Mountain Life – Coast Mountains - Fall-Winter 2021-22

15Years FALL/WINTER 2021-22 // FREE

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Standing tall through it all

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WHERE LEGENDARY LIVES ON

Whistler Blackcomb: where out-of-this-world is right at home.

Exhilarating descents, mind-blowing vistas, and more choice than nearly any other mountain destination in the world - no wonder Whistler Blackcomb tops bucket lists of mountain lovers around the globe. At North America’s largest and most celebrated ski resort, you can board the longest and highest lift in the world, set off down consistently deep snowpack, and dine in a world-renowned pedestrian-only village, then recharge in your choice of awe-inspiring accommodation options. This season, our unrivalled commitment to safety on and off the mountain takes on more importance than ever, so you can focus on having a great time. And with our Worry-Free Booking policy, you can make your travel plans with peace-of-mind, knowing that we’ve got your back. Plus, Pass or EDGE Card Holders save extra on lodging, lessons, rentals and more.

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IMAGE: IMAGE:BRAD JOERN FLOWERDEW ROHDE

IMAGE: BRAD FLOWERDEW

UNFORGETTABLE DINING EXPERIENCES AWAIT AT FAIRMONT CHATEAU WHISTLER Whether you are looking for a casual meal to-go, to celebrate a special occasion, or anything in between, Fairmont Chateau Whistler in Whistler’s Upper Village has created a delicious variety of dining choices to inspire, comfort and delight.

PORTOBELLO | A local’s favourite for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Don’t miss Portobello’s signature pastries, made-to-order sandwiches or smokehouse dinner menu. Dine in or take-out.

THE GRILL ROOM | Showcasing the finest Canadian prime cuts and fresh seafood for evening fine dining, The Grill Room, is a must for every visit. Re-opening early December 2021.

THE WILDFLOWER | Locally-sourced, Pacific Northwest cuisine for breakfast and dinner. Family-friendly dining.

THE CHALET | Experience a magical evening of twinkling lights, a crackling fire and hearty European-inspired alpine cuisine.

THE MALLARD LOUNGE AND TERRACE | Handcrafted cocktails, Whistler’s best slopeside patio and live music make The Mallard your afternoon, après and evening destination.

SNOW GLOBES DINING DOMES | Enjoy an evening under the stars in your own heated, private dining dome, complete with cozy, alpinechic décor and a multi-course menu. Re-opening December 2021.

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FOR DETAILS: CHATEAU-WHISTLER.COM/RESTAURANTS TO RESERVE: OPENTABLE.COM OR CALL 1 604 938 8000 EMAIL: WHISTLER.RESTAURANTS@FAIRMONT.COM LOCATED AT 4599 CHATEAU BOULEVARD (IN WHISTLER’S UPPER VILLAGE)

The outdoors is our playground.

Chameleon Thermo 8

UPFRONTS EDITOR’S MESSAGE Feet First p. 19 JUST THE TIP Tempus Fugit p. 26

ON THIS PAGE Garibaldi Park. CASEY DUBOIS ON THE COVER Evan Stevens, Laurie Block, Ross Mailloux, Matt Gunn, and Marty Lazarski. Squamish backcountry.

14

CHRIS CHRISTIE

TABLE OF CONTENTS 15-Year Anniversary Issue

FEATURES

DEPARTMENTS

TIK TOK, YA DON’T STOP Reflections on a Decade and a Half p. 20

MOUNTAIN LIFER Chad Sayers p. 46

FOOD Save Da Sea p. 86

HEALING IN THE KINGDOM OF GRANITE & SNOW Grief, Loss, Pain & Community p. 30

BEYOND New Beginnings p. 56

GALLERY Lookin’ Good p. 96

COMMUNIST POWDER Shames Mountain p. 64

15

PUBLISHERS JON BURAK

jon@mountainlifemedia.ca

TODD LAWSON

todd@mountainlifemedia.ca

GLEN HARRIS

glen@mountainlifemedia.ca

EDITOR FEET BANKS

We launched a freakin’ podcast!

Live it Up with Mountain Life is a collection of conversations about life in the wilderness with the people who do it best.

feetbanks@mountainlifemedia.ca

CREATIVE & PRODUCTION DIRECTOR, DESIGNER AMÉLIE LÉGARÉ

amelie@mountainlifemedia.ca

WEB DEVELOPER KEVIN CRAWFORD kevin@mountainlifemedia.ca MANAGING EDITOR SUSAN BUTLER

susan@mountainlifemedia.ca

WEB EDITOR NED MORGAN

ned@mountainlifemedia.ca

DIRECTOR OF SOCIAL MEDIA SARAH BULFORD

Brett Tippie

Sarah Bulford

sarah@mountainlifemedia.ca

FINANCIAL CONTROLLER KRISTA CURRIE

krista@mountainlifemedia.ca

CONTRIBUTORS Danielle Baker, Craig Barker, Erik Boomer, Paul Bride, Kieran Brownie, Mirae Campbell, Chris Christie, Casey Dubois, Guy Fattal, Mattias Fredriksson, Ben Girardi, Taylor Godber, Brian Hockenstein, Lani Imre, Aga Iwanicka, Blake Jorgenson, Aki Kaltenbach, Cedric Landry, Andrew Lawrence, Guillaume Le Guillou, Jordan Manley, Kari Medig, Paul Morrison, Steve Ogle, Robin O’Neill, Chad Sayers, Brad Slack, Scott Serfas, Andrew Strain, Guillaume Tessier, Brett Tippie, Jon Turk, Anatole Tuzlak SALES & MARKETING

Tim Emmett

Jon Turk

mountain life media.ca /podcasts Host Feet Bank s

JON BURAK

jon@mountainlifemedia.ca

604 815 1900

TODD LAWSON

todd@mountainlifemedia.ca

604 907 1074

GLEN HARRIS

glen@mountainlifemedia.ca

705 441 6334

Published by Mountain Life Media, Copyright ©2021. All rights reserved. Reproduction without permission is prohibited. Publications Mail Agreement Number 40026703. Return undeliverable Canadian addresses to: Mountain Life Magazine, PO Box 2433 Garibaldi Highlands BC, V0N 1T0.

Tel: 604 815 1900. To send feedback or for contributors guidelines email feet@mountainlifemedia. ca. Mountain Life Coast Mountains is published every February, June and November by Mountain Life Media Inc. and circulated throughout Whistler and the Sea to Sky corridor from Pemberton to Vancouver. 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 call 604 815 1900.

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 also PrintReleaf certified. PrintReleaf measures our paper consumption over time and calculates the forest impact. Our paper footprint is automatically reforested at planting sites in Canada.

FSC

It’s what’s inside that matters.

X-Games and World Cup medalist, Rachael Karker

Meet the all-new Swany Triplex Alpha.

With our latest Triplex Alpha insulation system inside, the Swany X-Change glove and X-Cell mitt are 30-50% warmer than standard insulations, fully waterproof, extremely breathable and ultra comfortable.

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OMG FUN! DOGSLEDDING IN WHISTLER

XENAIR INTELLIGENT INSULATION

TH E X E NA I R AL P I NE JA C K ET Adapting to the mountain’s ever-changing conditions, the Xenair Alpine’s strength is its versatility.

With dual density, recycled PrimaLoft® Gold Active+ insulation, body mapped for warmth where you need it most, it effectively regulates your temperature, eliminating the need to change layers.

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EDITOR'S MESSAGE

FEET FIRST This is what “epic” pow looked like in 2006, the year Mountain Life Coast Mountains first snuck into all of our lives (and back when “epic” still meant epic). The skier here is Mike Douglas, who was also featured on that “Premiere Edition.” Long infamous as the co-inventor of Sushi Village’s strawberry sake margarita recipe, in 2006 Mike was also best known as the godfather of new school skiing/freeskiing/twin-tip skiing… people were still figuring out what to call it back then. Thankfully, we collectively landed on the best and simplest option: “skiing.” To score him for our first cover helped let the world know we were serious about this thing. (Then we immediately misspelled cover photographer Bruce Rowles’ name in the credit—we were definitely figuring things out as we went back then.)

That first issue was slim—just 16 pages of stories and photos backed by 16 pages of ads. Many of those advertisers are still with the mag today, and so are a lot of the photographers, writers, artists, and athletes. Ian Morrison was just 15 years old when we featured him in that first issue. A decade later, he nabbed the cover of our tenth anniversary. Ace MacKay-Smith is in that first issue, so is Christian Begin, Robby Boyd, our go-to illustrator Dave Barnes (skateboarding, not illustrating), a nod to the perennial housing crisis, and a story on the “brand new” Symphony Express chair on Whistler Mountain. Todd Lawson even has a moto story, back when he was just a nomad with a camera and not yet our photo editor/co-publisher.

I guess the point is, we wouldn’t be here without our friends and neighbours, and we’re incredibly grateful for the kickass community that has taken root and grown along with this magazine. Thank you all.

Beyond that, I think the most important thing we’ve learned this past decade is that regardless of how long we’ve been here, we don’t have a “right” to anything in these Coast Mountains, instead we all have an “obligation.” We need to protect and respect this area, this planet, for the incredible lives we’ve been given here. So, on that note, maybe this is the year to join the crew at Protect our Winters Canada. To become a member, take some action, donate some money… all of the above. Because who doesn’t want to be like Mike (Douglas is also a POW board member) and keep busting powdery pillow fields for the next 15 years and beyond?

We’ll see you there… protectourwinters.ca –Feet Banks

Mike Douglas, 2006.

BLAKE JORGENSON

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15 years of life (and mountains) in the Sea to Sky—and a magazine that caught some of it 20

Tik Tok, Ya Don’t Stop words :: Kieran Brownie

2008 ML publisher Todd Lawson and Christina Tottle ride dirtbikes across Africa (south to north) distributing mosquito nets to help fight the malaria epidemic SEA TO SKY Search & Rescue calls: 34 WHISTLER PEAK2PEAK opens, Shane McConkey promptly base jumps off it

Costs to battle BC wildfires triple over the previous year; a sign of things to come

2006-2010 As the first issue of Mountain Life rolled off the press, the smokestacks of Squamish’s Woodfibre pulp mill hacked their last toxic coughs—a welcome breath of fresh air for some, but the end of a way of life for others. Meanwhile, the recent 2010 Winter Olympic announcement triggered a gold-rush style migration to the Sea to Sky Corridor. The “Killer Highway” 99 was finally upgraded and the incredible Squamish Lil’wat Cultural Centre was raised.

Housing prices did a double cork, while ski bums raged against the contentious PEAK2PEAK gondola in Whistler. There was no shortage of stories to tell…

PEMBERTON The biggest landslide in recorded Canadian history lets go on Mount Meager, dumping 45,000,000 cubic metres of debris into Meager Creek

2006

The 32-page, first issue of Mountain Life Coast Mountains features Mike Douglas on the cover and legend Rob Boyd inside

UK newspaper The Guardian lists the Sea to Sky Corridor as the fifth best road trip worldwide

PEMBERTON Population grows 33.5 percent over five years; Whistler and Squamish grow four to five percent in the same time period. Pemberton Arts Council forms WHISTLER Symphony Express Chair opens

Sonnie Trotter frees Cobra Crack 5.14/8b+

SEA TO SKY Search & Rescue calls: 45

PAUL BRIDE

Aaron Marchant (Skwx̱wú7mesh) starts a First Nations Snowboard Association with funding from the Olympics

2007

SEA TO SKY Extreme rainfall in June puts Squamish and Mount Currie in state of emergency, one month later rockfall closes highway

WHISTLER PEAK2PEAK gondola breaks ground in May

SEA TO SKY

Search & Rescue calls: 52

SQUAMISH Average price of a singlefamily home: $386,953

Vancouver 2010 Organizing Committee releases three promo posters featuring Indigenous athletes SQUAMISH Quest University opens

Skwx̱wú7mesh and Lil’wat Nations sign agreement on a Land and Resource Management Plan with the BC Government

SEA TO SKY Rockfall nearly crushes a bus just north of Porteau Cove in July

2009

SEA TO SKY Global recession hits, but Olympic money helps keep the Corridor afloat

PEMBERTON Inaugural Pemberton Music Festival featuring Tom Petty, Jay Z and more: it rocks, but leaves a huge mess and a (slightly) bad taste RUNRAN ON FLICKR

SQUAMISH “Pineapple Express” becomes a hot topic as 105 millimitres of rain falls from November 14-18

SEA TO SKY Search & Rescue calls: 36

The First Nations Snowboard Team has 160 members (up from ten in its inaugural year)

The third edition of John Baldwin’s Exploring the Coast Mountains on Skis is released, with a 34-page chapter on the Duffey Lake region

2010 2010 Winter Olympic Games bring empty ski hills, big parties—and gold medals for Whistler rippers, Ashleigh McIvor (skicross) and Maelle Ricker (snowboardcross)—even the haters admit, “that was pretty fun”

1M

Instagram is downloaded 1 million times within two months of release: the seeds of influencing are planted

LILLOOET Members of the First Nations Snowboard Team run with the Olympic torch

SEA TO SKY Search & Rescue calls: 48

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2011-2015 Post-Olympic afterglow sets in, and previously opposing factions of the Sea to Sky (skiers/snowboarders, loggers/ environmentalists, snowmobilers/self-propelled) realize we all need to paddle together. Grey whales, dolphins, and Orca are spotted in Howe Sound for the first time in decades. The transfer of Whistler’s Olympic Village into local housing stock coincides with a dip in real estate prices to create an opportunity for prescient Sea to Sky locals to maybe, perhaps somehow, purchase their own piece of mountain paradise. In May of 2014, the Sea to Sky Gondola opens to the public amidst an old-guard local grumble that the Shannon Basin would never be the quiet no-man’s land of yore—though, in the broad picture, the very idea of “noman’s land” was becoming antiquated.

2013 SQUAMISH Ongoing re-watering projects restore creek flow for critical salmon habitat in the Squamish Valley

$588,985

SQUAMISH Average price of a single-family home

SEA TO SKY A car is destroyed by rockfall north of Horseshoe Bay

2012 As the Mayan Calendar ends, Mountain Life releases a commemorative “End of the World” issue in case existence ceases… it doesn’t

SEA TO SKY Search & Rescue calls: 49

WHISTLER The May long weekend reaches peak madness, leaving thousands of dollars of damage, two stabbed and one fatality

150M 150 million monthly users SEA TO SKY Search & Rescue calls: 84

SQUAMISH The Sea to Sky Gondola delivers its first customers to the sub-alpine

SQUAMISH Squamish Valley Music Festival brings big acts and crowds to town

300M 300 million monthly users

2015 SQUAMISH Forest fire ravages the Elaho valley, punctuating BC’s worst fire season to date and killing the 1000+ year-old “Elaho Giant” Douglas fir tree

SQUAMISH The District of Squamish sells the oceanfront Nexen Lands to Newport Beach Development 22

WHISTLER Smoke from forest fires has air quality levels just behind Beijing for worst on the planet

SEA TO SKY Search & Rescue calls: 92

2011 Sherpas Cinema releases All.I.Can, ushering in a new era of high-production, story-driven ski films (JP Auclair’s street segment=instant classic)

SEA TO SKY Search & Rescue calls: 48

5M

5 million monthly users

SQUAMISH Xwalacktun (Rick Harry), a Skwx̱wú7mesh carver whose work can be found throughout the Corridor, is awarded the Order of British Columbia

50M

50 million monthly users

SQUAMISH Rock climbing sees a surge in route development and interest

In March, the Lil’wat Nation and BC Parks sign three major conservancy management plans to protect more than 10,000 hectares of Lil’wat traditional territories in perpetuity

SQUAMISH Marc-André Leclerc solos the Grand Wall route of the Stawamus Chief in 57 minutes and shaves a few minutes off Alex Honnold’s Grand Wall fastest known time solo STEVE OGLE

SQUAMISH Western Forest Products sells Woodfibre pulp mill to Pacific Oil and Gas Ltd

2014 WHISTLER Mountain Life launches Multiplicity, a multimedia/speaking adventure show at the World Ski & Snowboard Festival

PEMBERTON The Pemberton Music Festival claws back from the grave and rocks the valley until 2016 (when every single person in the Sea to Sky seems to get backstage at Pearl Jam)

SQUAMISH Alex Honnold climbs the Grand Wall of the Stawamus Chief in 38 minutes, a few days later he free-solos University Wall (5.12)

SEA TO SKY Search & Rescue calls: 79

SQUAMISH 1,600 cubic metres of rock fall from the Stawamus Chief’s Zodiac Wall, no one is injured

SQUAMISH First marijuana dispensary opens

400M 400 million monthly users SQUAMISH A rekindled plan for a resort on Brohm Ridge emerges 23

WHISTLER Vail purchases Whistler Blackcomb

2016

SEA TO SKY Search & Rescue calls: 101

500+M 500 million+ monthly users

PEMBERTON Flood evacuations

$724,362

SQUAMISH Average price of a single-family home

SQUAMISH Paul McSorley, Tony Richardson, Jason Kruk and Jia Condon complete a bottom-to-top winter ascent of the Stawamus Chief via a continuous strip of ice

2017 WHISTLER Resort Municipality of Whistler implements pay parking: pitchfork and torch sales surge

SEA TO SKY Search & Rescue calls: 95

800+M

SQUAMISH Local athlete Miranda Miller wins gold in UCI Mountain Bike World Championships in Cairns, Australia

800 million+ monthly users

WHISTLER Whistler Blackcomb secures rights to re-rename the “Saudan Couloir” from legendary French skier Sylvain Saudan, who is in town for the grand reopening and return of the Saudan Couloir Ski Race Extreme at the WSSF First Nations Snowboard Team inducted into BC Sports Hall of Fame

Canada legalizes cannabis

2016-2021 The Olympic hangover has ended and the Sea to Sky secret is officially out. Farming is thriving in Pemberton, Whistler is entrenched—again—in a housing crisis, and Squamish is now home to more bloggers than loggers. The good news: after a century of pollution due to rampant industrialization and colonialization, students of Aya7ayulh Chet (Cultural Journeys School) revive Tem Slhawt’ (herring time), a traditional celebration of the arrival the fish and the return of warmer weather.

The winds of positive change continue to blow through each community in the Sea to Sky. Through hard times and smooth sailing, it’s clear this corridor creates people who care deeply about each other, the land, and how the children will inherit this place. Those who choose to live in the Coast Mountains are the true essence of our mountain lives, and this magazine is honoured to continue sharing their stories. We’re not sure where we’ll be in another 15 years, but as the mountains teach us: you don’t know till you go! Time’s fun when you’re having flies. –ML

LYTTON Wildfire obliterates the town, which recorded temperatures of 49.6 degrees Celcius, hotter than Las Vegas’ all-time high

SQUAMISH Átl’ka7tsem (Howe Sound ) receives UNESCO biosphere designation 24

$1,000,000+

SQUAMISH Average price of a single-family home

SQUAMISH Ben Harnden completes the Squamish Trifecta: a 5.14 sport route, a 5.14 trad route and a V14 boulder

WHISTLER Whistler Blackcomb opens early (November 17) after 120 cm of snowfall in 48 hours

LASPORTIVA.COM

2018 1B

1 billion monthly users: peak influencing has arrived

PYEONGCHANG, KOREA Canadian freeskier, Cassie Sharpe, wins the first-ever Olympic gold medal for women’s halfpipe skiing, an event that owes much to late Squamish resident and legend Sarah Burke

WHISTLER Whistler Bike Park expands to include Creekside

SEA TO SKY Search & Rescue calls: 104

2019

WHISTLER

SQUAMISH Sea to Sky Gondola cable is cut, widespread speculation ensues

“2019’s headlines were mostly business as usual, perhaps in anticipation of something bigger.”

SEA TO SKY Search & Rescue calls: 97

– Pique Newsmagazine

2020 SEA TO SKY Myia Antone (Skwx̱wú7mesh), teams up with Lil’wat snowboarder Sandy Ward to establish Indigenous Women Outdoors

SQUAMISH Sea to Sky Gondola cable cut again!

SEA TO SKY Search & Rescue calls: 124

The First Nations Snowboard Team (FNST) is rebranded as the Indigenous Life Sport Academy (ILSA) and expands its scope to include year-round activities MARCH COVID-19 pandemic hits BC, closing ski hills, BC Parks, everything

2021 $1,052,800 Heat dome causes temperatures to spike past 40 degrees Celsius in BC

SQUAMISH Average price of a single-family home

SEA TO SKY Search & Rescue calls: 165 as of mid-September (breaking a previous full-year record of 151)

APRIL “Two weeks to flatten the curve”

FAIRY CREEK Environmentalists, loggers and RCMP battle over the last remaining stand of old-growth forest on southern Vancouver Island

1.074B

1.074 billion+ monthy users

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JUST THE TIP

TEMPUS FUGIT The Latin term for “time flies” is tempus fugit. Time certainly has flown since people spoke Latin commonly, and it has also flown since this magazine was born 15 years ago, in 2006. Time is funny and fluid—I am 52 years old, and for some reason I can remember pow days from 15 years ago better than I can remember what I had for breakfast this morning…

There are also pow days I can’t remember, but that’s what happens when you shred every day possible—sometimes it seems like one big day! Luckily, we usually ride with friends who can help piece together the past if we need or want to know the details. Friends are also good for making future adventure plans, but what’s the best is shredding and enjoying the mountains right now, today, in the present, with rad people.

To paraphrase Maya Angelou, “You don’t always remember what people did or said... you remember how they made you feel.” For me, the same goes for powder days. I might not remember the details or the date, but I will always remember the excitement of seeing big, lazy snowflakes floating down, and the cold, fresh bite of mountain air on my cheeks… the glistening diamonds of light sparkling off fluffy deep stashes of snow that cause my heart rate to spike, and the amazing sensation of getting up to speed and feeling the floating buoyancy

ANDREW LAWRENCE

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and wild snaps of energy from the flex of my board as I twist and turn around the trees and rocks. These feelings are hard to match.

The ultimate feeling for many of us though, is the slash that causes the snow to explode and blanket you in the white room: the face shot! The deepest of these can erupt right over your head (especially if you’re of diminutive stature like Richie Schley), and create massive roosts of blown-up crystal magic. Blasting through a “Days of Thunder” explosion of blinding powder and popping out the other side to spot your line and a choice location to sink the next deep turn is the most addictive feeling ever.

They say as you get older, the years go faster—like flipping through the pages of a book… until you’re done. That makes me want to shred even harder right now! And the Latins had that figured out too. Carpe diem, they said: “seize the day.” The only issue is that it’s night time and dark outside currently. That’s okay, I’ve got really bright NiteRider lights and nothing can stop me from getting that pow! I’m not going to wait for tomorrow... I’m going to get some slashing in right now! Carpe nocturno! (seize the night) and Tippie fugit (Tippie flies)!

Who said Latin is a dead language? Time means nothing in the white room. See you in the pow! – Brett Tippie

OUR BACKYARD BECKONS...

Photos: Photos: Haley Lorraine, ChrisTara Christie &O’Grady Paul Bride

MORE SEA, MORE SKY, MORE TIME! OPEN DAILY | SEATOSKYGONDOLA.COM VENTURING SAFELY INTO THE BACKCOUNTRY REQUIRES EXPERIENCE AND SKILL. KNOW BEFORE YOU GO.

Good times is what Elan is all about, and the best times are those spent with friends and family in the mountains. Whether it’s a family weekend road trip to your favorite local destination or a backcountry adventure with your best friends, it’s always good times when you surround yourself with the people you’re closest to.

elanskis.com

BACKYARD

Healing in the Kingdom of Granite and Snow Does frequent exposure to the potentiality of death help build a toolbox of resiliency? words:: Taylor Godber

JORDAN MANLEY

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Joe Lax (left) and Joel Loverin, testing the (crystalline) water.

F

or us mountain people who build our lives around kingdoms of granite and snow, being in nature creates space for magic to exist. Hearing the distinct caw-caw of a raven before dropping into a demanding big mountain line may not be happenstance. Large cat prints in the snow in front of your skin track as the sun sets could be a confidant from beyond leading the way. Those serendipitous moments

“I wish he was here on all the adventures with us, but in a way, he’s still here, we can feel it in the mountains.”

–Cedric Landry are the counterpart to embracing the wild unknown. And they act as mystical tethers that keep us connected to friends who have passed on to the other side.

“The deep connections forged with friends is one of the most celebrated experiences in the mountains,” says David MacKinnon, “and when we lose those friends, we strive to find ways to keep those relationships alive.” A Pembertonbased snowboarder since 2015, MacKinnon recalls a

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particular day last season filming with backcountry skier Delaney Zayac for Resilience, a cinematic ode to mountain partners who have perished and to the crews left behind.

As Zayac and MacKinnon built rappel anchors on the corniced ridge and searched for entrances into two committing lines, a pair of mountain ravens played and soared, their glossy wings outstretched like open umbrellas adrift in a breezy sky. Staring down steep spines that snaked to the valley like roller coaster tracks made of pillowy formations, the riders evaluated the snow patches just wide enough to sink a hop turn in, and the sheer drop-offs on either side of both lines… once they dropped in there’d be no room for missteps or hesitation. Pausing to notice the two-winged visitors above helped balance their excitement and nerves. “It happens enough that it doesn’t feel like a coincidence,” MacKinnon explains. “The ravens are notorious for showing up when things are about to get rad.”

Just moments earlier, the guys had been sharing nostalgic stories about Jack Hannan and Dave Henkel— close friends who had perished in the mountains and were greatly missed. Hannan had placed the first descent down the line Zayac was aiming for, and Henkel had history of leaving his mark on the same face.

CEDRIC LANDRY

MOUNTAINS HIGH PERFORMANCE MERINO APPAREL

|

DESIGNED IN WĀNAKA – NEW ZEALAND

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MONSROYALE.COM

“There’s great peace to be found in these spaces, whether it’s in the mountains or just out in nature in general.” – Joe Lax

LEFT Joe Lax gets some big mountain therapy.

BRIAN HOCKENSTEIN

BRAD SLACK. RIGHT The late Dave Henkel in his element.

“The ravens were still there as we dropped in,” MacKinnon recalls. “Banking and floating, surfing puffs of cloud as we took turns riding, retracing lines Jack and Danger Dave had pioneered before us… the sense of connection and of feeling the energy of your friends was very real.”

While the idea that ravens can be messengers from beyond can bring some relief, there is no easy way to overcome grief, and the process of mourning the departure of a trusted mountain ally or adventure partner is unique to each person. Some turn their backs, sell their gear, and move on to life’s less risky chapters. Others drown their pain with distractions. And most of us mountain people, at some point, question why we continue to chase highrisk objectives when, too often, the results end tragically for local mountain folks taken far too soon.

When Dave Henkel passed in an avalanche this last winter, I spent the first week in near stillness—meditating, crying, staring out the window at Ts’zil (Mount Currie), and listening to eastern philosophy advocate Alan Watts’ lectures on the meaning of life. It didn’t take long before I realized all I wanted to do was celebrate Dave by snowboarding. And most of my regular shred crew—Joel

34

Loverin, Cedric Landry and PY Boivin—felt the same: that returning to nature was one of the most integral parts of our collective healing process.

“I rode every day,” says Loverin of losing one of his best friends. “Obviously, I cried a lot, and it was tough, but snowboarding helped me continue to move forward and keep living my life.”

For filmmaker Brian Hockenstein, one way to continue moving forward is to create art in honour of the lost. His Resilience film project was already underway with Joe Lax, Dave Basterrechea, Delaney Zayac, Chris Ankeny, and Dave MacKinnon, spurred by the tragic loss of skier Dave Treadway in 2019.

When Henkel passed, his regular crew naturally merged with Hockenstein and the others into what became a winter-long group project for the Pemberton backcountry community. Resilience offered a chance to collect the fragments of our broken hearts and support each other’s healing as we remembered our friends, partners, and loved ones. And we’d get to go out into the mountains every day to shred the kind of lines that would make them proud.

“My hopes were that doing this together could help us all put these losses into perspective,” Hockenstein says.

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“Maybe even help others do the same. At the very least, it was a chance to remember and celebrate some great friends.” The pull to turn a tragedy into something positive is not unique to mountain culture; and finding a way to digest the difficult emotions of loss is a necessary part of continuing on.

There are no guarantees of safe passage when navigating the powerful, seductive, curvaceous formations of nature. Inherent risk is part of the package—which of course is both the allure and the nightmare. And regardless of how many backcountry safety courses one has attended, how fine-tuned someone’s intuition may be, or how many wrinkles of experience and wisdom they have etched into their skin, not everyone makes it out alive. But what separates backcountry enthusiasts from other segments of the population may be that the contemplation of the end as we know it is staved into our decision-making processes like waving flags atop every potential crux, above every no-fall zone, and on each nipple of snow that could be a rock. The dangers are tangible, and right in front of us.

“Every day I go into the backcountry, I accept the risk of dying,” says photographer Cedric Landry, “because it’s a real possibility. You are working with statistics out there. And

Joel Loverin takes it one turn at a time.

as much as you try to be safe, to make good decisions, to trust your gut… one thing could go wrong and take you down.”

But does the frequent exposure to loss and to the very real potentiality of death—on the sharp end of a rope or the knife edge of a mountain—actually help build a toolbox of resiliency or of radical acceptance, for when the worst does happen?

“For me it would be a disservice to stop doing what I love just because of these accidents. I feel like being out there is a chance to celebrate these people.”

– Chris Ankeny Big mountain snowboard veteran Chris Ankeny has experienced the loss of many mountain partners over the years. “I’ve lost more friends to backcountry accidents since I moved to Pemberton than in the rest of my entire life—it’s hard to stomach. But at the same time, you know, all these people lived amazing lives, like hands down some of the richest lives of anybody I’ve known.”

CEDRIC LANDRY

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“You don’t learn to know yourself through the easy times in life. It’s the challenges, the hardship. That’s how you learn who you are.” – Delaney Zayac

As much as we try to conceptualize something so intangible as the departure of a soul, there is no bypassing the weight of the news of a friend’s passing. It is disorientating and suffocating, as if shovel load after shovel load of wet, heavy snow were being thrown into the space our hearts. Joe Lax, one of the most iconic big-line snowboarders in the Sea to Sky Corridor says, “When we lose someone, there is an insane amount of pain. The scars are with you forever and there is a lot of contemplation—why do we do what we do?”

And why do we keep doing it, even after losing people we cherished so deeply? The answer might be because

nature has the potential to heal. As much as being out in the mountains can press into the most scarred parts of our hearts by prompting memories of friends lost in the majestic rawness of Mother Nature’s embrace; paradoxically these snowy fortresses offer the space, time, and forum to tend to those permanent tattoos of loss.

“There’s great peace to be found in natural spaces,” says Lax. “A lot of healing has taken place for me this past year and I know it’s the direct result of strong friendships and the time spent in the mountains.”

39

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Coupled with the energy and support of great friends, the positive impacts can be momentous and influence one’s return to a state of joyful being. “You know,” Zayac explains, “sometimes I’m out there, I can feel Dave’s [Treadway] energy out there. I wouldn’t feel it if I didn’t go out.”

“We strive to see our friends in the mountains, and that doesn’t change when we lose them. We look for them in the ravens” – Dave MacKinnon

The sobering truth is, our lack of immortality is not unique to the mountains—tragedy can, and does, happen anywhere, all the time, in everyday life around the world.

Yet, how often do we catch ourselves worrying about

mundane things when we should be having the time of our lives? Both Treadway and Henkel were true examples of what it means to live with a robust desire to make the best of every moment, only giving thoughts to the future when needed, and harbouring no regrets of the past. Ankeny says, “I think we need to have respect for how fully these people lived. It would be a disservice to stop doing what I love because of these accidents. Being out there is a chance to celebrate these people.”

And that celebration, that healing bridge to what’s been lost, is what Hockenstein, what all of us, hoped to capture with Resilience. Because standing on the pinnacles of mountains is as close as our human bodies get to reaching the revered idea of heaven above, and to the souls we hope are circling there, riding the updrafts and snow spindrifts with a noble caw-caw just when those of us below need it.

Check out resiliencethefilm.com for screening dates.

Sometimes all that's required is to haul some ass in a sweet spot with cool people. Joel Loverin.

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THE ENDLESS WEAVE Three decades after Chris Prior launched his iconic Whistler board brand, innovation still rides up front words :: Juan Hitta One of the hard truths about innovation is you don’t always nail it on the first, or even second try. “I remember the first year we did carbon weave construction,” says Dominic Morin, head shaper at the Prior factory in Whistler. “Chris was meticulous about his materials. One day he would show up with a box and say, ‘Put this carbon in there.’ We’d make a board, try it out and he would tinker and talk about angles and the sensation at the end of a turn. It was a constant quest to do things better.”

Thankfully, Chris Prior perfected his extralight carbon weave fabric design before his untimely death in 2017. “It’s unique for sure,” Morin explains. “A triaxial weave like ours comes from more of a windsurf-based mentality. Other companies are doing carbon construction, but I don’t think there is anything close to what we are using.”

Windsurfing and surfing are tightly wound into the legacy of Prior. Morin first met the titular founder of Whistler’s first and longest running modern board and ski manufacturer on a wave in Tofino. “I had read the surfboard building bible, so we connected over that,” recalls Morin, who has been shaping boards and skis for Prior for the past 15 years and has seen some of the company’s most storied products come to life.

“The first splitboards, the swallow tails…

Everything is customizable—glass, carbon, rocker, camber—there are so many options.

The good thing is we are a small shop that can quickly embrace new ideas or technologies as they arise.”

This winter’s latest innovation is a carbon nanofibre that’s added to the resin to create the strongest boards Prior has ever produced. “We get this stuff—a powder—from Applied Sciences, a company in the United States,” Morin says.

“They use it to make spaceships. We use it to

Derek Roy Hins checks the weave. CRAIG BARKER INSET Dominic Morin product testing at lunch. PRIOR

create boards and skis that don’t lose their flex or get noodly over time.”

Morin explains that the “noodly” issue is due to microscopic air bubbles trapped in the materials and the resin. Under the pressure of hard flex, these bubbles will give. Nanofibres eliminate air bubble weak points. “It’s the Holy Grail of longevity. For me, that is the key. A durable product is often more sustainable over time than one built with ‘green’ components that don’t last.”

Which doesn’t mean that team Prior isn’t experimenting with plant-based resins and flax weaves; they are. “The flax isn’t available in triaxial or quadaxial weave though,” Morin says.

“So, it’s heavy and stiff, like the early carbon. We also want to offer sap resin—the same stuff BMW uses. It’s 30 per cent plant based, but we need to

use a lot more to soak up the fabric, and it comes out too heavy. We need to do more tests.”

Based out of Function Junction in Whistler, ‘more tests’ at Prior essentially means going for shred laps at lunch. Chris Prior was all about work/play balance, riding with friends, and enjoying life in the mountains.

“Chris had the 20 centimetre rule and we definitely ride whenever we need to,” Morin says.

“I can leave at 11:00 a.m. and be back by 1:00 p.m.

A single Peak to Creek lap in knee-deep pow on a board that needs testing can change my day.

I come back to work feeling like a 7-year-old on Christmas morning. And of course, it’s how we make the boards better too.”

As the saying goes, innovation never sleeps.

Especially on a knee-deep pow day. priorsnow.com 43

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MOUNTAIN LIFER

Spin a globe and stop it with your finger… chances are that Whistler skier Chad Sayers has been there. Possessing a sense of wanderlust born from a desire to immerse himself in the world’s cultural blender, Sayers packed his bags for his first overseas adventure—a four-month trekking jaunt to Nepal and Southeast Asia—in October 1998. That trip became the catalyst for a lifelong journey of creativity.

Armed with an SLR camera and a brick of Velvia slide film, Sayers adjusted to the ripples of culture shock by shooting images of the nearendless beauty spread in front of his lens. Everywhere he looked, there was something to photograph—the weathered, expressive faces of locals, the tiny villages and tea houses, and porters carrying huge loads up steep mountain passes. Sayers was hooked.

“It was a huge eye-opener for me,” says the 42-year-old ski icon. “The culture, the people, just travelling itself. I remember trekking into the Gokyo Valley, and sitting on a rock above our little hut. The sky suddenly cleared, and I could see Makalu, Lhotse, Everest—huge mountains all around me blanketed in white from the first storm of the Himalayan winter. It was a powerful moment, and it opened up my soul. From then on, I knew I wanted to be in the mountains, to travel, and to shoot photos.”

To help dive deeper into his new passion, Sayers sought out Vernon, British Columbia, photographer Don Weixl to mentor him on technical aspects of photography. He then taught himself by simply doing: tinkering with creative nuances that would lend soul and spirit to his images. At the same time, Sayers grew more comfortable in front of the camera, skiing big mountain terrain with an aggressive style that helped him nab the covers of over a hundred ski magazines.

But turning passion into profession can bring unintended consequences. As injuries and emotional traumas piled up, Sayers began to feel adrift. Juggling the roles of athlete, artist, traveller, seeker, son, brother, and lover left his identity fractured. As he dove deeper into the dangers of big mountain skiing, Sayers found himself hanging riskily from the side of a steep face in France, and realized his avoidance had turned into apathy.

“It was a moment of surrender,” he recalls. “I was mentally, physically, and emotionally out of gas—and I was also heartbroken at the time. I stopped skiing halfway through a season to disappear into travel, the waves, and the water. I needed to re-learn how to care about my life.”

The search for a reconnection to reality (and his battered body) fueled a change in lifestyle and consciousness, and led Sayers into a new challenge: writing and publishing. His first book, Overexposure: A Story About a Skier is set for release this winter and we’ve collected some of his favourite images and thoughts to help build the stoke for the upcoming winter storms (or late autumn surf trips).

Pan de Rideau, La Grave, France.

46

GUILLAUME LE GUILLOU

HAVE SKIS, WILL TRAVEL Chad Sayers talks life on two planks and his new book, Overexposure words :: Todd Lawson

47

“Skiing was my first passion, it’s been my career, and a huge part of my life. But when I discovered surfing, I craved the lifestyle, but also found that water helped heal my physical injuries. I started searching for waves and exotic places to surf.”

CHAD SAYERS MATTIAS FREDRIKSSON

“You always remember the first time. I was 16, at SilverStar Mountain and I profoundly experienced the beauty of winter—dry powder falling from the sky as we skied under the lights at night. Since then, I’ve had many sacred winter experiences that definitely shaped me: inside the couloirs on Baffin Island, in La Grave and in the Alps—moments that required every bit of skill and concentration I’ve collected throughout my journey as a skier.

Over time, I realized it wasn’t always about skiing down something—it was more about moving through the landscape, even for just one turn.”

Skiing down after summiting Mount Logan, Kings Peak in the background.

48

KARI MEDIG

“Overexposure was originally meant as a coffee-table book of my photography, but I didn’t know how to communicate the way I was seeing the world. The defining moment happened in South Africa where I found the energy and clarity to understand the story I wanted to tell.”

For a Ski photo: “You always remember the first time. I was 16, at SilverStar Mountain and I profoundly experienced the beauty of winter—dry powder falling from the sky as we skied under the lights at night. Since then, I’ve had many sacred winter experiences that definitely shaped me: inside the couloirs on Baffin Island, in La Grave and in the Alps—moments that required every bit of skill and concentration I’ve collected throughout my journey as a skier.

Over time, I realized it wasn’t always about skiing down something—it was more about moving through the landscape, even for just one turn.”

For any travel shot: “My journeys have taught me to see myself moving through the world with a dream in mind and a realization that life is an amazing gift. The friendships I’ve made, the intimate connections that I’ve found, and the cultures I’ve experienced while travelling are what I treasure most. It’s an art form to navigate the world.”

For a surf shot: “My parents moved to the Caribbean, providing me with the ultimate gateway to the heart of Central America. I wanted to push myself with surfing as a way to disconnect from skiing, and the tropical lifestyle gave me an opportunity to heal and reflect.”

FOR a surf shot: “Skiing was my first passion, it’s been my career, and a huge part of my life. But when I discovered surfing, I craved the lifestyle, but also found that water helped heal my physical injuries. I started searching for waves and exotic places to surf.”

For any shot at the end “I hope my book will reach out to people from all walks of life—not only skiers and travellers—and that it will inspire everyone to get out and see the world.”

DANIEL RÖNNBÄCK

“My journeys have taught me to see myself moving through the world with a dream in mind and a realization that life is an amazing gift. The friendships I’ve made, the intimate connections that I’ve found, and the cultures I’ve experienced while travelling are what I treasure most. It’s an art form to navigate the world.”

CHAD SAYERS

“Overexposure was originally meant as a coffee-table book of my photography, but I didn’t know how to communicate the way I was seeing the world. The defining moment happened in South Africa where I found the energy and clarity to understand the story I wanted to tell.”

MATTIAS FREDRIKSSON

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56

New Beginnings words :: Jon Turk illustration :: Lani Imre Fifteen years ago, when our editor and publishers were banging away at their keyboards trying to launch the first edition of Mountain Life: Coast Mountains, I was riding my bike on remote roads and trails in the Altai Mountains of northwest China, near the borders of Mongolia, Kazakhstan, and Siberia. For me, and everyone with me, it was also a time of New Beginnings.

I was recovering from the cataclysmic death of my dear wife, Chris, who was swept away in a spring avalanche in the eastern Sierra Nevada. On bad days, I assigned myself 80 per cent of the blame for the mistakes leading up to that tragedy. On good days, I might let myself off easy and rationalize that I was only 20 per cent at fault. But never zero. The weight of my own carelessness and the hole left by Chris’s absence hung around my neck all day, every day. Yet, I needed to find the strength to continue onward, so I sought solace and catharsis on my bike—a New Beginning molded by sweat, thirst, and fatigue—in one of the more remote regions on the planet.

Humans have a great propensity to divide our lives into consecutive narratives that fit neatly into an imagined plot with beginning, middle, and end.

My younger daughter, Noey, generously offered to join me as companion, friend, and expedition partner. Some years previously, Noey had dropped out of high school to do the hippie thing on the beaches in Mexico. Then she rallied, got a bachelor’s degree, and trundled off to Texas to work towards a PhD in high-energy particle physics. But that didn’t fit her personality, and she was soon in the midst of another about-face and gravitating towards a career as an organic farmer. New Beginnings. This trip offered a moment out of life to take a deep breath and recalibrate as the miles rolled by; as we pushed through mud puddles and crossed semidesert steppe; as we drifted, lost most of the time, without the language skills to communicate, with poor maps and uncertain direction.

During a rest stop in the city of Altai, we spent a few days with Ma Lu Bin, a 50+ year-old retired banker who spoke excellent English. As Noey and I packed up to head back into the mountains, we found him waiting in our hotel lobby with a piece-of-shit Chinese town-bike and a ragged flannel blanket wrapped up in a sheet of plastic tied haphazardly to a bent and twisted rack.

“I’m coming with you,” he announced.

“No, you can’t come,” I replied. “You’ve never ridden a bike longdistance, that bike won’t hold up, and that blanket will soak up water like a sponge in a rainstorm. You can’t come.”

Ma Lu Bin repeated slowly, with great determination, “I’m coming with you.”

That afternoon, as we were grinding up a long hill on a rutted, rocky, 4-wheel drive road, Ma Lu Bin remained pedalling, incredibly, at my side.

“How can you keep up with me?” I asked. “I’ve been riding every day in the mountains for a month, and you’ve lived in the city and worked in a bank all your life.”

Bumping over sharp rocks, Ma Lu Bin explained simply, “All my life I have suffered more than you have. I am strong in my basically.”

In his youth, during the Maoist Great Leap Forward, when 15 to 55 million Chinese starved to death, Ma Lu Bin’s father had been imprisoned and tortured and his family had next to nothing to eat. “I have suffered more than you have,” was an understatement. Ma Lu Bin had joined the Red Guard, written communist propaganda for Mao, and then became an advertising executive at a bank, because “writing ad copy is much the same as political propaganda.” But nothing in life had fit. Until this moment when he sought a New Beginning, finally finding catharsis and sanity through the simple act of riding his junky bike up this interminable hill with some newfound American friends. Breathing, sweating, conscious of his muscles, not his brain.

Expanding the circle outside my immediate surroundings, half a world away, a neighbour named Nina, a dear friend of my departed wife, decided to seek her own New Beginning by moving into my empty house and waiting patiently for my return, so we could become husband and wife.

And expanding the circle even further, the Earth—another sentient being in this circle of acquaintances thrown together willy-nilly—was facing its own New Beginning by entering the Anthropocene, the age where humans had taken control, for better or worse.

Talking about New Beginnings, it’s tempting to drag out the tired old metaphors of portals, doorways closing and opening, and stepping across thresholds, as if time were non-linear, moving in jumps and starts, periods of stasis interspersed with rapid punctuated change. But perceptions are molded by the stories we tell ourselves in our think-too-much-know-it-all-brains.

Humans have a great propensity to divide our lives into consecutive narratives that fit neatly into an imagined plot with beginning, middle, and end. At the same time, scientists segment Earth-time into eons, eras, periods, and epochs. But all this while, the Earth spins and orbits at a constant rate, paying no attention to our efforts to categorize. Time is linear, not segmented. There are no stops and starts, no “big” days, no doors and portals. So, imagine what our emotional lives would look like without anniversaries and New Beginnings, without calling one event catastrophe and another event recovery, without being lost and then found. A New Beginning requires interpreting our lives through memories of the past and expectations of the future.

Stop, relax, take a deep breath, and imagine spinning and orbiting at a constant rate—day becoming night and night exploding into daylight, without having to think about it, comment on it, decide whether it was good or bad, whether it made ME happy or sad, compassionate or angry, rich or poor. Without history or future.

Yes, I’m glad someone started this magazine because I love it and the people I work with. But as I roll inexorably through my 75th year and approach big number 76, you know what? I don’t want to start getting old.

Maybe, with a little fortitude and luck, I can become content just spinning and orbiting.

Jon Turk first hit the pages of Mountain Life discussing his book The Raven’s Gift and has been a regular columnist since the autumn of 2017. This issue we’re celebrating the launch of Jon’s 35th (and final, he says) book with an interview on page 81.

57

E XPLORE WITH US

TRAILBLAZER

Myia Antone.

ROBIN O'NEILL

Sménhem: Those Who Come After Us Intergenerational healing through language and land words :: Danielle Baker “I am a full-time student, have three jobs, and started a nonprofit,” says Myia Antone after apologizing for being ‘a little tired’ during our chat. The 24-year-old Squamish Nation member is the founder of Indigenous Women Outdoors, has a degree in Environment and Sustainability from UBC, and is one of fewer than 40 Skwx̱wú7mesh sníchim (Squamish Nation language) speakers in the world. Much of the public recognition she receives, including being the youngest recipient of the Tim Jones Community Achievement Award, is for her dedication to making recreational sport accessible to Indigenous women—but revitalizing the Skwx̱wú7mesh language is her primary focus. “It is such a big piece of who I am and who I’m going to be in this world,” she says.

Named for her maternal grandmother, Myia grew up strongly connected to her mother’s Ukrainian heritage and family. Although her father is Skwx̱wú7mesh, she didn’t always identify as Indigenous. “I knew I was Skwx̱wú7mesh, but I didn’t really know what that meant,” she says.

After graduating high school, Myia began contemplating her future, realizing she’d first need to figure out where she came from. Reaching out to her extended family in Squamish for answers was a slow and delicate process. “All Indigenous Peoples have family members who went to residential school, and mine is no different,” she explains. “It caused so

much trauma in our family that I had to remind myself that being Indigenous doesn’t make us weak.” As Myia learned more, she discovered a tradition of enduring strength at the heart of her culture. “It’s only in the last five years that I’ve proudly spoken about being Indigenous.”

Myia has been fortunate to discover that there are many knowledge keepers within her Indigenous family. “My uncle taught me how to weave a hat,” she says. “There are so many teachings that come from that.” Another uncle is happy to speak the Skwx̱wú7mesh sníchim with her. “He says life is being breathed back into a language that was almost completely gone, taken away from us.”

Passionate about land-based learning and wanting to delve deeper into Indigenous culture, Myia spent time in the Northwest Territories and Haida Gwaii. “I learned how to hunt, fish, and harvest medicines with the elders there,” she says, adding that connecting with the environment has been such a powerful force in her own life that she knew it would be for other Indigenous women as well. “I know how healing it is to be in the forest and on the land.”

With a grant from Mountain Equipment Co-op, she started a hiking group for Skwx̱wú7mesh women. The program was so popular that Myia recognized a need to continue and expand it to include all Indigenous women. Turning the venture into a nonprofit—Indigenous Women Outdoors—allowed her to apply for additional grants and grow the community. Currently, the program 59

“When spoken, the Skwx̱wú7mesh language mimics the way the wind travels on our territory and reminds me of how connected our language is to the land.”

Sharing is caring, especially in the mountains.

operates as a one-woman show, with Myia doing everything from arranging events to answering emails and posting on social media. “I’m a pretty determined person,” she acknowledges.

That determination has expanded Indigenous Women Outdoors to include certifications in mountain bike instruction, wilderness first aid, and avalanche education, as well as introductions to rock climbing. Myia’s long-term vision is to have more Indigenous women professionally certified by the Association of Canadian Mountain Guides, one of most respected guiding organizations in the world. “Part of the reason I created this whole thing was that I wanted to be skiing and biking with more Indigenous folks,” she says, adding that she hopes to include lessons on botany, animal track identification, and water-based learning.

In winter 2020, six Indigenous women participated in a five-month mentorship on backcountry ski and snowboard safety. Adventure sports store evo Whistler stepped up with free rentals, and North Vancouverbased Arc’teryx connected the group with local instructors and outdoor leaders. “They set us up with someone for snow science and backcountry cooking,” Myia says. “Everyone was just so happy to volunteer and help out. We even got all the participants avalanche certified.”

During the mentorship, Myia learned different Skwx̱wú7mesh words 60

MIRAE CAMPBELL

for snow to share with the students. This inspired one of the participants, who is Métis from Alberta, to learn what snow was in her Indigenous language. “She spoke to her mom and grandma and found 20 different words to teach us.”

Myia’s mission is to create an accessible and encouraging environment for others to learn language. “I want people to ask these questions and not feel embarrassed about not knowing the answers. The more people who can speak and protect our languages, the stronger we will be.”

Myia has picked up Skwx̱wú7mesh sníchim quickly and plans to continue teaching it after completing her full-time studies in the Squamish Language program at Simon Fraser University. “My life revolves around the Skwx̱wú7mesh language,” she says. “When spoken, it mimics the way the wind travels on our territory and reminds me of how connected our language is to the land. I’d love to bridge this work and my outdoor work.”

Actually, a commonality already exists through all of Myia’s passions.

Her work with the environment, language, and her nonprofit, helps to create intergenerational healing. “I am healing my family and myself. I am healing my siblings and my future kids. Smén̓hem is our word for descendants or those who come after us. Our children are our future; everything that I do is for those who have not been born yet.”

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Communist Powder words :: Feet Banks

Some people describe Shames Mountain as a steep ladder to one of the best backcountry zones in North America. Marie-France Roy and Leah Evans en route to the Dome.

64

MATTIAS FREDRIKSSON

Powder for the people? Almost a decade since they went community-owned, how are things going at Shames Mountain?

“All that is solid melts into air, all that is holy is profaned, and man is at last compelled to face with sober senses, his real conditions of life, and his relations with his kind

Ski Hill

”

—Karl Marx & Friedrich Engels, The Communist Manifesto, 1848

I’d never seen anything like it.

And it changed the way I think about skiing, ski hills, and the thousands of everyday details that go into whisking eager shredders from bottom to top.

Like a sudden lifting of the clouds on a socked-in alpine day, this T-bar ride changed everything. And it all started when the T-bar broke down.

This was last February, at Shames Mountain just outside of Terrace, British Columbia. The sun had cracked after a doozy pacific storm that’d dumped 157 centimetres of snow over the previous three days. Shames had just missed a day of operations because the road in was buried, and I was coming off a side mission with Northern Escape Heli Skiing (see page 76, "Deepest Day of My Life". The storied Terrace ski-trip-of-your-dreams had welcomed me into her powdery bosom and gifted me with an extra juicy cherry on top: a bluebird pow day at one of the stormiest little hills in the province.

But the T-bar was down. A rusted, diesel-fueled antique that gets completely buried in snow multiple times a season, the Shames T-bar is finicky.

The up-track is essentially a trench flattened out after each storm, and on this day a couple of young kids smacking their poles against the snowy sidewall had drifted a tiny bit too far right going past tower two. The cable jumped off the guide wheels.

Full stop. The few skiers who’d made it to the top now had acres of glades and steep headwall runs to have their powder-schralping way with. The rest of us had to wait...

But nor for long. My buddy Brian and I were just three places back from loading and could hear the liftie on the radio, “Yeah, tower two.” Within 30 seconds, a dude came hurtling down the adjacent run on a snowmobile, leapt off before the machine even stopped, and swam—with a hammer in one hand and a broom in the other—through waist-deep powder to access tower two. By this time, our liftie had sprinted up to assist.

Snowmobile dude monkeyed up the tower, liftie dude passed up the broom, and buddy simply leaned out, scooped the errant cable into reach and somehow levered/muscled it back onto the guidewheel within seconds.

A handful of cheers and applause drifted up from the crowd below, but not near as much as there should have been. I stared slack-jawed as the T-bar groaned back into motion. Did no one realize how astonishing this was? Lifties who hustle? Two dudes, kids really, getting a ski lift back online with a broom and a high five, in two minutes?

Meanwhile, the head of ski patrol is selflessly shoveling out the door to an old wooden lift shack, letting everyone else get the freshies. Welcome to Shames Mountain, the biggest little communist ski hill in the country.

65

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Adrien Grabinski cowboys a line in the Skeena Range on his first ever heli trip.

INSET Grabinski, probably early for work again. MATTIAS FREDRIKSSON

GUILLAUME TESSIER/MSP

Skiers of all lands, unite!

Sitting in the Kitimat Ranges of the northern Coast Mountains, in the traditional territories of the Metlakatla, Lax Kw’alaams and Kitsumkalum First Nations, Shames Mountain opened in 1990 after a group of businessmen salvaged and relocated some unused lifts and a lodge from a defunct ski operation nearby. Thanks to an industry boom in the region, and huge, wet, just-cold-enough coastal snowstorms (average winter snowfall: 12 metres/40 feet), Shames quickly became home to some of the most devoted pow hounds in Northern British Columbia. During the 2001-02 season, the hill reported 36,150 skiers and snowboarders on their 29 inbounds runs.

“That was an industry heyday and there was more population in the area back then,” explains Kelly Gingles, whose father was one of the original Shames shareholders. “The hill was open seven days a week and I skied 100 days when I worked up there in ’94-95.”

Unknown to many, even during those busy, glory years, Shames was propped up by the goodwill and personal finances of its ownership group.

“Everyone thought the owners were making fistfuls of money,” Gingles says, “but actually, it was costing them hundreds of thousands of dollars each year.”

By 2008, after a couple of bad snow years and an even worse economic turn, the shareholders had had enough. Shames went up for sale amidst swirling rumours that it would close indefinitely. Faced with a loss of lift access to some of the best powder in the world, local skiers and boarders organized, strategized, and eventually communized, first forming the “Friends of Shames” non-profit society, and eventually going full-pull with the member-owned My Mountain Co-operative. Price for a lifetime seat at the table: $300.

As the North American ski industry watched with bemused intrigue (buoyed by a Shames episode of Jordan Manley’s A Skier’s Journey video series), the co-operative took over Shames’ operations in 2011 and officially became Canada’s first non-profit community-owned ski hill in 2013. A ski hill run by skiers, for skiers (and snowboarders)—powder for the people. Karl Marx would be proud.

67

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Membership is our strength!

“All contributions are important.

Get involved and contribute what resources you have—knowledge, funds, equipment, and any and all talents… even caring for a child while a member attends a meeting or takes a few turns on the hill.”

—My Mountain Co-op website

Of the people, for the people. Despite the often-bottomless powder runs (and 7,800+ acres of pristine backcountry), Shames’ biggest assets are the people. Almost a decade into the rider-owned experiment, one lesson is clear: government grants and corporate donations are integral to growth, but the hill’s success hinges on an engaged, passionate community of volunteers.

Co-op members donate time and expertise to survey potential new runs, paint towers, limb trees, build infrastructure, bus dishes in the lodge, or field the everincreasing media requests. Business owners donate cash, services, bro-deal pricing, or heavy equipment to be used all summer for just the price of gas.

“Volunteering is a huge part of it,” says Dave Gordon, My Mountain Co-op vice chair. “When we needed to paint the lodge, 25 people showed up with brushes.”

Gordon himself volunteers countless hours as Shames’ primary grant writer and local business liaison.

“We’ve secured $1.4 million in the last year and a half,” he says. “Government money is out there, but you need a solid project plan. Local government is supportive and so is local industry. Businesses here know their workforce loves the hill and they support us. We wouldn’t see any of that under a for-profit model.”

Shames’ ski patrol director, Adrien Grabinski, even showed up a week early for his first day of work to “help get things going.”

“Sometimes we have 100 cm of snow overnight and we can’t open the hill because it is buried,” he says. “The volunteer community helps us shovel out the lifts and buildings early in the morning so everyone can have a full

Chad Sayers was an early adopter of the Shames philosophy.

MATTIAS FREDRIKSSON

ski day. That’s passion. You don’t see that on hills that are just there to make money.”

Grabinski grew up ski racing in Alberta’s Bow Valley and discovered Shames while driving west to a commercial tuna fishing job out of Prince Rupert. “I had no idea Shames existed until I drove past a sign that said, ‘ski hill’.

I saw another sign at the turnoff, so I hit the brakes and drove up and hiked around. The terrain blew my mind.”

69

On a global or even national scale, communism fails because of greed and the human ego. Someone will always want more and deceive to get it. But in the microcosm of a communal ski hill the "greater good" is tangible, achievable, and easily shared. The system works like gangbusters.

Smithers ripper Tanner Elliott has been known to make the two-hour drive for Shames pow days.

MATTIAS FREDRIKSSON

71

The infinitude of the snowfield “The mountains allow us the possibility to cast off the shackles of and chains of our civilized life… and become who we are.”

—Eugen Oertel, Sport, Alpinismus und Shilauf, 1909

Oertel was onto something. French-born, he ended up kicking around Bavaria, working as a judge, lawyer, and writer while surviving the first World War and subsequent rise of the Communist Party of Germany. An avid skier and mountaineer, Oertel believed skiing was a transcendental practice and a retreat from what Marx called, “the tyranny of capital.”

Rather than flounder in the modern, capitalist rat race, Oertel pushed the idea that skiing, and outdoor sports in general, brought the body, mind, and spirit back into balance though movement, spontaneity, creative action, and engagement with the natural landscape. It was he who coined the phrase, “the infinitude of the snowfield.” And 111 years later and half a planet to the west, no term better describes the feeling of staring out into the Shames backcountry.

“My first time up there was stormy,” says Swedish-photographer-turnedTerrace-local Mattias Fredriksson. “I couldn’t see anything other than deep pow with snowy trees and I had no idea how it looked up there. Then we came back to good visibility and felt ‘Wow!’ It was mind blowing—we could see possibilities everywhere.”

Officially, Shames has 3,156 hectares (7,800+ acres) of not-yet-developed backcountry: huge bowls, steep ridges, and old growth forests—all highly accessible from the T-bar. This is where the little community-owned ski hill starts punching far above its weight—there are 12 named bowls in the tenured

area with another nine just outside the line that all drop back down to the Shames access road. Possibilities everywhere indeed.

“It’s kind of the dream scenario,” says veteran ski pro Mark Abma.

“Accessible and massive, you can get up there easily and walk as far as you want—trees in close and big spines farther out.”

Abma visited Shames and the Northern Escape Heli Skiing tenure last winter to film with Grabinski for the upcoming Matchstick Productions flick, The Stomping Grounds. “It’s such a fun vibe there,” he says. “An incredible environment with people hanging out in the parking lot, a true authentic experience. Adrien was our local tour guide, and he was skiing faster than any of us.”

For Grabinski, this season marks just his third winter at Shames, but he’s already made a big impact, both with his burly backcountry descents and his on-mountain work ethic. During my visit, it was always Grabinski selflessly shovelling out staircases and buildings instead of pulling the patrol card and skipping the lift line to get turns on one of the best bluebird pow days of the month.

“I believe in leading by example and putting in the effort,” he says. “This community has a deep passion for skiing—it feels like a family where everyone carries their own weight—and more.”

Like the old days. Shames parking lot delivers real ski culture.

MATTIAS FREDRIKSSON

73

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Embrace the Bourgeois?

“The worker must have bread, but she must have roses too.”

—Rose Schneiderman, 1912

In a slick twist of irony, the most capitalistic nation on the continent has had communist (or at least community-owned) ski hills operating for decades. About 22 of the 470 or so ski operations in the United States are owned by non-profit organizations. Bridger Bowl outside of Bozeman, Montana has been operating under an open-membership co-op model since 1951 and has since grown their hill from a single rope tow to a 2,000-acre resort with eight chairlifts.

After a decade or so under the co-op model, Shames is still a few years away from that kind of expansion, but they have been successful enough to realize some on-hill growth plans. Summer of 2021 saw the replacement of the gnarly rope tow in their learning area with a covered conveyor/magic-carpetstyle lift (volunteers built and erected the 300 feet of canopy tenting), and the addition of much-needed parking. But the most exciting new development is on the slopes—an extensive tree-limbing initiative inbounds will increase terrain and reduce tree well hazards, and a new gladed run on an adjacent backcountry ridge will deliver the kind of pow turns white dreams are made of. Longtime local shredder Brad Zeerip spearheaded both initiatives.

“We limbed every tree patch between the black diamond runs,” Zeerip says. “That will double the inbounds skiable terrain. The glades; that’s the result of two years of permitting and paperwork. These enhanced backcountry runs help spread out skiers and reduce crowding, but I also think it will bring destination travellers. Shames is the glue that holds this community together, but we need every skier we can get, we can’t be a business with no customers.”

And there’s the rub. As much as Shames is a living room for the locals and a place to cast off the shackles of a hectic life, the membership only provides so much. At least some of the money for a new chairlift, a longer season, a new lodge, a backcountry hut system, a new snowcat, sewer upgrades, or whatever else the Shames proletariat feel is necessary… some of that cash will need to come from out of town.

“One of the big challenges has been running this as a business and not as a club for backcountry skiers,” says Gordon. “Our chair is 49 years old. Our lodge holds 300 people and we have 900 pass holders. We had an on-hill staff of two last summer, and one of them was in Mexico on his honeymoon. Grant money comes and goes, but I think the membership recognizes that having people come here to eat, ski and stay is good for the community. But of course, we also hope it doesn’t get too busy.”

The good news is that a resort with minimal grooming and world-class backcountry skiing and splitboarding still attracts (mostly) the right kind of people—self-sufficient, appreciative, respectful adventure seekers. The even better news is that Terrace isn’t really your spot if you’re looking for ice hotels, places to have your dog’s toenails painted, restaurants with coat-check girls, or shops selling those furry, $1,700 Bogner boots that skiing’s bourgeois class seems to like so much.

Mid-December and Dylan Siggers is getting trenched 25 metres above the top of the T-bar at Shames.

MATTIAS FREDRIKSSON

But the best news is that no matter what happens at Shames, it will happen because the people who live and love the mountain decided on it. “To not be part of a big corporate machine that can go against what is best for the community is huge,” says Fredriksson. “We have all seen that happen, selling out for profit.”

“The co-op model has been validated,” adds Gordon. “A ski hill is a hard business to run, we’re closed 290 days a year. Thankfully it keeps snowing, we are still alive, and where else do you go and meet a diverse group of people from across your community and everyone has their hands in the air saying, ‘This is the best day ever’? I’ve run businesses that had a few days like that but not every day, not everyone.”

And so, Shames soldiers on, forcing the question: is communism, socialism, or at least common ownership the future of small-town ski hills?

That remains to be seen. For now, Shames is thriving, the snow is deep, and people are moving to town to get in on the action.

Steve Salem and his family arrived in Terrace in 2015, fell in love with the community, the mountain, and the all-for-one, one-for all vibe of Shames.

“The general stoke of everyone involved is my favourite thing,” says Salem, a proud Shames co-owner and board member. “I don’t think any other ownership model allows for the kind of passion we see up there… and if the lift breaks down, I don’t have to go far to complain to the owner.”

75

Deepest Day of My Life

TOP LEFT The Leonardo is considered Lamborghini of helicopters. GUILLAUME TESSIER/MSP. TOP RIGHT Feet Banks gets buried. ABOVE Chad Sayers making the kind of turn we all dream of. PAUL MORRISON.

Pow-gasms in Northern BC

words :: Feet Banks As a skier, I’ve had it pretty good. More than 40 years on the boards, three decades of that on the big, varied terrain of what is generally accepted as the best ski resort in North America. I’ve road tripped the Powder Highway, gotten lost at Powder King, British Columbia and sunk turns in clear view of both the Pacific Ocean and the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Also, I’ve never been to Ontario.

And while there is still a whole world out there waiting for my skis to explore, I can’t deny that my skier’s journey so far has been what the kids these days call #blessed. So, it is entirely without exaggeration or hyperbole that I say Northern Escape Heli Skiing gave me the deepest snow of my life. Turn after turn, run after run of absolutely bonkers deep, dry, 1,000 per cent shred-able north coast BC powder.

“It’s deeper up here,” says John Forrest with a sly grin. “Our last day like this was just over a week ago. We get 20 days like this a year.”

The day in question was smack in the middle of a more than 150 centimetre storm, and calling it "balls deep" is a disservice—it was deeper than that. On a fast turn through steep glades, the powder needed surfing terms 76

to describe it: overhead. The pow was literally bottomless—I know because I blew a ski and had to dig for it—there was no bottom.

Starting in the mid-80s as one of the youngest ACMG guides in Canada, Forrest is a BC heli skiing legend who started, or helped start, one catskiing and five heli skiing companies in his 35-year career. He first put roots down in the Terrace area in 2004 to open Northern Escape in the Skeena Range and share the deepest pow in BC. With a new off-grid lodge in the mountains, a Leonardo Koala six-guest helicopter (“the best, most powerful, safest machine for heli skiing”), and a snowcat primed in case the weather won’t allow him to fly, it’s safe to say Forrest gets as many huge pow days each winter as anyone on the planet.

“Meeting great people, seeing their joy—that’s why I keep doing it, “he explains. “Some of my best friends are up here right now, and I have a group coming next week that I’ve been skiing with for 30 years.”

Lodge life is the best life, and the friends you make in a heli skiing lodge will always share that bond created by pure joy and stoke, but best thing about skiing a big storm at Northern Escape is that those big fat north coast pow flakes just keep piling up. So, if you take accumulation into account, each successive run is the deepest of your life. My balls are tingling just thinking of it. neheliskiing.com

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MOUNTAIN LIFER

THE LION SPEAKS TONIGHT Mountain Life columnist Jon Turk talks lions, myth, and storytelling in his latest book

Mountain Life's longest running columnist, Jon Turk celebrates the release of his 35th book.

words :: Feet Banks Jon Turk is not only Mountain Life’s original columnist, he’s also our resident expert on how to avoid being drowned by a crocodile and evade death at the jaws of a charging lion.

For protection against lions, you need a rungu—the thick, knotted, hardwood club used by the Samburu people of Kenya. In his latest book, Tracking Lions, Myth, and Wilderness in Samburu, Turk recounts arriving at a remote “lion research camp” (more realistically a safari tourism outpost) on the African savannah, being handed his own rungu, and instructed by his guide Ian on how to stop a charging 250 kg lion.

“Maybe you think to hit the lion on the head?”

I don’t need to make a fool of myself, so I shrug noncommittedly.

“No, you don’t,” he explains.

Ian takes the rungu back so he can demonstrate: “Like this.” Then, with a silent, explosive burst, like an NFL running back breaking through the line at the Super Bowl, he leaps into the air, spins sideways and swings his weapon horizontally at waist height.

I still haven’t quite comprehended the lesson until he explains, “You jump up and out of the way, so the lion does not eat you.” Ian looks at me intently, head cocked slightly to the side, to make sure I am listening, “And then, as you are falling back to the ground, you hit him on the side of the neck. Hard. Do you understand? You swing the rungu with your falling body and the arm. Together. Break his neck. If you hit him on the head, he will not stop. He will eat you.”

ERIK BOOMER

“Thank you. Got it.” I try jumping, spinning and swinging, and Ian smiles feebly as if to say, “If that’s the best you can do, my friend, then I guess that’s the best you can do. You are a white-haired white man, after all. We’ll have to live with that.”

Spoiler alert: the book isn’t just about lions. Turk uses his time in Samburu to dig into the history of human civilization and demonstrates that, for the past couple hundred thousand years (at least) the stories we tell have defined the path ahead—from the Cognitive Revolution 70,000 years ago that led to the development of language and a population explosion, to the mechanized labour of the Industrial Revolution, to the current climate crisis. Turk argues that the narratives we weave (or those woven around us) hold the keys to surviving our current perils of global warming, plague, pestilence, ego, greed and the impending self-destruction of humanity. On the other hand—yin and yang, black and white—the fundamental dilemma of humankind is that the narratives we weave created those same problems in the first place.

“We don’t need something new to solve our current problems,” Turk explains. “We need to rediscover something very old.”

Now in his mid-seventies, Turk has been a professional storyteller for decades and penned five adventure books, 30-plus textbooks and spoken at numerous events, including a TEDx in Canmore in 2016. As he releases what he says will be his last book (it came out in early September) we caught up with Jon to talk about storytelling, lions and why he jumps off cliffs to stay present.

81

CLOCKWISE, STARTING TOP LEFT A Samburu hut is built of sticks and vines, then covered with whatever materials can be scrounged. A lion killed and ate a cow. Village women join in song as part of a wedding day celebration. A warrior with a Stegosaurus headdress. COURTESY OF JON TURK

Mountain Life: You wrote the first college-level environmental science textbook back in 1970, but most people know you for your adventure stories. This book feels the most like a hybrid or a bridge between those two worlds.

Jon Turk: This is really the book I’ve always wanted to write. To talk about the problems we have in a scientific way, but at the same time wrap it into a story that makes people want to turn the page. I wanted to write a book that encompassed more than a specific region or tribe; I wanted to wrap the condition of humankind into one story. Hopefully it works.

ML: You cover literally the entire history of humans in this book, but one part I really liked was early on: You’re alone and crawling into a thicket to get away from, maybe, rebels armed with AK-47s and you stop and say, “Feel this moment, you will never be here again.” When did you start tapping into that thought process, what people now call being present or finding a flow state? Has it gotten easier over the years?

JT: Oh you know it, the first time you scare the living bejesus out of yourself. You put yourself in a situation and think, "Oh my gosh, I could be dead in the next five seconds." And then you feel your whole body focus in on the now and you have to focus completely on what you do in the next five, ten, ninety seconds to stay alive. And there’s this amazing clarity and wow… That was cathartic, that cleaned me out, that made me. A time when all the stories were gone from my head and I was no longer enslaved 82

by thinking and the big brain… That is a wondrous feeling and you start reading later that this is what all the great teachers have been teaching for centuries. Now, putting yourself at risk is a harsh way to do it; if I was any good at meditation, I could do it without jumping off a cliff or whatever… but yeah, this is how people like us do it.

ML: And that ties into the main guts of this book, the ideas of those stories that we are always telling ourselves and each other, how our big brains take over.

JT: Yes, and of course some of those stories can help us survive. They are predictions. So, when we see something moving in the bushes and we can’t identify it, we tell ourselves a story—the last time I saw that, it was a lion, so it might also be a lion this time. But then, over time, our stories can get wacky, and we start enlarging them or talking about things that don’t matter and eventually drive ourselves crazy. Or worse, cause real damage to ourselves and our planet. Our brains have gotten away from us—they can really get in the way by creating a narrative that doesn’t exist, or by buying into someone else’s false narrative.

ML: And the next thing you know the planet is on fire, the ice is melting, people are fighting over any difference of opinion and we’re destroying the very things that sustain life—the air, the water, the land—to save a story we made up ourselves called “the economy.”

OMG

fun!

SNOWSHOEING IN WHISTLER

LEFT A ten-year-old Samburu boy, armed only with a stick, tends cows on the savannah. RIGHT Dressed for the occasion, Jon steps in as one of the best men at the wedding.

JT: Look, you recently turned me on to a book about fungi and mycelium, and some of those species have been around for a couple billion years.

Humans, with our big brains, we haven’t been around that long—it’s an evolutionary experiment that’s only been tried once on this planet; this is our first try. And big brains are really good at predicting things and telling stories and building rocket ships, but I don’t know if the big brain is a real long-term solution to survival. The beauty of nature is hardwired into us, but so is this sense of tribalism. So, if someone on TV says, “Join the Pepsi Generation,” that means join the tribe. All you have to do is buy a Pepsi and you are with us, you are a member. And this competes with the cleanliness of nature, which is non-tribal. So there’s an evolutionary struggle there—the mythologies that gave us power have been hijacked and it keeps exploding. We’re using too much and expecting too much, and that’s a great tragedy.

But you can go out in nature—even without the danger—just sit in a canoe for three weeks and by the end of the first day those stories will diminish. By the end of three weeks, you’ll be living in a different headspace. Nature cleans us: A day is better than an hour, and five days is better than one and so on. But that’s one lesson people can take away from this book—nature will clean us out and give us purity.

ML: I think that is a good place to leave it—nature as salvation. Thanks, Jon. Hey, you mentioned that this will be your last book. Was that something you knew going in or did you realize that along the way?

JT: Before I wrote my last book, I said it would be the last book. So we’ll see. You can call me a liar, just don’t hit me on the head.

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COURTESY OF JON TURK

ML: Fear not Jon Turk, we’re saving that manoeuvre for the attacking lions.

(And for the record, the easiest way to avoid a crocodile attack, as outlined in Turk’s 2016 book Crocodiles and Ice, is to submerse your face in the water at the start of your journey to remind the river and the crocodile spirits that you are a friend. Explained to him by locals, this technique worked for Turk while paddling in crocodile country throughout the Solomon Islands.

Alternatively, conventional wisdom on crocodiles clearly states that once you are attacked, it’s best to just stay calm until you get a chance to punch the croc in the eye as hard as you can and slip away... What story works best for you?)

The new Jon Turk book, Tracking Lions, Myth and Wilderness in Samburu is available now at jonturk.net and you can listen to a full-length conversation with Jon that covers his books, adventures, and a plethora of other topics on the new “Live It Up With Mountain Life” podcast over at mountainlifemedia.ca/podcast

Take Out and Catering

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FOOD

COURTESY AKI KALTENBACH

Orange Alert!

Eat carrots, not salmon: Save Da Sea, and the need for vegan seafood options.

words :: Feet Banks By pretty much any metric, the oceans are in distress. The plastic-laden garbage patch floating out in the middle of the Pacific Ocean is estimated to be about twice the size of Texas, microplastics are widely distributed across oceanic area, depth, and food chains, and illegal/irresponsible/greedy/assbackward overfishing practices continue to decimate fish populations. Many scientists predict a total ocean collapse by 2048.

Faced with these depressing realities, one common sense solution shines through: we need to eat less seafood. So that is where Aki Kaltenbach is starting: “If you go to a sushi restaurant and I can get one dish of your meal to be vegan, then I feel like I’m doing my job.”

Kaltenbach has plans for a vegan tuna salad alternative in the near future, as well as frozen scallop and calamari substitutes made from mushrooms.

A longtime Whistler local now based out of Victoria, British Columbia, Kaltenbach is the founder and CEO of Save Da Sea, a plant-based seafood company she started while managing popular Whistler sushi joint, Harajuku.

“A lot of it was to satisfy my own choices,” she says. “I was vegan and half our staff at Harajuku were as well. The average age there was 24—this is a young peoples’ movement—and I started thinking: what will sushi restaurants look like in ten years, or 20 years?”

Acknowledging that wild salmon is a species already at risk, and adamant that farmed salmon is not an option (“it is so disgusting”), 86

Kaltenbach began messing around with her own recipes and developed a smoked salmon lox alternative made from carrots.

“Carrots are common for vegan smoked salmon,” she says. “And I was lucky because I had a sushi restaurant and chefs that could make it into a roll and help me test it.”

Originally planning to sell strictly to the restaurant industry, Kaltenbach was forced to pivot when the COVID pandemic struck and closed restaurants across the province. Currently sold at 42 BC restaurants and grocery stores (including Nesters and Whole Foods), Save Da Sea plant-based smoked salmon is made in Vancouver and ships about 10,000 packages per month.

Ontario and Quebec are the next targets on Kaltenbach’s hit list.

With her first vegan seafood option under her belt, Kaltenbach has plans for a vegan tuna salad alternative in the near future, as well as frozen scallop and calamari substitutes made from mushrooms. And while the seafood-alternative industry is currently ballooning with startups creating lab-grown “cell-based” “cultured” or “clean” seafood, Kaltenbach says she has no plans to enter the arena of petri dishes and cloned proteins.

“We don’t play in that space, nor do we want to,” she explains. “We are plant-based and made from simple ingredients. That’s something I think about as a mom—sure, that burger alternative is great but what are some of these ingredients? I don’t know what we’re eating. Our carrot lox has nine ingredients—all things you can recognize. We’re not trying to fool anyone… there’s a carrot on the package.”

Save Da Sea’s plant-based smoked salmon contains: carrots, maple syrup, apple cider vinegar, sunflower oil, sea salt, natural smoke flavour, organic flax oil, seaweed and lactic acid. It tastes awesome on an eggs benny. savedasea.com

MELISSA McCRORY

MADISON PERRY

Happy 15th anniversary Mountain Life!

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CULTURE

BACK TO THE SHACK A ski-propelled reconnection with family, tradition and Le Grand Pic

words :: Feet Banks // photography :: Aga Iwanicka March 2021. There’s still plenty of snow clinging to, and falling on, the Coast Mountains and shred season is holding steady, pushing back against spring’s inevitable approach. Most years, or at least most non-COVID years, professional shredders like Pemberton skier Marie-Pier Préfontaine would have their eyes on local big lines they’ve been waiting to fill in all season, booking tickets to Alaska, and shredding big pillowy pow amidst the towering coniferous coastal rainforests.

Instead, with international travel banned, MP heads east—to the spaced-out maple forests of Sainte-Adèle, Quebec, hauling five-gallon buckets of sugary maple water without spilling a drop. March is maple syrup season, and MP has returned to the homeland to help her 86-yearold grandfather at the sugar shack.

“It wasn’t a hard decision,” MP says. “The sugar shack is the most relaxing place in the world for me. Yes, March has great skiing but it’s just skiing. I love to spend time with my grandpa each year, working with him in the forest and watching the birds. Especially with the pandemic happening and the uncertainty, I felt it was really important to put my family first.”

Grandpa Pierre Préfontaine has been working his maple forests since 2002. Throughout the year, he makes almost daily voyages out to the 16x16-foot slat wooden cabin with wood heat, no insulation, the requisite set of moose antlers nailed to the wall, and the boiler system needed to transform the sap from hundreds of maple trees into a traditional eastern Canadian delicacy—pure maple syrup. March is the best month to harvest because air temperatures begin to rise in the daytime but still drop below freezing at night to create pressure that pushes the sap out of the trees.

91

ABOVE A keen eye. It's important not to allow the boiling mixutre to overflow.

“We work every day,” MP explains. “Grandpa Pierre has about 850 notches in his trees, all connected with tubes, so we go out and collect maple water for several hours, then relax in the sun and keep the fire stoked to boil the maple water until it’s ready. We’ll chat with neighbours, maybe have a crêpe with some cheap white wine—it’s a peaceful environment.

When you have a hectic life, the shack allows you to breathe deeply and feel good again.”

That sense of slowing down didn’t apply to the actual work process, however. This year, MP decided to use her touring skis to skin through the maple sap harvest routes rather than the more traditional snowshoe method. Coming from a skiing family (her mother, aunt, and uncle all coach ski racing, and MP is an Olympian and ex-National Ski Team member), strapping on the boards in the forests of her homeland was a natural move.

“Grandpa Pierre says a lot about syrup making is just l'attente d’un grand pic [the wait for the pileated woodpecker]. It is the bird everyone wants to see…”

“It was easy and more efficient,” she says. “It was way more fun bringing the buckets of sap back to the shack but also for just getting around, inspecting or repairing the lines, or carrying equipment from place to place. And most important, it made my grandpa smile. He was laughing at me at first, but it worked out. Next year, I might try to get him to bring his skis as well.”

92

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The process of making maple syrup is a huge part of Quebec culture, a tradition that brings families together to reconnect with one another and their history. Throughout the summer and autumn, maple trees store starch in their roots and trunks. As temperatures drop, that starch begins converting to sugar in the sap. Collected maple water needs to be boiled to evaporate off the water and leave just the sugary sap. It’s a process very conducive to quiet contemplation and connection to the forest, family, and self.

“About 150 litres of maple water yields one gallon of syrup,” MP explains. “That can take about two and half hours to boil off, and it has to be a very precise temperature—104 degrees Celsius.”

While keeping the home fires burning exactly right, Grandpa Pierre and MP fill their downtime sitting on the deck of the shack he built by hand when she was a child. They tell stories, speaking softly while watching the birds.

“The most exciting bird is the grand pic, the pileated woodpecker,” MP says. “Grandpa Pierre says a lot about syrup making is just l'attente d’un grand pic [the wait for the pileated woodpecker]. It is the bird everyone wants to see, but it only appears sometimes. We saw him just once, on our last day. He showed up and presented to us his stunning red feathers on his head, his silky black body. There was no time for a photo or video, I just whispered ‘grand pic!’ and we sat silently to watch. It was like he knew we would be gone the next day. We caught a glimpse of the hidden white feathers under his wings as he flew off. It was a magical moment, my grandfather’s favourite… that is worth missing some pow turns for.”

ABOVE Intergenerational stoke. BELOW Back to the shack after another morning of collecting the goods.

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Axel Runner, Whistler Mountain.

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6. A perennial favorite of magazine testers and professional skiers alike and known for its stable, powerful feel, the new ELAN RIPSTICK 96 BLACK EDITION is ready to over-deliver on its promise to skiers looking for the ultimate, all-condition freeride ski. www.elanskis.com // 7. Sugar gets a bad rap when it comes to health, but in the world of eco-friendly materials, it’s pretty darn sweet. The fabric of the PICTURE SEEN JACKET is made with a combination of sugarcane waste and recycled PET, reducing carbon emissions by 25 per cent. Combined with a 20k/20k membrane and a PFC-free DWR treatment, this jacket keeps riders warm and dry while creating less environmental impact. www.picture-organic-clothing.com // 8. Designed to boost the flow and freedom of your adventures, the RUX 70L is a compressible, weatherproof gear management solution with a wide rigid opening for easy access, a secure, stowable lid, modular straps for easy carry, and a component-based design for a wide variety of outdoor adventures. www.rux.life // 9. Featuring a new T-Ride walking system, the TECNICA COCHISE 130 DYN GW is the ultimate one-quiver hybrid boot that makes no compromise on downhill and uphill performance. A stiff freeride boot designed for skiing hard in and out of bounds, the Cochise 130 DYN also features Grip Walk to keep you on your feet after a long day of shredding hard. www.blizzard-tecnica.com // 10. Created in SPY+’s top-secret California lab, the SPY MARAUDER ELITE GOGGLES (EJack pro model) are a high-powered, magnetic Toric snow goggle featuring crystal clear distortion-free optics and Happy lens tech that boosts mood, alertness, and enhances color and contrast. Six super-strong magnets enable fast and easy lens changes, and the patent-pending Deadbolt lens locking system provides worry-free snow-sliding. www.mccooswhistler.ca

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11. From seasoned pros to first-time riders, BURTON’S STEP ON system provides a seamless experience for every style of boarding. Three secure locking points connect foot to binding for maximum comfort, responsiveness and convenience. Just Step On and rip. Pictured: Women’s Step On Escapade Bindings and Felix Step On Boots. www.burton.com // 12. Strap ‘em in and let ‘em ride. INTUITION WRAP STRAPS improve ergonomics and comfort by pulling from both sides in a cinching motion, causing the strap to cradle and evenly disperse compression, eliminating pressure points and improving fit and control. www.intuitionliners.com // 13. Be bold in the cold in the MONS ROYALE WOMEN’S CASCADE MERINO FLEX 1/4 ZIP. Combining the soft warmth and breathability of merino wool, with a new four-way stretch, the Cascade is made to move with you, no matter the conditions. www.monsroyale.com // 14. The SALOMON QST BLANK is what happened when we tasked our athletes with designing the most progressive and playful freeride powder ski on the mountain. Pillow-popping and powderloving, the BLANK is built for deep days at 112 mm underfoot. A progressive shape enhances the flotation and playfulness of your turns, while its construction provides the stability you rely on. Charge resort laps or mount the BLANK with the SHIFT for touring. www.salomon.com // 15. Backed by a lifetime guarantee, the ECOLOGYST PEAK HOODY is made with 500 gsm organic cotton fleece and has a minimalistic peaked hood and ribbing along the sides for mobility no matter your outdoor adventure. Available in Clay, Pacific, and Lichen, this is a Forever Hoody, as customer Nathan S shares: “I bought my first Peak hoody 15 years ago and it’s still going―worn by me and my then-girlfriend (now wife). It’s the best.” www.ecologyst.com

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16. Designed for all-day-touring missions, DYNAFIT’S WOMEN’S RADICAL PRO BOOT offers comfort and freedom of movement for uphill travel as well as an uncompromising downhill ride; featuring 60 degrees of cuff rotation, a progressive 120 flex, and micro-adjust buckles for precise fit. Lightweight and built to last, these handmade-in-the-Dolomites boots now carry a lifetime guarantee—which, for the way you shred, means five years. www.dynafit.com // 17. With the TEN4TEC RADIO CHEST HARNESS, the difference is in the details. Designed in Squamish for outdoor and film industry professionals, this new modern standard is customizable for the most comfortable fit possible. The 420D high tenacity Codura nylon harness holds any size radio and features antennae and remote mic/earphone cord management sleeves to keep everything snag-free and safe. The easily organizable main tool pouch features a daisy chain for lanyards or tools, a key fob, and bright interior to help find you stuff easier. Simply the best-designed harness on the market. www.ten4tec.com // 18. The RAB WOMEN'S INFINITY ALPINE JACKET offers uncompromised protection with excellent warmth in a lightweight package. Combining advanced 'interstitch' seam construction with GORE-TEX INFINIUM fabrics to protect from the elements during exposed alpine climbs or lines, this technical jacket is loaded with features including a fully adjustable, helmet compatible down-filled hood with stiffened peak for increased protection, warmth, and on-hill comfort. www.rab.equipment.ca // 19. The DOVETAIL FRESHLEY OVERALL for women is pure magic. Containing the signature Dovetail Workwear “stretch sauce,” this overall is designed to fit and move on every body while bending, digging, painting, climbing, or just kicking it at après.

With all the pockets you need, the Freshley is the full-body toolbox you’ve been looking for. www.dovetailworkwear.ca // 20. The OYUKI KANA GORE-TEX MITT is a top choice all winter long. Combining genuine goatskin leather for durability and dexterity with a soft shell around the wrist for ultimate comfort, this mitt is perfect for wet and cold weather without being too bulky. After a season's use, they still look as fresh as the day you got them. www.evo.com

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ADVENTURE • COMFORT • DESIGN

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21. Drum roll please… introducing the GOT BAG ROLLTOP BACKPACK, the world's first rolltop backpack made of recycled ocean plastic. With a "trash to treasure" supply chain harvested by a network of fishermen off the north coast of Java, Indonesia, the plastic bycatch is recycled, turned into robust, PET pellet yarn and weaved into this thing of beauty. The backpack is also 100 per cent recyclable, thus contributing to an all-important circular economy. www.camplifestyle.ca // 22. The ultimate bike-packing build, the LANDYACHTZ EFF WAY OFF BIKE incorporates the benefits of 27.5-inch wheels and drop bars allowing you to find adventure with style. The Eff Way Off has the ability to take you anywhere, which is a huge bonus, especially when you are looking for a true bike packing experience. www.landyachtzbikes.com // 23. The 3-ply Dermizax shell fabric of the ORAGE MTN-X SPIRE 3L SHELL JACKET makes it one of the most dependably waterresistant jackets available. Field tested in the backcountry of the Pacific Northwest, the Spire offers an ergonomically engineered jacket that will keep you warm and dry on the days where you need to take a rainy lift ride at lower elevations to access the fresh snow at the peak. www.orage.com // 24. The result of seven years of R&D, the PRIOR PHALANX SNOWBOARD merges our famous Khyber freeride nose and our Wildcard freestyle tail to create the perfect freestyle-in-the-backcountry tool. The twin flex and centered stance also makes it the ultimate freestyle powder board. A key addition to any quiver. www.priorsnow.com // 25. Organized, comfortable, durable, the ARC’TERYX RUSH SK BACKPACK is your pack for extended, ambitious tours. Available in 32 L or 42 L, the Rush provides weather protection and intuitive organization, with a dedicated pocket to keep avalanche tools right at hand and the spacious roll-top main compartment to store your day’s kit. helmet carries externally, and a lid pocket stashes goggles and small essentials. Built for alpine conditions. www.arcteryx.com

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114

ANDREW STRAIN

OMG fun!

SNOWMOBILE TOURS IN WHISTLER

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L o c a l ly S h a p e d a n d H a n d r a f t e d S k i s , S n ow bo a r ds a n d S p l i t bo a r ds

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