, especially at night. The animals didn’t sense fear coming from her tent, because she simply wasn’t hearing them. “Fast and impatient is the energy of predators, and animals pick up on our vibration,” she muses. “I think our ancient ancestors had that sense; it was part of living with nature. It’s what happens to you when you spend a long time away from cities with your feet on the ground. Everything finally quiets down, and you strip your life down to the most basic elements of water, sleep, food and just always searching for home.”

“This schedule is a selfcreated reality. You planned your little trip, and now instead of just surrendering to the moment you’re focused on being behind… You just gotta let it go, man— and burn that schedule.”

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ome, however, was an abstraction. With her house in B.C. rented out, Whelan spent most of those years either on the trail or pausing close to it. At some point she realized self-care was the most important task on her mission. “If I got tired, I had no problem staying in my tent for a couple of days, and just doing some extra cooking, journaling, and then carrying on. Or if the weather was really rough, I’d wait for nature to calm down. It’s not like I was going to go out there to fight a battle I was going to lose.” She spent a week on a couch in Manitoba, waiting out a storm. A handful of times she left the trail entirely: a two-week visit to her ailing mother, a six-week residency in B.C. For the first two winters, she was out there plodding through the snow, but a chance encounter would see her shift in later years to sheltering in place for most of December and January. “I met a Cree woman who said, ‘You say you’re out here trying to do it the old way, but we didn’t travel in that kind of weather. In the winter months, you take your lesson from the bear. What does the bear do? It hibernates. It’s a time of rejuvenation, a time of yin, time to rebuild, sew your buttons. It’s a time to fix your pack; it’s a time to get your maps; it’s a time to prepare.’”

Whelan credits similar friendly advice for saving her life multiple times: The friends who insisted she buy a scrounged satellite phone and helped her find second-hand dry suits for winter paddles; the stranger who taught her about cowboy cooking (prepping and eating dinner early, up-river from your campsite); her reluctant acceptance of a gun before entering grizzly country. One morning, on a tiny island north of the Arctic Circle, she awoke to her partner Louisa’s terrified screams. An aggressive bear had entered their site—and it didn’t appreciate shooing and banging. Still scrambling in the tent, Whelan encouraged Louisa, who was nearly paralyzed with fear, to fire a birdshot warning. The grizzly advanced. When a second warning caused the bear to momentarily sit, Whelan frantically struck camp. (As isolated as they were, diving for the canoe and leaving their gear and food behind would’ve been deadly.) Louisa kept the gun trained on the slowly advancing bear, even as they eventually backed into the canoe and paddled away. They later discovered an earlier paddler had a similar encounter on the same island, but was forced to choose the canoe-dive option. That decision had apparently taught the bear a memorable lesson: Scare them off, and you will feast.

ABOVE MAXIME LÉGARÉ-VÉZINA BELOW COURTESY OF DIANNE WHELAN

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She admits to making mistakes of her own: “Oh, I’m your classic fool for sure. And I don’t mind being that person… If I can do this journey, anybody can. I’m not a super athlete, or super anything. I’m losing my tents. My shoes are coming apart. I don’t have it together or figured out at all. It’s just with human kindness and perseverance that I somehow made it to the end.” And yet, Whelan can lay claim to six years in the wild without injury, without illness, without a single search-and-rescue call. No matter how dire the situation. It was something she was determined not to have to do, especially as a woman. “As a woman, when you’re out there doing things, sometimes you’ve got to do it even better than you might have to [otherwise], just because you don’t want to hear, ‘Oh, you shouldn’t have done that.’ I’m trying to break those ceilings, not bring them down on us.”

Whelan can lay claim to six years in the wild without injury, without illness, without a single search-and-rescue call. As a woman in the film world, Whelan knows firsthand about glass ceilings. Consequently, she filled key creative positions on this project with women, from executive producer and senior editor to sound mixer and director. “A lot of extremely talented men have

worked on this film. I love them, and I’m grateful for the work they’ve done. But as a woman director, and as the owner of this film, I found myself with the rare opportunity to be able to make those kinds of decisions. And this film is really about my love for Mother Earth. And you know, history is a line, right? But herstory is a circle. I wanted this one to be herstory.” And that story is, in the end, one of community, from one end of the trail to the other. “I intentionally chose subjects in my film that represent all political walks of life, because kindness doesn’t have a political party,” says Whelan. “And everybody’s kindness is what got me through this.” Especially in Indigenous communities, where she made a concerted effort to stop, listen and learn. “When an Indigenous community is having a powwow, they’re telling everybody, ‘Come on down!’ And that reconciliation isn’t a political deal. It’s friendship. It’s getting to know each other, holding each other’s babies,” she says. “That’s how we unpack this stuff. Through kinship. Not through policy.” Next spring, when she releases 500 Days In The Wild (a wildly underestimated title chosen early on the trail), Whelan will wrap up a decade of her life dedicated to a single project. She thinks of both the journey and film as pilgrimage, one with three themes: adventure, reconciliation and healing. “It’s a film where a person who is overwhelmed by the world today finds hope and meaning again, mostly through connection and the realization that radical individuality is actually an illness in our society,” she says. “It’s something I romanticized most of my life, but now I realize what a crock of shit that is. We all need each other.”

MAXIME LÉGARÉ-VÉZINA

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Oct 28 – Nov 5 2023

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FILM

Blue hues in the Stikine Ranges of Northern B.C.

AGATHE BERNARD

LOSING BLUE A film by: Director: Leanne Allison Writer: J.B. Mackinnon

words :: Erin Moroz

Decades of research by a husband-and-wife team of limnologists from Franklin & Marshall College in Pennsylvania has revealed the dimming of a Canadian icon. From across the globe, people flock to stand on the shores of impossibly blue-green mountain lakes— however the blue is fading. Losing Blue, an artistic translation of the couple’s scientific research and the newest film by Canmore filmmaker, Leanne Allison, will screen at this year’s Banff Centre Mountain Film & Book Festival. Blue. The most uncommon colour in nature. The brilliant turquoise of Lake Louise; the opaque aquamarine of Peyto Lake; an otherworldly glow firmly rooted in the geographical epochs of our planet. The interplay of nature and time delivers a spectacle, and people from around the world come to bear witness to what seems like an impossibility. How can a body of water deliver a cleansing breath? How can a thing so utterly terrestrial be so ethereal? You may know, or perhaps you don’t, where these brilliant blues come from—or rather, where they go. The lakes are a time capsule for glacial melt, millennia-old bedrock ground down into a fine rock flour by the movement of primordial ice. The trickle of melting glacier ice in the spring and summer then delivers the ground particles of bedrock to the lakes where the flour becomes suspended particles in the water column. Lake water absorbs the warmer colours of the rainbow spectrum and the cooler blue and green colours remain. The glacial flour reflects these colours back to our eyes, scattered and brilliant and at times making the ancient lakes appear to glow.

THE SCIENCE But the lakes are changing, constantly. The depth of blue, the brilliance of the reflected rock flour shifts and reconfigures by time of day, by season of the year. The trickle of glacier melt ebbs and flows with the warming atmosphere, summer versus winter, day versus night. Only that’s changing too—for the first time this past winter, scientists from the Centre of Hydrology and Coldwater Laboratory in Canmore recorded loss of ice over the winter season in one of the world’s most studied glaciers: the Peyto Glacier. Located 90 kilometres north of the Banff townsite and part of the Wapta Icefield, the Peyto was declared a “reference glacier”—a harbinger if you will— by the UN decades ago. In August 2022, John Pomeroy, director of Canmore’s Coldwater Lab, and his team set up their weather stations and ultrasonic depth

transducer on the Peyto to record the change in surface elevation and thus calculate a melt rate. The exceptionally long, warm fall of 2022 saw the glacier melting into October and when Pomeroy and his team returned in June, the toe of the Peyto had lost three metres in thickness. Loss of glacier ice is not news, per se, but the way the loss is occurring is also changing. Soot from rampant wildfires accumulates on glaciers, absorbing heat and accelerating the pace of melt, as does newly observed algae blooms whose filaments hold the soot in place year after year. What this ultimately means is the otherworldly glow of glacierfed lakes is fleeting, says American limnologist, Janet Fischer. Fischer and her husband and collaborator, Mark Olson, have been studying lakes in the Canadian Rockies for 18 years. To draw attention to the implications of shrinking glaciers on lake colour, they enlisted the help of Canmore filmmaker Leanne Allison (whom you may remember from Being Caribou, Finding Farley and Bear 71). Allison was charged with turning the science into art, with a few stipulations from the scientists: they didn’t want to be in the film, and they didn’t want the film to be a run-of-the-mill science documentary. “These lakes mean so much more to us than just numbers,” says Fischer. “Our connection to them is personal. It’s become our life’s work. We visit the same lakes year after year and it’s fascinating to document how they’re changing and why.” Their decades’-long research is a family affair, one that saw the couple carting their two kids, now 16 and 22, along on trips deep into the Rockies to study the relationship between lakes and their catchments. Fischer smiles as she recalls her son being packed into Opabin Lake in Yoho National Park and then pushing off in an inflatable boat to collect data as her wee’un napped on the shore. “I feel incredibly fortunate I didn’t have to choose (between my career and motherhood),” she says. As the atmosphere warms and the glaciers shrink then ultimately disappear, lake colours will change. Lakes with abundant vegetation in their catchments will darken and become greener as decomposing plants deposit dissolved organic carbon into the water. Lakes with barren catchments will go through a long period where the settling and loss of rock flour will transform their frigid waters from turquoise to rich sapphire blue. Then as vegetation colonizes the catchment and treelines advance upslope—a process which takes decades according to a 2020 study by ecologist Andrew Trant and others—the sapphire will give way to green, says Olson. The famous iridescent blue-green of the alpine lakes will be a flash in the pan of geological time, something we were lucky to witness. Fischer and Olson estimate their grandchildren will not be so fortunate. 47

THE FILM Lakes are generally born from significant geological events such as volcanic activity or glaciers, and that had Leanne Allison thinking on a different time scale for the film. “We started experimenting with footage and thinking of deep time,” she says. “And (script writer James Mackinnon and I) didn’t need to hit people over the head with global warming,” says Allison, adding that recent climate events such as 2021’s atmospheric river and heat dome and the onslaught of wildfires have made climate change an undeniable reality. The impetus was to slow time down and have viewers really

Luke Wilson at the Drummond Icefield, Banff National Park. ERIC FRIGON

experience the achingly poetic film. “The colour of these lakes makes them universally compelling. Millions of people come to see Lake Louise every year and almost no one knows the colour is disappearing. It makes you wonder, what else are we losing and don’t even know it?” says Allison. “Losing Blue doesn’t tell people what to feel or what to do about climate change. It invites them to wonder what it means to be in the presence of these otherworldly blue-green lakes today. As James writes in the script: Do you see heaven in it? Infinity? What is this feeling? What is this mystery? What would it mean if it was gone?”

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L’ i m p o s s i b l e It takes a blue-sky weather window, decent snow, teamwork and a show-stealing Kodak moment to create a successful Freeride World Tour (FWT) event. Writer, Andrew Findlay, takes us behind the scenes at last year’s tour stop in Golden.

words :: Andrew Findlay

It all came together last February at Kicking Horse Resort when German skier, Max Hitzig, stomped an 80-footer into a boneyard, salt-and-pepper landing near the base of Ozone. The nervy 20-year-old said he had scoped the line three years ago and that it was firmly planted in his mental map of the dream run he envisioned. “I did a back flip because I thought if you jump straight (then the landing looks really far down). But if you do a back flip, 50 per cent of the time you’re looking at the sky,” Hitzig told Mountain Life. So goes the simple logic of a young, big mountain skier at the top of his game. Hitzig’s huck stood out in a competition that saw a fair share of athletes crashing and burning, while others seemed to get lost among the complex rocky spines and convoluted chutes of Ozone, a steep and rarely-opened alpine face on the southwest edge of Kicking Horse’s controlled, inbounds terrain. It was good enough to score a top podium finish for Hitzig and it was also content gold for the tour organizers.

led to faceting and the formation of a poorly bonded layer deep in the snowpack that haunted backcountry skiers, mountain guides and avalanche professionals like Kyle Hale, safety manager for Kicking Horse, all season long. It’s the reason Hale and his team were out on the slopes managing the snowpack as soon as there was enough snow on the ground to move around. The resort has more than 100 avalanche paths spread across five alpine bowls. From a public safety perspective, it’s a big, complex terrain full of cliff bands and steep gullies that will keep insurance adjusters awake at night. From a personal and professional perspective, it’s a fascinating puzzle of terrain management and there’s rarely a dull moment. “No other program in North America has the kind of steep terrain or as much steep terrain that we have here open to the public. And the only reason we’re able to do it is because we highly modify the snowpack,” Hale explains, adding that nearly half of the 45-member snow safety staff (also known as ski patrollers) are certified avalanche professionals. “So, it’s a pretty robust program.”

A COMPLEX SNOWPACK When dozens of skiers travel across the globe and descend on a resort for a five-day competition window, a lot of finger-crossing happens when organizers are dependent on two factors as fickle as snow and mountain weather. If the stars align, it’s beautiful. If they don’t, it’s a bust. But there is much more involved than dumb luck. A mountain of behind-the-scenes planning and preparation starts months before the FWT media circus arrives in town. Last winter’s snowpack presented special challenges. In many parts of the Rockies and Purcell Mountains, hairtrigger instability persisted throughout the season thanks to a cold and dry start to the winter. It LEFT PAGE Max Hitzig laying out the biggest landed backflip in Freeride World Tour history. ABOVE First light on the face of Ozone. CODY SHIMIZU

JEREMY BERNARD

When Hale talks about snowpack modification he means using every weapon in the arsenal to prepare slopes for the public—explosives, ski cutting, side slipping and even boot packing. Kicking Horse is accustomed to dealing with cold temperatures and a shallow snowpack, the two critical factors that contribute to deep snowpack instability. Still, in his 23 years at the resort, Hale says 2022/23 was one of the worst. As testament to this fact, on February 16, just a day before the FWT event, Hale was part of the recovery team that responded to a tragic, snowboarder-triggered size 3.5 avalanche on an uncontrolled out of bounds feature known as Terminator 2.5. It was strong enough to snap oldgrowth spruce and fir trees like they were toothpicks, cracking 115 metres across the convex slope and running nearly one kilometre down the mountainside. One person was partially buried and survived. Two were fully buried and died.

DEADLY THREAT That weak layer lurking deep in the snowpack, which if triggered could have catastrophic consequences, was the threat. In an end-of-season summary, Avalanche Canada said it was the culprit in most of the season’s deadly accidents that claimed 15 victims. Despite the tragedy in the Kicking Horse backcountry, frantic last-minute preparations for the FWT continued. The media was in town and so were the athletes. Tents and Red Bull banners were being erected at the Ozone finish line. For months, Hale and his crew had routinely bombed, side-slipped, ski-cut and bootpacked this feature, as well as the backup venue T (Terminator)1 South to get them ready. It was like performing reconstructive surgery on the snowpack.

In one bombing mission, snow safety staff dropped more than a dozen 12-kilogram charges on Ozone. A stingy snowpack had already forced Kicking Horse and its FWT partner to postpone the event, originally scheduled for January. Just a few days before the event, and despite all this snowpack manipulation, Hale says they were still triggering small size one avalanches on that stubborn weak layer. Now the venue was ready, or as ready as it was humanly possible to make it. A well-timed storm had delivered a welcome 25 centimetres of Purcell powder to the Kicking Horse alpine a few days earlier. “That definitely made all the difference. We had been in there lots, and up until a few weeks before the event we were still not super comfortable with it,” Hale says. “We were concerned that the athletes would be punching through the bed surface and into the rocks, especially on some of the bigger landings. But it also worked in our favour, creating all those avalanches, in that the landing zones were pretty filled in.” As an added stressor, the short-term weather forecast was temperamental, shifting between overcast and low cloud to patches of blue and clearing.

DROPPING IN When the morning of February 17 broke bluebird it was go time. Athletes boarded the gondola early for Eagle’s Eye so they could load the Stairway to Heaven chairlift and boot-pack to the top of Ozone in time for the competition. The atmosphere among spectators gathering along the ridge above Feuz Bowl was electric, in anticipation of watching some of the world’s best going big. The vibe was equally electric as athletes started crossing the finish line. For the first time this season, they were shredding fresh powder—athletes had faced treacherously bony conditions at the two previous events on the tour, in Andorra and Spain. It’s no accident that the FWT returned to Kicking Horse in 2023 for the sixth time. As the only North American stop on the five-destination tour, the resort is in good company with Verbier (Switzerland), Baqueira-Beret (Spain,) Ordino-Arcalis (Andorra) and Fieberbrunn (Austria). Nicolas Hale-Woods, the Swiss founder of the Freeride World Tour, says success in this media-heavy event boils down to three key ingredients: terrain, an expert snow safety team and an enthusiastic local community that puts its heart and soul into it. “The local community makes FWT feel welcome in Golden and we can count on dedicated and passionate volunteers. This makes a big difference.” Jessica Hotter (left) & Justine Dufour-Lapointe (right) posing during face check at FWT23.

JEREMY BERNARD

Leif Mumma sets off an avalanche in an adjacent chute as he lines up a massive drop. CODY SHIMIZU

To say the stoke was high on competition day at Kicking Horse would be an understatement. Spaniard Abel Moga, who crashed out, calls Ozone “a super cool venue but very sharky.” He was jumping up and down and sporting a massive grin after watching Max Hitzig go big. There’s no doubt hitting rocks at speed was in the minds of many athletes but so was the quality of the fresh snow. “The conditions were awesome. It was so much more snow than I expected,” said Justine DufourLapointe, a Canadian mogul skiing Olympian who made her FWT debut in 2023. “We received a little plume of snow last night, so it made it perfect. I knew I had to be careful off the top, like take it easy. But then after that it was all clear for the line that I had in mind and I was confident of the landing.” Dufour-Lapointe’s tight run netted her a respectable fourth place finish in a field of nine pro women. After months of preparation, Kyle Hale admits when the athletes started dropping into Ozone it was hard not to hold his breath, praying that nobody tomahawked into a rock field or blew a big air landing. From the top of Feuz Bowl, across from Ozone it was hard to fully appreciate the speed with which Hitzig descended the steep face before sending that huge, FWT record-breaking backflip that sent fellow competitors and spectators watching from the finish line into a frenzy. “Thankfully there were no train wrecks. It was a great day,” Hale says, with the calm rationality of a

veteran avalanche tech who has seen his share. After competition and awards wrapped up, many competitors were seen shedding their race bibs and grouping up to go exploring the vastness of Kicking Horse’s big mountain playground. After all, fresh pow left un-skied on a blue-sky day in the Purcells is fresh pow wasted. Even the endorphin rush of competition followed by the post-event denouement, wasn’t enough to deter these athletes from indulging in a little frivolity. Like Kyle Hale, FWT’s Nicolas Hale-Woods was quietly breathing a sigh of relief. He has carefully cultivated the FWT brand since launching the tour in 1996. A lot rides on each event: relationships with sponsors, the endless quest to capture that special social media moment destined to go viral, partnerships with the local community. As a co-financier of the event, Tourism Golden also had skin in the game. “Golden’s history is rooted in adventure. That’s what brought us here,” said Golden mayor Ron Oszust, speaking at the pre-event welcome banquet at the Golden Civic Centre, where young local rippers had the chance to rub shoulders with their freeskiing heroes and heroines. This adventure ethos is also a big part of what keeps bringing the FWT back to Kicking Horse.

The Freeride World Tour will be returning to Golden in 2024 with a weather window of February 14-20. Be there in person at Kicking Horse Mountain Resort or watch the event live at www.freerideworldtour.com.

Justine Dufour-Lapointe throwing her hands up in celebration after a clean run down the gnarly Ozone face in front of her Canadian home crowd.

CODY SHIMIZU

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SKI MO, NOT LESS Skimo? WTF is skimo? You haven’t heard? Ski mountaineering (or “skimo” for short) is taking the type-2-fun world by storm. More uphill than down, skimo is skinning and boot packing and fearing for one’s life while rocketing downhill on skinny skis. The addiction is real, and we follow Heather Mosher as she embraces the beginner mindset and heads for the hills.

words:: Heather Mosher You’ve gotta watch out for skimo. One day you’re riding the lifts at a ski resort, cruising downhill and enjoying a cozy après. Next, you’re discovering how awesome ski touring is: the beauty of mountain solitude in the crystallized white stillness, the satisfaction of winding your way through the landscape in winter. Then you start timing yourself on the uphills. All of a sudden, you’re talking about “fuelling” instead of eating, debating the finer points of caffeinated energy gels, donning a spandex race onesie and “fast” sunglasses… and you’ve completely forgotten about skiing downhill. You’ve discovered skiing uphill, and you’re obsessed. Last spring, working my way out of a long period of burnout, I tentatively signed up for my first ski mountaineering race. A crew of close friends had become skimo-curious, and we signed up for Steep Dreams, a weekend of uphill skiing at Kicking Horse in Golden,

Group start.

British Columbia—with more gusto than talent, more enthusiasm than experience and a plan to wear matching leggings and singlehandedly take responsibility for filling out the back of the pack, bringing a recreational perspective to the otherwise serious-looking world of neon lycra and early bedtimes. A burgeoning sport in Canada, the first World Championships were held in France in 2002. Ski mountaineering racing originated in Europe, which must be why it involves so much spandex and neon. Skimo is basically skiing uphill. Like trail running, but in winter. Like ski touring, but faster. It’s ski mountaineering, but in a somewhat more controlled environment. And, when taken seriously, it’s executed on tiny skis a minimum of 150 centimetres in length and 60 millimetres underfoot—which make the uphill skiing blisteringly efficient, and downhill skiing an afterthought at best.

MAUR MERE

Ants on a slog.

“I will tell anyone who will listen how great I think ski mountaineering is, and that they should try it,” says Lori Anne Donald, a member of the Canadian National Ski Mountaineering Team. Her enthusiasm for the sport is infectious. She breaks down the burgeoning world of skimo. There are five main disciplines in ski mountaineering racing. The two shortest events, both of which will debut at the 2026 Olympics, are a sprint, where participants skin uphill, transition, bootpack, transition and ski back downhill, with the fastest times under four minutes. The other is a mixed-gender team relay. Then there are the longer events: a vertical race, where you start at the bottom, and ski to the top. An individual race, which involves skinning and boot-packing up, and skiing down, two to three peaks. And a teams race, which is the most intense of all: in teams of two, racers tackle a much longer course with elements of mountaineering, such as rappelling or a via ferrata. Lori Anne got into skimo “to save money for a weekend,” she reminisces with a laugh. It was cheaper to sign up to race and get a lift ticket, with dinner and drink tickets, than it was just to spectate. She signed up for one of the shortest courses, and raced in, “soft shell pants, super big helmet, skin savers on my skins, massive skis. And I had THE BEST time.” 60

MAUR MERE

It turns out that you can partake in skimo in pretty much whatever gear you have—touring skis are fine, splitboards are fine. There’s even a “skiduro” event, where racers only get timed on the downhill, rewarding “heavy metal”. At least there’s a precedent for showing up looking like a total gumbie. On a cold, clear morning in March, I find myself in Golden at Steep Dreams, crowding into the start corral for the International Ski Mountaineering Federation (ISMF) mandated massed start. Picture a writhing mass of spandex and fancy sunglasses vibrating with energy under a giant green inflatable arch. Improbably, I find myself lining up next to Canada’s National Skimo Team and, as the adrenaline kicks in, jostling for position. As if starting in the middle of the pack, rather than squarely at the back, is going to do anything other than get me trampled. The race starts straight uphill. I expect not to feel fast, but still I’m surprised at how quickly I find myself alone, huffing the crisp morning air and desperately praying that the hose on my hydration pack won’t freeze solid. As the last of the neon lycra dots disappears over the horizon, I consciously slow my pace so that my heart doesn’t explode out of my chest from competition-induced overexertion. It occurs to me that if the course isn’t exceptionally well-flagged, there’s a good chance I’ll get lost. I’m racing my own race now; there’s no one left to follow.

ALL DAY LONGER. The best days outside shouldn’t have to end early. Smartwool socks and apparel help bring you the warmth and comfort you need to keep doing what you love.

By the time I was halfway through the course, the fastest skimo-ers had already crossed the finish line. As I trudged uphill, alternately sucking wind and fruit-flavoured energy gels, downhill skiers would pass me, perplexed. Without any other racers around, there was no context for why I was sweating uphill in a t-shirt as a chair lift mocked from above. Some of them would notice the number pinned to my thigh and offer a cheer for their fellow race participant. When I finally crossed the finish line—the race organizers poised to deflate the arch, the crowd already dispersed, my friends were bundled up in their puffy jackets with grins on their faces, cheering and psyched. One of the race organizers asked me why I’d signed up, genuinely curious about how I’d gotten there. I replied: “I like a challenge. A big thing to try. A reason to get out on skis. To experience being terrible at something and enjoy it anyway.” Lori Anne says that after her first race, she was hooked. “I was like, ‘Okay, I think I could train a little more, and spend some time with strengthening and with cardio. And practice my transitions. I think I could get a lot better at this!’” I think about how I already have Steep Dreams 2024 blocked off in my calendar, “Uh oh, that’s sounding really familiar.” Someone has to be in last place, and it might as well be me. But still, why does it feel so good to be doing something that I’m so bad at?

The author at the back of the pack (bravely passing a skier who is not in the race).

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“In a way, it takes you back to when you were a kid, and everything was new, and exciting, and joyful, and play,” Lori Anne explains. “Doing something new that you don’t know about is a fun way of playing. Which I think we need to do more of, as adults.” Going out and doing something challenging and new with a beginner’s mindset feels joyful—liberating even. I figure it’s easier to look faster than be faster, so my first order of business for this year’s race season is to upgrade to fasterlooking gear. I’m on the hunt for a spandex race suit and fast-looking sunglasses. The more neon, the better. On a personal level, I want to fill out the back of the pack! It would be nice to have some company back there. The sport is young here, and can only benefit from more folks turning into lycra-loving misery stick uphill skiers. Lori Anne offers a reassurance to anyone who might be considering skimo, “We’re very friendly! We’re just excited to have more people join the sport.” Imagine my thrill when I discovered this past summer that I’m now a nationally ranked skimo racer! I am officially one of the top 25 women in skimo in Canada. There are 24 women ranked in Canada. I’m number 24.

Award winning drinks + food Shaking things up since 2015 Photos: Mitch Narver Photography

Canmoresaloon.ca 2, 626 Main Street, Canmore

WHERE YOUR ADVENTURES BEGIN Our Basecamp Properties offer modern hotel experiences for adventure travelers in the heart of Canadian Mountain Communities. basecampresorts.com

Canmore ↟ Banff ↟ Lake Louise ↟ Golden ↟ Revelstoke ↟ Kananaskis

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TRAIL MIX

Curated Brain Snacks CANMORE YOUNG ADULT NETWORK (CYAN)

SOUL OF MIISTAKI

The CYAN is for 18- to 35-year-olds living in Canmore with a vision of strengthening the community through connection and local resources like housing, groceries and access to health care. The sky-high cost of living in Canmore is challenging for young adults often employed in the service and hospitality industries. CYAN’s goal is to create an inclusive Canmore where young adults thrive and play an active role in the community. Check out their resources at www.cyancanmore.ca/

Miistaki—pronounced miis-dahgee—is a Blackfoot word for mountain. Soul of Miistaki was founded by Cassie Ayoungman, a Blackfoot woman. Soul of Miistaki looks to reduces the barriers to access outdoor recreation for BIPOC individuals. The non-profit “promotes representation in activities situated on traditional lands of Indigenous people” and this past year offered via ferrata excursions, social climbing nights, a bike maintenance course and an introduction to ice climbing. Check them out at www.soulofmiistaki.com/

NATIVE AIR

STAR IN THE SKY

Our favourite deep read of the year: Jonathan Howland’s novel about climbing and relationships that’s not just for climbers; winner of the Grand Prize at the 2022 Banff Mountain Book Competition. Pick up a copy at Cafe Books in Canmore, the Whyte Museum bookstore in Banff, or Fable Book Parlour in Revelstoke.

The latest from Revelstoke filmmaker, Lara Shea, Star in the Sky is an ode to motherhood and a metaphor for children who have undergone great adversity. The film features Emily Grady and her children Micah and Isla, the family of the late Scott Grady. Scott, a beloved local ski guide, quietly wrestled with depression until his life ended eight years ago. The film addresses the dynamics and resilience at play when a family is faced with a monumental challenge. Watch Star in the Sky on Telus TV+.

THE LANGUAGE OF TREES: A REWILDING OF LITERATURE AND LANDSCAPE How do we connect with trees? How can we protect them? And more importantly, how can we re-wild spaces through language? These are the questions posed in Sarah Holten’s book The Language of Trees: A Rewilding of Literature and Landscape. A collection of excerpts, lyrics, poems and new works strung together to celebrate trees throughout time, Holten presents language as a complex system of communication between two entities, representing a strong bond and understanding. Holten intricately weaves lyrics from Radiohead’s Fake Plastic Trees with science from renowned tree expert Suzanne Simard to prove that we are all connected to nature; whether the giant oak you grew up climbing

in your backyard or the ponderosa pine you drove past on your West Coast vacation, trees are ubiquitous—and voiceless. So how do we tell their stories? Excerpts chosen by Holten are translated into a tree alphabet. Each letter is represented by a tree (a = aster) and artfully crafted to help tell the tales. Every page becomes a forest, enabling the trees to communicate. This love letter to the natural world will pull you in with each excerpt: The Ojibwe New Year written by Winona Laduke changes the reader’s understanding of time and seasons. You’ll ask yourself why cave drawings never have trees. Poems teach about bark, and mushrooms appear to be the most connected organism we know of

(even more connected than humans with social media). The Language of Trees draws the reader in with each tale and forces us to reconsider our natural world. –Kenna Ozbick

tourismgolden.com

Pure as the driven snow.

FREE GOLDEN APP tourismgolden.com/ localapp

Photo by Scott Sports

A heart of gold.

Why Golden BC Should Be Your Next Adventure Winter is well on its way in Golden, B.C! Cold temps have arrived, it’s snowing in the mountains, and conversation around town is all about one thing…skiing. As we look to the season ahead, here is why Golden is quietly becoming one of North America’s top ski destinations. Golden B.C. is an authentic mountain town nestled between the Canadian Rockies, Purcell and Selkirk Mountains. The town is located within a two hours drive of four world class ski resorts and is home to the famous Kicking Horse Mountain Resort. A 15 minute drive from downtown, Kicking Horse Mountain Resort is known for its breath-taking views, legendary terrain and renowned champagne powder. It features huge ridges with amazing big mountain lines, couloirs, and ski runs that descend over 4,000 ft of vertical drop. With some of the best resort tech skiing in the world, it is no wonder Kicking Horse is the only North American stop on the Freeride World Tour. There are also great opportunities for beginners and families, with plenty of gentle ski runs, a tube park and a magic carpet ride from the resort’s base. If you are looking for untouched powder and the experience of a lifetime, Golden is a mecca for backcountry adventure. Heli-skiing was born in Golden’s backyard, and with three heliski operators and one cat ski operator you can find the perfect guided experience for you and your group. There are also guided snowmobile

Golden Snowmobile Rentals & Tours Ready for an adventure of a lifetime? GSR will take you into the heart of the mountains to play in powder. No experience required.

1-250-344-0969 goldensnowmobilerentals.com

Book your Shuttle Now goldenshuttle.ca

tours and over 20 backcountry lodges in the area if you are looking for an intimate stay in the wilderness. Golden has a variety of winter activities for the whole family to enjoy. Experience nordic skiing at Dawn Mountain, snowshoeing or ice skating at the community rinks. To watch the best skiers in the world, Golden is once again hosting the Freeride World Tour during the February 14-20th weather window. After a successful day in the mountains, you can relax and rejuvenate in an authentic Canadian mountain town. Go out for dinner at one of our variety of restaurants and bars, or enjoy a nice breakfast at a locally owned cafe. There are a wide range of options for accommodations to suit your needs, from full service hotels and local inns to quaint cabins and cottages. So how do you get here? Golden is located on the Trans-Canada Highway about a three hour drive from Calgary. If you don’t want to drive, we offer a winter shuttle service that runs daily from Calgary to Golden and Kicking Horse Mountain Resort (goldenshuttle.ca). To make the most out of your visit, check out our free Golden, B.C. destination app (tourismgolden.com/localapp). We hope to see you out on the slopes enjoying some turns!

Start planning: tourismgolden.com/life Hillside Lodge & Chalets Golden BC’s winter paradise: Hillside Lodge. Ski, snowshoe, and savor hot cocoa by the fire. Discover the enchantment of the Rockies.

1-250-344-7281 hillsidechalets.com/winter

GALLERY

Sunset silence in the Revelstoke backcountry.

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LAURA SZANTO

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Casey and Fletcher Ogle doing what brothers do, in this case trying everything possible not go ski touring. Near Nelson, B.C.

STEVE OGLE

Amanda Timm on Rock Ride at Lake Louise, film still from women-led project PNK WRLD.

MEGHAN FENTON

Go with the snow Top ski gear. Rad prices. It’s what we do.

mec.ca

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1. The women’s-specific fit of the MERRELL SIREN 4 THERMO MID ZIP WATERPROOF BOOT is uniquely engineered to cradle the distinct contours of female feet, providing comfort, support and stability even on the longest hikes. Now with Solarcore insulation, a lightweight material initially designed for NASA, you never have to worry about warmth. www.merrell.com // 2. In the SWANY SX-30 X-CALIBUR GLOVE, new Dyna-Flex construction molds to your hand for a perfect fit. You can grip better and grab easier, with greater dexterity, than with any other insulated glove. The Triplex Alpha insulation system gives you 30 to 50 per cent more warmth than standard insulation and is fully waterproof and breathable. Available in men’s and women’s. www.swanycanada.com // 3. With the new YETI RAMBLER COCKTAIL SHAKER, you can take the bar where you are with the ultimate drinkware and easy-press lid with one-ounce twist cap. It’s leak-resistant, double-wall vacuum-insulated and dishwasher safe. Any hour can be happy hour with drinks that are consistent and cold from first pour to last. www.yeti.ca // 4. HOOKÉ'S INSULATED CANADIAN SHIRT is an iconic piece, year after year. Warm, comforting and durable, this checkered shirt with its homegrown style will become the most versatile and timeless shirt in your collection. Made from a blend of recycled wool and polyester and insulated with 60 grams of 100 per cent recycled material. www.Elements2002.ca // 5. The launch of the LANGE SHADOW SKI BOOT signals a new era of performance and fit. Offering confidence and stability, the Shadow’s breakthrough dual-pivot technology harnesses extended leverage for unparalleled liveliness and drive. A bold, new liner uses auxetic foam for a flawless connection and comfort. www.lange-boots.com // 6. Patagonia's premium women's JACKSON GLACIER PARKA is warm and windblocking with a sophisticated, stylish design. Its two-layer shell is made of 100 per cent recycled polyester with a water-repellent finish and is insulated with 700-fill-power 100 per cent recycled down. Made in a Fair Trade Certified™ factory. www.PatagoniaElements.ca // 7. The ELAN PRIMETIME 44+ offers accessibility, agility and a confident ride. Its 74-millimetre platform boasts a shorter turn radius with support and balance. Designed with PowerMatch technology for seamless energy transmission plus a dual-density woodcore, and paired with the newly redesigned Fusion X binding system, the Primetime 44+ is for skiers seeking accessible performance in a wider piste ski. www.elanskis.com

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8. Constructed with a 100 per cent recycled membrane, the JACK WOLFSKIN ALPSPITZE TOUR 3L JACKET provides complete weather protection and great mobility. Long pockets work with a pack and an adjustable hood helps keep out the elements when you need it. Available at SAIL. www.jack-wolfskin.com // 9. An alpine workhorse built to thrive in cold, snowy conditions, the PATAGONIA TRIOLET JACKET features three-layer, durable, waterproof/breathable and windproof GORE-TEX fabric with a 100 per cent recycled polyester outer for rugged protection. www.monodsports.com // 10. Get all-day comfort where it counts in SMARTWOOL’S SKI TARGETED CUSHION EXTRA STRETCH OVER THE CALF SOCKS. Now with advanced Indestructawool™ technology for enhanced durability, four Degree™ elite fit system for an unmatched performance fit, body-mapped mesh zones for added breathability and extra stretch to accommodate fuller calves. www.smartwool.ca // 11. The FJÄLLRÄVEN NUUK LITE PARKA for women is a lightweight, mid-thigh version of the Nuuk parka, designed for milder conditions. Waterproof, windproof and breathable, it protects against wind and rain on blustery autumn days. www.fjallraven.com // 12. Ditch the old plastic bins and shopping bags. The TRANSPORTER 65 is ideal for a gear-intensive weekend or longer travels as a more effective space-saving storage solution. Built with ruggedly dependable, weather-resistant fabrics in new colourways and prints, the Transporter 65L will lug it all. www.osprey.com // 13. Whether you’re skinning uphill or attacking the powder, the ultra-dexterous KHROMA TOUR INFINIUM GLOVE brings all the protection, breathability and precision you need. It features Pittards Armortan® reinforced leather on the palm and thumb, a pre-curved fit, out-sewn seams and adjustable wriststraps for a close and agile fit. www.rab.equipment/ca // 14. Filson's original, heirloom quality MACKINAW WOOL CRUISER excels in all weather conditions. It's made with durable wool in an uncommonly tight weave that turns away wind while remaining highly breathable. Its wet-weather performance is the reason wool has been the fabric of choice for outdoor protection for centuries. www.Elements2002.ca

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15. When you're somewhere in between all-day skinning and joy riding lifts, strap into the GNARWHAL™ 25L—the perfect pack for sidecountry and frontcountry ski days with a little resort time sprinkled in. It's more compressible in the back for chairlift comfort, and a little less supply-oriented since you're likely to be hitting up the resort lodge for midday refueling. www.mountainhardwear.ca // 16. The 34-litre version of the athlete favourite SNOMAD PACK is designed to take you off the groomers and onto new peaks. Super comfy suspension and summit-tested features–like back access and helmet carry–make it a go-to for both skiers and snowboarders in the backcountry. www.thenorthface.ca // 17. Introducing the new ORTOVOX SWISSWOOL PIZ BADUS JACKET—an ultra-lightweight, insulated layer designed for freeriders tackling chilly slopes. Crafted with a quilted TEC STRETCH outer layer and a 60 g/m2 Swisswool lining, it delivers exceptional warmth without compromising mobility, and sustainable elements like recycled polyester and PFC-free construction make it a conscious choice. www.ortovoxcanada.com // 18. A proven hoody for cold, dry conditions, the THORIUM HOODY by Arc'teryx delivers serious warmth and handles a wide range of environments. Packed with 750 fill-power Responsible Down Standard certified grey goose down, it offers outstanding thermal performance for its weight. www.arcteryx.com // 19. The Pionnier 104 is a new playful and agile ALL-MOUNTAIN SKI from Ferreol. Its short turning radius and tip and tail rocker make it a great choice for the steep slope slayer, powder chaser and tree-skiing lover in you. www.vertical-addiction.com // 20. Punch your ticket to powder heaven. Whether stepping into a tech toe or stomping your alpine heel, the TIGARD 130 BOOT dismisses the question of what gear to bring on your adventure. This four-buckle powerhouse rides comfortably under a lift or skinning above it. www.dynafit.com

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Cruising along the Icefields Parkway under a full moon, an illuminated Parker Ridge caught the eye of Lada Kvasnicka. The only possible improvement, the photographer and skier thought, would be if the ridge was adorned with fresh turns. Lada knew his “down-for-anything” friend Mato Vrato would be keen to hike the ridge under a full moon and lay down the necessary tracks. The pair drove to the Hilda Creek parking lot where Lada watched Mato’s headlight ascend for an hour and a half as he speed hiked in the crisp, dark night. When Mato gained the ridge, he readied himself to ski a continuous line to the base while Lada watched through binoculars then snapped this long exposure image.

Great

Chemistry

Ambitious objectives require the strongest bonds. Nearly a decade ago, Patagonia and the GORE-TEX brand started toward an impossible goal: To remove perfluorinated chemicals from the waterproof fabrics in our outerwear without compromising performance. Well, we did it—and set an entirely new standard for technical shells.

We Are the Unclaimed Line Strong, protective, and built for realising winter’s endless possibilities. Whether you’re making a bid for the summit or leading the charge in fresh powder, our ski clothing offers the warmth, breathability, and freedom of movement you need to claim the next untouched line.

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