UP AND COMER
words :: Kevin Hjertaas photography :: Kyle Gibson
ROB HEULE
EAST OF THE GREAT DIVIDE
On a clear spring morning, Rob Heule takes in the sunrise atop the Great Divide; British Columbia to one side, Alberta to the other. He studies a dozen different ski objectives in the golden light. The obvious descents would take him west to “Beautiful British Columbia” but, Rob has a different plan. After a cup of cowboy coffee at the Neil Colgan Hut, he wipes his moustache on his sleeve and buckles his ski boots. Dropping into the steep 3/4 Couloir, Rob leads us back into Alberta. He skis the imposing chute with a composed, playful style down towards Moraine Lake and on to Lake Louise. Then we jump into his grey 1991 Toyota pickup and, with Canadian country music icon Ian Tyson playing on the tape deck, follow the Bow River east out of the mountains and into the foothills. It’s a handy metaphor for a professional skier who didn’t follow the standard route west laid out by his predecessors. Growing up in Calgary, Rob developed a love for the outdoors through adventures with his parents. Fernie was the family’s favourite winter getaway, and Rob soon joined a Fernie youth ski program. As he developed, his father drove him all over North America for halfpipe contests, where Rob eventually earned his first professional contracts with Line Skis and The North Face. For a pro skier, it’s a pretty standard origin story to that point. However, Whistler is the centre of the Canadian ski scene—every successful pro from the Rockies has moved there (or to Revelstoke) to solidify their career. But, even when he worked summers on the Blackcomb Glacier, Rob always returned to Alberta. “I think leaving this sense of home and belonging, family and friends, and a connection to this place is hard to do,” he says. “I just never felt a need to leave.” Instead, Rob strengthened his roots. He filmed urban skiing segments in Calgary while developing a workshop and business of his own. RAD Packs is Rob’s oneman brand where he makes limited runs of “radical outdoor gear.” It was up-cycled backpacks in the early days, but in recent years, he’s made stylish all-leather ski mitts, fleece and GORE-TEX powder hats, and rugged, durable work pants.
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