THE TRENCH - Winter 2024/25

AN ODE TO THE LOVE ABOVE Monobillies. Pride Days. Speed.

Lusti, Mac, Moms & the Mountain.

ROCKS, RIFTS & THE PISTOLS MLA Tom Shypitka reflects and moves on.

SHOW AND TELL Extraordinary East Kootenay photography in profile.

CANAL FLATS SURVIVALIST GREG OVENS WOMEN IN BUSINESS GIFT IT REAL GOOD

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We live in a community built on strong roots. We have a community family that is steadfast in its support of each other, our families, our businesses and our city.

These roots make us resilient and focused on a positive and prosperous future.

We all stand united and work together to make Cranbrook the wonderful place it is to live, work and play.

We look forward to the possibilities the future will bring to each of us, and our community. The future is bright.

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contents

Swirling Current A 48”x 60" painting by Fernie artist Patrick Markle depicts a view most don’t often see — the backside of The Steeples, east of Cranbrook. Markle’s work has shown all over Canada and can be found in Art on 9th in Invermere, The Fernie Arts Co-op, and Canmore’s Fallen Leaf Gallery.

On the Cover

Cave Dweller — Snowmobiler Pierre Laberge adjusts his headlamp before venturing into the shadows of a glacier tunnel deep in the Rocky Mountains, northeast of Golden. Tunnels like this one are formed from glacier water flowing through the ice, creating ‘scallop’ formations along the walls. — Lisa Kinnear Photo

12 ROUND-UP

21 CULTURE

32

Qapkit goes gold; why forest arson rumours spread like wildfire.

Creston’s Footlighters Theatre Society has raised the curtain on awardwinning productions for decades.

PEAK SEASON

14 Q AND EH Ousted Kootenay Rockies MLA Tom Shypitka on rocks, rifts, and The Pistols.

17 HOSPITALITY Radium’s newest eatery keeps cooks and crusades for sustainable food and healthy staff.

18 SPORT A cabal of Kimberley shredders carry the torch for singularity.

20 PAST BLAST How the mountain mavens of Moyie packed heat and filled the freezer.

The Trench presents an ode to the love above. i. Lusti, Mac, the Moms & the Mountain ii. Sticking it Where the Sun Sure Shines iii. Rapid Succession iv. Rainbow Weekend Warriors v. Free Pass

22 ART Super-seniors George and Isabel Hogg.

24 BUSINESS A Kootenay-wide economic development effort helps entrepreneurs build outdoor gear, right here.

29 YOU FUNNY Canada’s royal rodent celebrates a half century of hijinks.

84 BIGGER PICTURE Kootenay business women forge on.

46 ALONE & ALIVE

Greg Ovens ran away into the B.C. wilds when he was a kid. Half a century later, he’s still out there. Just him. And 900,000 followers.

54 GIFT IT REAL GOOD

Time to live in the, um, present. The Trench presents its second annual winter gift guide.

60 SHOW / TELL

East Kootenay photographers share stunning snapshots from our vast corner of the world.

The tRENCH | Winter 24/25 7

Meet Our ~

Hoisting the Cup

CONTRIBUTORS

LISA KINNEAR

ANDREW FINDLAY

REBECCA EDWARDS

Lisa — who splits her time between Kimberley, B.C. and the Crowsnest Pass, AB — is a biologist focusing on aquatic habitat management and restoration. After work, she’s usually found outside, camera in hand: she’s known for her stunning nightscape photography, backdropped by her favourite mountains. Lisa’s subterranean shot, taken near Golden, B.C., adorns this issue’s front cover.

Born and raised in B.C., Andrew Findlay is a freelance journalist who writes about conservation, business, adventure sports, travel, and interesting people doing cool shit. Findlay’s work appears in Canadian Geographic, BC Business, Freehub, Snow Magazine, Mountain Life, Canadian Wildlife, and many other publications. In this issue of The Trench, Andrew profiles the iconic Kootenay Outdoor Recreation Enterprise: check out Rec n' Effects on page 24.

Rebecca Edwards lives, writes, and plays in Fernie where she loves hearing and sharing others’ experiences and wisdom. She’s worked with the Fernie Free Press, and contributed to Kootenay Mountain Culture and BC Business — all while helping small businesses keep on top of their online marketing game. Edwards wrote about East Kootenay mountain town Pride celebrations slated for this winter: see Rainbow Weekend Warriors on page 43.

8 Winter 24/25

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Captivated by Columbia Valley survivalist-turnedYouTuber Greg Ovens’ gentle demeanour, gravelly voice, and the fact he trims his nose hairs with a tiny stick lit on fire, Trench senior writer Jeff Pew and photographer Kari Medig ventured out to meet the online phenomenon himself. See Alone & Alive, page 46 — Kari Medig Photo

Celebrating high times in the legendary Purcells, for 55 years.

R K HELISK I .C OM

kootenaymedia.ca

PUBLISHER

Darren Davidson

WRITERS

Ashley Dodd

Andrew Findlay Jacquie Moore Jeff Pew Erin Knutson Brian Lawrence Sarah Stupar Jesse Heinrichs Rebecca Edwards Danette Polzin Darren Davidson

PHOTO DIRECTOR

PHOTOGRAPHERS

EDITOR

Britt Bates

COPY EDITOR Danette Polzin

ART DIRECTOR

Nicole Leclair

PRODUCTION DESIGN Sarita Mielke Janneke Guenther

AD SALES & DESIGN Alesha Thompson

DISTRIBUTION Jesse Heinrichs

SOCIAL MEDIA Danette Polzin

PUBLISHERS EMERITUS Karen Vold Grady Pasiechnyk

Kari Medig Lisa Kinnear Nicole Leclair Cael Cook Jeff Pew Brian Lawrence Ian McIntosh Jesse Heinrichs Manny Osborne-Paradis Lucas Jmieff Lauren Powers Zachary Fowler Morgan Turner Matt Kuhn Trevor Philips Blaine Burgoyne Jesse Winter Binil Philip Noah Ko Mike Graeme Bruno Long Nick Nault Spencer Robertson

We gratefully acknowledge that we live and work on the traditional and unceded territory of the ɁamakɁis (Ktunaxa) and Secwepemcúl’ecw (Secwépemc), as well as the chosen home of the Métis people of B.C.

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I am honoured to serve the people of Columbia River-Revelstoke.

Thank you for your support!

Scott McInnis, MLA

Columbia River - Revelstoke Scott.McInnis.MLA@leg.bc.ca

First Nation, first print — Ktunaxa Warrior Michael Fisher featured on the cover of Qapkit magazine.

Meaning “to tell someone everything,” Qapkit won Gold in the Editorial/Art Direction at the National Magazine Awards in Toronto this past summer. More than 200 volunteer judges considered 2,000 entries.

— Nicole Leclair Photo/Marian Lowe Design

ROUND UP

Qapkit goes gold; why forest arson rumours spread like wildfirE. It’s a story worth telling.

And according to Canada’s magazine industry, a prize-winning page-turner at that.

Along with luminary print titles including Macleans, The Walrus, and Air Canada’s world-calibre in-flight mag En Route, the Ktunaxa Nation’s first ever foray into magazine publishing is flying high.

This past summer, the Kootenay editorial team that launched Qapkit magazine somewhat quietly celebrated a gold medal win at the 47th annual National Magazine Awards held in Toronto in June.

Up against features in contemporaries including Chatelaine, Quebec foodie mag Dinette, and Northern Canada’s Up Here, the 162page publication nabbed top spot in the Editorial Package category.

“I couldn’t have imagined that our first-time publication would win in this category,” says Editor-in-Chief Lilian Rose,

12 Winter 24/25

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who overlooked the book’s production, along with Managing Editor Trevor Kehoe and Art Director Marian Lowe.

Qapkit means “to tell someone everything.” That aim took three years, thousands of photographs and contributions from over a dozen writers, plus the input of the 11-member Ktunaxa Traditional Knowledge and Language Advisory Group, which included retired chiefs, councillors, and artists.

“This book captures the many beautiful aspects of what being Ktunaxa means to so many of our people,” says Rose, the Traditional Knowledge and Language Coordinator at Ktunaxa Nation Council and a councillor for Akisqnuk First Nation.

“It’s incredibly important at this time to re-establish our presence, our language, and our story on our traditional lands.”

Rose adds “for young Ktu-

naxa people, it’s important that the story is told, and retold.” Qapkit retails at nearly $50 per issue and can be found in select bookstores throughout the Kootenays and Banff, plus Cranbrook’s Skincuc Treasure.

Speaking of the printed word, The Trench owes a quick thanks and congrats to College of The Rockies and its in-house magazine Go ELP. The mag was an experimental publication written by students in COTR’s English Language Program, which included students from Quebec, Colombia, Brazil, Ukraine, Japan, and Turkey.

“Our mandate is to hone our writing and storytelling skills in a non-traditional format,” says instructor Diana Dearden.

“We used past copies of Go Cranberley and The Trench as examples of authentic, local, and free reading texts to model Go ELP after.”

Watch for the magazine’s

fall issue around COTR campuses and their communities any time now.

Geo-engineered hurricanes. Fake snow built by Bill Gates. And a flat earth.

Or, maybe, a hollow one to boot.

Amongst the swirling world of nature-related conspiracies lurks a charge close to the hearts and homesteads of East Kootenay folk. Depending on who you ask, arsonists have been lighting Canadian forest fires in a bid to boost support for global climate change policies. It’s a story that’s been covered by Newsweek, Rolling Stone, Forbes, and CNN. “There’s a lot to take in” admits part-time Kootenay resident and veteran journalist Jeff Davies, speaking to the torrents of wild social media banter and distrust fanned by misinformation on myriad topics nowadays.

“But that’s the conspiracy behind it. That these fires are part of a bigger plan by

shadowy operatives lighting them, who then call on government to do more about climate change.”

Over his 18 years as a legislative reporter for the CBC, Davies covered the reign of five premiers and hundreds of stories across the province including emotional testimony proceeding B.C.’s monumental Filmon Firestorm Report. The award-winning reporter was in Cranbrook and Nelson for town hall meetings that drew insight from the fears and concerns over B.C.’s then-unprecedented forest fire season of 2003.

The 71-year-old, now a freelance writer, contributed a story this past August for independent news site Northern Beat, entitled Wildfire of Rumours: Finding Truth in Dangerous Times.

The article found that BC Wildfire stats and the details regarding how forest fires started, or who started them, have in fact been “a bit sparing."

Qapkit magazine Editor-in-Chief Lilian Rose and Managing Editor Trevor Kehoe after their gold medal win at the 47th annual National Magazine Awards held in Toronto in June. “It’s incredibly important at this time to re-establish our presence, our language, and our story on our traditional lands,” says Rose of the Ktunaxa magazine’s aim.

“Between 2013 and 2023, sixty percent of fires were caused by lightning,” Davies explained during an interview with Kootenay Co-op Radio this past fall.

“But that leaves forty percent caused by humans or undetermined sources.”

“The public imagination has moved into that statistical gap,” he says, “and given conspiracy theorists room to manoeuvre.”

But with the help of government fact finders and volunteers from a Facebook site called BC Wildfire Updates, Resources, and Photos Page, which offers wildfire and evacuation info while steering clear of political diatribes and accusations, Davies ferreted out some illuminating numbers.

In 2023, B.C.’s worst fire season, just 55 of the year’s

2,293 wildfires started suspiciously, burning 271 hectares, or .009 percent of the total amount of forest destroyed. Lightning bolts ignited about six of every ten fires. Campfires came in at 6.2 percent, power transmission at 2.4 percent, railroads 1.2 percent, and discarded cigarettes 0.9 percent. Close to nine percent of investigations were inconclusive.

Davies’ takeaways?

“Arson isn’t a driver of wildfire,” he concludes. But those skeptical of government and society’s status quo, particularly in rural areas where residents often feel overlooked and misrepresented, he adds “it’s all about building trust.

And that takes time.” Government reps and wildfire information services, he says, “have to be out there”

keeping wary members of the public up-to-speed and at ease with emergency fire protection protocol like evacuations.

When a wildfire threatens rural residents “you can’t just go in with heavy equipment and tell people to get out.”

With a laugh, Davies recalls with some irony that back in his younger years, he and some friends accidentally started a small grassfire, which they quickly stamped out. The cause?

His car’s overheated catalytic converter. The exhaust control devices curb emissions that contribute to our world’s warming weather. So say some. But, evidently, not all.

– Darren Davidson

Q AND EH By the numbers — Elected MLA for Kootenay East in 2017 then again in 2020, Shypitka was the BC United Caucus Chair and Shadow Minister until the party was dissolved in favour of the BC Conservatives. Opting to run as an Independent, Shypitka, as of Trench press time in early November, had earned 30.5 per cent of the votes in October’s provincial election. New MLA and BCC candidate Pete Davis captured 42.8 per cent. From there: 3rd, Sam Atwal (NDP); 4th, Kerri Wall (Green). In Columbia River Revelstoke: 1st, BC Conservative Scott McInnis won with 48.1 per cent; 2nd, Andrea Dunlop (NDP); 3rd, Calvin Beauchesne (Green).

Rocks, Rifts & Pistols Former MLA Tom Shypitka on the benefit of small town rivalries, B.C.’s stunning political upheaval, and his late, great days of punk rock love.

A former bar owner and next-level curler, Cranbrook's Tom Shypitka never planned on being a politician. But the fourth-generation Kootenay resident and almost-Olympian ended up in the B.C. Legislature for eight years. Then, with an unprecedented party implosion and razor-close election this past October, his career ended. Pressured in the eleventh hour by the province's right-wing power brokers to fold in favour of the more extreme BC Conservatives, his BC United Party collapsed.

Shypitka's re-election bid 14 Winter 24/25

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as an independent for the Kootenay Rockies riding fell short. A grandfather of two and father of three, the former BCU heavyweight spoke with The Trench shortly after the election.

Before you got into politics, you were a world class curler. Three-time provincial champ, played at the Brier twice, and came very close to making the Olympics. When was that, and how close is close? Back in 1991. At The Brier in Hamilton. We made the semi-finals. We played

or hungover in the bronze medal game.

Wouldn’t be the first time a curler played hungover. I haven't been to a curling rink that didn’t have a bar.

You’ve represented a riding that has been full of town rivalries. Was it generally Cranbrook versus Kimberley, or did the Fernies and Inveremeres get dragged into things too? It was predominantly a Cranbrook and Kimberley rivalry, and I think it continues to this day.

I’d dare say that anyone between the ages of 42 and 72 would know Jugheads Nightclub. A rock and roll mecca. It was legendary.

You were eventually elected to Cranbrook City Council. What drew you to politics? It was never a goal really. I was president of my junior high student council and VP of my college association. But honestly, I was the last candidate to throw my name in for the 2014 Cranbrook election, because people said we needed more business owners on council.

IT’S A TREND GLOBALLY. IT’S EITHER HOT OR COLD, A TWO-PARTY SYSTEM. YOU’RE LEAVING THE COMMON SENSE MIDDLE GROUND OUT TO DRY. IT’S A TUG OF WAR…THE CENTRE WILL BE HOLLOWED OUT. AND THAT’S DANGEROUS. some young upstart named Kevin Martin. (Laughing) We were tied coming home.

Our last draw was about an inch too far. Alberta won to qualify for the Olympics in Alberville, France.

How did Canada fare in the Games? They collapsed. Rumour had it Martin’s third was either drunk

And I think that’s a good thing. That competitive spirit brings champions to the table. When I curled in Kimberley, I’d get no press at all. The team we’d beat from Kimberley would get all the accolades. There’s no shortage of cheap shots…

You ran a famous bar in Cranbrook in the ‘80s—

I ended up getting the most votes by a long shot.

Sounds like you got the Jugheads vote. (Laughing) I kinda campaigned on that.

I thought for every person I’d ever bought a shooter for in the last 20 years, if they’d just give me their vote, we’d be even. It worked.

So, on to the BC United

party collapse. How did you find about it? Yeah.

Wow. So, I was the caucus chair for the party and deputy chair of the finance committee. I was on the senior level team. We were in a high-level meeting with the auditor general. Then these texts start coming in.

I thought it was a joke. I had no idea what was going on.

It was a total shocker.

You’ve said you didn’t leave the party, but that the party left you. What are your sentiments for former BC United leader Kevin Falcon and those on the right side of the B.C. political landscape who made the call? I felt shell shocked. Here was a leader I subscribed to — though I’d actually campaigned for a leader other than Kevin Falcon, along with two other MLAs, I’m a team guy once someone has won fair and square. Kevin held a meeting to explain himself. It didn’t go over that well. But, you have to walk a mile in another man’s shoes before you understand what they’re up against. I think he was under incredible pressure.

But I don’t think what he did was right.

How do you feel about Falcon and the decision now? It’s water under the bridge. I’m just going to move forward and learn from the experience. I can still hold my head high and know that I stuck with the team and my colleagues, who were also thrown under the bus.

You’ve said that BCU MLAs who lost their seats can take care of themselves, but what are your thoughts about donors who supported your re-election bid and your staff ? I feel I’ve let them down in an indirect way.

When the relationship was severed by the decision to implode the party, trust was upended. I’ve reached out to many of the donors. I feel for them, and my staff. They’re now without jobs. They’ll get severance, but I don’t think it should come from the public purse, although that looks like how it’ll initially roll out. It should be on the BCU and the Conservative party. Kevin Falcon and the party should be held accountable for their decision.

You’ve probably got a lot of people to thank. Anyone in particular? My many assistants. And especially my mom and dad. My children.

And my wife Carrie.

You’ve said that a minority government would have been a best case scenario, especially if independents like yourself had won some seats. How so?

It’s a case of the devil you know and the devil you don’t. The NDP have mismanaged the province, in my opinion. But then there’s the BC Conservatives. I think they did a poor job vetting their candidates. I’m not disparaging anyone in particular. But we’ve already seen the crazy notions some

of them have come up with.

Their platform is pretty shaky and not well costed out. It was thrown together.

And that’s not good for anyone in British Columbia. A minority government would

the last eight years.

Is this the way politics has to happen nowadays, with campaigns, policies, and voters pushed as far to the left as they’ll go, and others pushed far to the

opposition government — like we had before — we changed party leader names, but we’ve dumbed it down with unvetted MLAs, some of whom will be yanking on the extreme lines to the

I WAS A REBELLIOUS TEENAGER FOR SURE. PUNK SPOKE TO ME. WE’D JUST COME OUT OF THE ERA OF DEEP PURPLE AND URIAH HEEP WITH 20 MINUTE DRUM SOLOS AND BASS SOLOS…I SAW THE DEAD KENNEDYS PLAY, THE CLASH, THE SEX PISTOLS… have held some balance, and forced a change in direction.

It would have held the NDP more accountable.

Why didn’t you run for the Conservatives? Were you asked? I was asked to run in this riding. And I agreed. But three days later, they wanted me to campaign for the next riding over, Columbia River/ Revelstoke. That’s when I said I wouldn’t abandon the people I’ve been working for

right — That’s bang on. It’s a trend globally. It’s either hot or cold, a two-party system. And that’s not healthy.

You’re leaving the common sense middle ground out to dry. It’s a tug of war. That was the reason for my independent run. I’m really disappointed we couldn’t get a few elected. We need a counterbalance. I mean, what did we really accomplish with the BC Conservative run? We’ve got an

right. That’s only going to get the left to yank on extreme lines even harder. The centre will be hollowed out.

And that’s dangerous.

You’re a singer and an avid karaoke fan.

Tell us a bit about your summer campaign float performance in the Spirit of the Rockies parade.

(Laughing) We wanted an eye-catching float with some well-seasoned local musicians, when I was

Read ‘em and sweep — Shypitka was a three-time provincial curling champion, representing B.C. at the Brier and narrowly missing a shot at the Olympics. Here he reacts to a close-but-not-close enough shot that appeared in the Toronto Star, in 1991. — Tony Bock Photo

still campaigning for BC United. So we put a band together. My assistant suggested the song “United” by Judas Priest. We got our leathers and bandanas on ‘80s style, and got up there and rocked the song out about 15 times in a row.

You were a punk rock fan back in the day. You can see the punk mullet you wore in some of your older curling shots. Why punk? Oh man, I was a rebellious teenager for sure.

Punk spoke to me. We’d just come out of the era of Deep Purple and Uriah Heep with 20 minute drum solos and bass solos. Deep Purple I think had a live album with only four songs — on a double album or something like that. Too much.

Punk’s three-chord, oneand-a-half minute songs really appealed to me. I loved some of the Canadian bands — Teenage Head, DOA, Subhumans. I saw The Dead Kennedys play, The Clash, The Sex Pistols, I could go on…

Final question. What gives you hope, in these unprecedented times, that the good lives we live in the Kootenays can survive?

Quite honestly, I think it’s about where we live. For all the griping and some of the issues this interview has exposed, we live in a great democracy, in the best country in the world — that I guarantee. And the people. We have the best diversity — culture, races, geography, all the volunteers who work without ever getting paid. Our diversity is what makes us strong.

We just need to bundle that all together and make it work for us. ‘Divide and conquer’ is one of the oldest political strategies ever.

We need to mitigate that.

– Darren Davidson

The tRENCH |

Winter 24/25 15

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HOSPITALITY

Fare Enough With a fiery commitment to sustainable food and safe-kept staff, Radium’s newest roadside eatery aims to taste as good as it thinks.

You might know Kim Fraser and Steve Fear from their time as proprietors of Storm Mountain Lodge in Kootenay Pass, or, before that, of Cathedral Mountain Lodge in Yoho National Park.

Long before she was an innkeeper, however, Fraser was a national parks administrator with an eco-warrior’s heart and, increasingly over the years, a gourmand’s taste buds.

— it’s a remarkable place full of remarkable people and we saw an opportunity to share our culinary philosophy,” she adds.

This past spring, three years after Fear — who is a builder by trade — and crew broke ground on the empty lot beside the Prestige Radium Hot Springs Resort, Steamboat opened their impressive doors. The timber framed structure

author Michael Pollan says, “good to think.” Fraser sees it as her responsibility to help elevate sustainability in the food and beverage industry. “I believe we can all do better,” she says. “If we don’t, we’re in collusion with the unhealthy practices at factory farms, and we’re supporting depleting practices that hurt our soil and waterways.” She and Fear are “committed to

RADIUM, FRASER SAYS, IS SO MUCH MORE THAN A DRIVE-THROUGH TOWN — IT’S A REMARKABLE PLACE FULL OF REMARKABLE PEOPLE AND WE SAW AN OPPORTUNITY TO SHARE OUR CULINARY PHILOSOPHY. She and her husband’s new collaboration comes nearly a dozen years after their move to an acreage near Radium Hot Springs, where they’ve enjoyed raising their kids and horses.

Steamboat Lounge and Forage Restaurant firmly places the town on the culinary radar.

As Fraser puts it, just because she and Fear are outdoorsy types — as are many who live in and visit this region — doesn’t mean they don’t crave an exquisite meal in a beautiful restaurant. “We weren’t finding the dining atmosphere we wanted, and we felt we could add a different choice,” she says.

Radium “is so much more than a drive-through town

is an elegant homage to the landscape that surrounds it; inside, it’s just as locals and tourists alike might hope for in a mountain-town dining room.

Wood flooring, leather chairs, warm copper and brass hardware, and rich pops of colour make for a cozy and inviting ambiance.

That’s where anything that might be expected ends.

The nearly carbon-neutral, ‘plant-forward’ kitchen is free of grease, gas, and deep fryers. One cook recently told Fraser that he’d never, until now, worked in a kitchen where he didn’t immediately need a shower after his shift.

Fraser is a passionate advocate for food that is not only good to eat but, as

supporting local stewards of the land who care about the environment and the health of food.”

The couple has forged relationships with organic growers and grass-fed cattle ranchers all over the valley.

“These producers work so hard to do better,” says Fraser, “and there is such a bounty in the valley, at the markets and farms, and at facilities like Tata Creek where they grow incredible hydroponic greens yearround.”

Understandably, some customers are less interested in where the menu’s ingredients come from than how they taste. The Sternwheel Burger’s J2 Ranch Wagyu beef patty with rhubarb BBQ sauce

Food, with thought — Kim Fraser and Steve Fear, owners of Radium’s Steamboat Lounge and Forage Restaurant. — Cael Cook Photos

and local pickles satisfies both camps. Likewise, a king-oyster mushroom starter, cashew queso, lentil and walnut tacos with avocado cream, and pan-fried, wild sockeye salmon are both delicious and sustainably produced. Knowing that all the restaurant’s staff are paid a living wage and share all tips equally adds to the eat well and do good experience.

If a botanical elixir with local lavender syrup or a glass of cab sav from Keremeos isn’t your speed, Fraser’s got you. The newly-opened Steamboat Café offers similarly ‘clean’ coffee and snacks with an even more casual vibe.

Either way, it’s all good.

– Jacquie Moore

The tRENCH |

Winter 24/25 17

SPOR T

Hit Single How a cabal of Kimberlians carry the torch high for MonoSanta, with eyes on the quizzical pastime’s ultimate prize — Reno, Nevada’s Monopalooza.

In the fall of 2004, Ryan Peterson’s buddy gave him a monoski: the once-iconic single ski from the ‘70s that vanished after the introduction of snowboards. For the first three seasons, the 46-year-old Peterson, a former national freestyle skier from Thunder Bay, used the monoski a few times a year, especially during spring

Riding singles, drinking doubles — Kimberley Alpine Resort hosted the first annual MonoMania celebration in March ’24. Thirteen monoskiers strapped in for a blizzardy day of turns, tales, barbecues, and beers. — Jeff Pew Photo

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when his knees hurt.

Yet, over time, he began to appreciate its unique appeal. “You can just float and fly on it,” he says from his shed in Kimberley, B.C. “Arms open. Christ pose.”

Gradually, the challenge drew him in and he started using the monoski more.

In 2009, while waiting in the lift line, Peterson spot-

ted Bill Henriksen, Kimberley’s monoski legend, known locally as "MonoSanta" for his distinctive grey beard.

Henriksen, then 72, had been riding Kimberley’s slopes since 1971. Peterson made his way onto the chairlift with him. “It was the first time we’d met,” he recalls. Peterson was riding one of Henriksen’s original monoskis, recognizable by the custom safety strap: a yellow rope tucked into a grey piece of plastic.

After a few runs together, they exchanged numbers to ride again — and they did so regularly. “Years later, Bill called me the afternoon before a powder day,” he recalls chuckling. “He said, ‘I’m going to a nurse’s party with my wife tonight. It might be a late one. You start without me — I don’t want to slow you down.’”

When Henriksen passed away in December of 2021, a

family friend contacted Peterson about some monoskis available from Henriksen’s estate. “I went down there and eight monoskis were lined up against the basement wall, all different lengths,” he says, gesturing to four monoskis in his shed.

and projects for Teck, and a founding member of local honky-tonk band, Alderbash — has big plans to honour Bill Henriksen’s legacy. On March 2, 2024, he hosted Kimberley’s first annual MonoMania, gathering 13 monoskiers dubbed

BILL WAS SO PASSIONATE ABOUT MONOSKIING — HE JUST WANTED PEOPLE TO TRY IT. SOMEONE HAD TO CARRY ON HIS DREAM. “Bill was so passionate about monoskiing — he just wanted people to try it. Someone had to carry on his dream, so I bought ‘em all.” Peterson reached out to friends and distributed the boards around town. “Everyone was eager to try them,” he says.

“It’s amazing what people can do on their second run.”

Peterson — the senior supervisor, maintenance,

The Monobillies, for a day of shredding, partying, barbecuing, and sharing monoski stories. Under a portable tent that sheltered them from 35 centimetres of fresh snow, with a pot of pork and beans simmering, Clayton Hunter ate a slice of huckleberry cheesecake tart as he reminisced about his first time monoskiing with Henriksen.

“He got me set up with a monoski in the parking lot by his truck,” Hunter recalled. “He was so friendly and eager for people to try it.

He’d pick up boards whenever he could. I could only do one run. I was so tired, but man, did I have fun.”

Peterson intends to make Kimberley the “Monoski Capital of Canada” and dreams of hosting the 2028 Monopalooza: North America’s premiere monoskiing event. “We’ll be growing exponentially,” he says. “The revolution is on.” A Monobillies delegation is set to attend the 2025 Monopalooza in Reno, Nevada. “We’ll have shirts, stickers, and original Monobillies tunes,” Peterson adds. “A lot of the crew are musicians, so we’ve got enough for a whole album.”

Behind Peterson, a poster of the Monobillies logo hangs on his shed wall: an outline of Henriksen’s head, a gentle smile beneath his

long grey beard, with the reflection of a monoskier carving down the slopes in his goggles. Peterson puts down his beer and grabs his guitar to play The Monobillie Boogie, an original tune he wrote as a tribute to Bill and his love for monoskiing.

After tuning his instrument, he strums a familiar riff and sings: Dance together or dance alone, Like nobody’s watching.

C’mon let’s go.

The snow shark twerk in real deep snow.

Think MonoSanta.

HoHoHo. Tuck in your strap through the trees.

It’s the Monobillie Boogie.

– Jeff Pew

A monoski is a single-wide ski, utilizing the same boots, bindings, and poles used in alpine skiing. Both feet face forward to the direction of travel. Monoskiing was invented in the late 1950s by Washington’s Dennis Phillips using a single water ski and cable bindings.

Monoskiing Technique In 2011, Bill Henriksen was featured in Tourism Kimberley’s “I Am Kimberley” campaign. He offered advice on how to carve and turn in monoskiing. “The upper body stays still,” he advised. “Everything happens below the waist.

I always tell everyone, I’m not mixed up like they are. I use the right leg to turn right and the left leg to turn left.”

Years later, a Monobilllies veteran who mentored a new member on technique suggested these simple tips: “You don’t want to think too much. Dig in those heels and squat down, like you’re taking a shit.”

The tRENCH |

Winter 24/25 19

KICKTURN

PAST BLAST

CO FFE E ROA ST E R S

Bold Gals, Big Game How the mountain mavens of Moyie packed heat and filled the freezer.

Historically, women have been seen as homemaker, child rearer, cook, laundress, and manager of all domestic duties deemed appropriate for the fairer sex. However, in the East Kootenay of old (late 1800s to early 1900s), women have shown remarkable courage and tenacity, carving a niche for themselves as hunters and trappers, mastering survival skills in this vast landscape by choice or necessity. Their perseverance, ability, and their tradition continue with female hunters in the region today.

The three women pictured in this image, Big Game Hunters at Green Bay, were of such a breed, taking advantage of the diversity of wildlife in the Moyie region. Big game, often the choice for hunters in the East Kootenay, provided a plentiful bounty for those skilled in marksmanship.

Not only were these women skilled hunters, but with their survival acumen, they could defend and provide for their families without their male counterparts. Survival skills 20 Winter 24/25

| The tRENCH

and resourcefulness were necessary during the late 1800s and early 1900s when Moyie residents depended mainly on their ability to provide for themselves.

Harvesting fur pelts with traplines was a way of life for Moyie residents. The area provided beaver, marten, otter, lynx, bobcat, skunk, coyote, and weasel, as well as the famed muskrat.

Indigenous populations, who had hunted and trapped for millennia, eventually entered into the fur trade with European settlers to exchange goods, including firearms, alcohol, and beads.

According to the Moyie Leader on January 5, 1901, the white man had been trapping in the area for over 100 years and selling to buyers advertised in the paper.

Though rare, female trappers and hunters took part in the harvest. Some carved out an independent life in the wilderness away from the confines of traditional life and expectations, whether widowed or by preference. These rugged women enjoyed a hard but self-sustaining lifestyle, a testament to their independence and freedom, surrounded by the mountains, rivers, and lakes of the wild and beautiful East Kootenay.

– Erin Knutson

2 53 WA L L I N G E R AVE KIMBERLEY BC

East Kootenay essence — Esteemed hunters and trappers, a testament to the courage and resourcefulness of the time. Est. 1905. Courtesy of Moyie House Museum and the Columbia Basin Institute of Regional History.

We are so HAPPY to be part of our communities.

Boldly going — East Kootenay actors Robin Clegg, Tom Greentree, Gillian Wells, and Raine Mynott in the Creston’s Footlighters Theatre Society’s Star Trak, a locally written Star Trek spoof. — Brian Lawrence photo

CULTURE

Show ‘Em What They Got For three decades, Creston’s Footlighters Theatre Society has raised the curtain on classics and award-winning local productions alike, all thanks to a devout audience that keeps coming back for more.

An enchanted castle in France. A house made of gingerbread in a murky forest. The bridge of a starship in interstellar space.

It’s the kind of travel itinerary best appreciated from a theatre seat, and something patrons expect from Footlighters, the Creston theatre troupe that launched its 30th season this fall with the jukebox musical Disaster.

“Theatre is ever-changing and always presents new challenges and new ideas,” says Jason Smith, a director and performer, and vice-president of Footlighters Theatre Society.

“We’re fortunate to have an audience that appreciates all of it.”

Growing out of artistic differences, the six original Footlighters board members broke away from the

now-defunct Creston Valley Drama Club.

“Our group wanted to do musicals, comedies, and children’s shows,” says Frank Goodsir, 78, a retired elementary school teacher, and the only orig-

1996/1997, allowing the group to cover its debt and turn a profit.

In 2007, the group added a new dimension when it began producing locally-written plays, leading to several comedies and dramas by Smith and co-writer Suzanne Chubb, and fairy tale adaptations by Goodsir, including a popular version of Cinderella.

“It was the first Footlighters show to sell out all three nights,” says Goodsir, adding that the writers’ portrayal of the ugly stepsisters helped draw the crowd.

"IT’S THE GREATEST EXPERIENCE IN YOUR LIFE TO PUT YOURSELF OUT THERE..." inal member still involved.

“And the occasional drama, of course.”

There were some growing pains. Both of Footlighters’ first season’s shows — the thriller Deathtrap and the musical Hello, Dolly — were well received, but left the group $3,000 in debt. A more successful second season followed in

Smith and Chubb’s first foray as co-writers was Almost Golden, the story of a family dealing with the onset of dementia. It was named best production at Theatre BC’s Kootenay Zone festival in 2014, and later recognized as the Outstanding Community Play at the Mainstage provincial competition.

Goodsir earned a regional award in 2002 for his direction of Danny and the Deep Blue Sea, a heavy drama ultimately named best play at the provincial level.

He was also honoured with Theatre BC’s Eric Hamber Award in 2009, recognizing his long-standing contribution to community theatre.

He’s directed around 50 shows, many of them giving children and youth their first chance to perform.

“To me, success is working with people and watching them develop through different productions,” Goodsir says. “Kids I had in a play years ago will come back with their own kids.

I find that very exciting.”

For those involved in a Footlighters production over the last 30 years, whether onstage or backstage, it’s been a means to personal growth and satisfaction.

“It’s the greatest experience in your life to put yourself out there and take a chance,” says Smith. “It’s a unique risk, unlike any other you’ll ever take.”

– Brian Lawrence

In late 2004, a friend dragged me to an audition for Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. We were both cast, but he dropped out. I stayed.

Two decades later, I’ve spent 15 years as the board’s president, and have directed or performed in a couple dozen shows, including one in drag as Cinderella’s ugly stepsister.

It’s amazing to see the support for our organization’s work. Our production of Beauty and the Beast, for example, sold out — and in addition to the huge audience, there were 60 actors, musicians, stage crew, and others making the show run each night.

It’s a testament to the need for performing arts as we are closing in on our 100th production. And it’s a huge honour to be part of it.

The tRENCH |

Winter 24/25 21

22 Winter 24/25

| The tRENCH

AR T

Canvas and Care The celebrated Kimberley couple George and Isabel Hogg reflect on a six-decade career in the arts that sees international renown — yet is driven by a sense of home.

“I decided I was going to be an artist,” George C. Hogg says definitively. “But for the first 13 years out of art school, I didn’t even touch a brush.”

The 95-year-old Hogg, who spent most of his life firmly rooted in his hometown of Kimberley, is a renowned landscape painter with a successful six-decade career as an artist. And like many creatives, he took a somewhat winding path to his eventual success. “I started my career doing illustration,” he explains. Inevitably, though, the brushes called him.

When Hogg was a youth, a high school art teacher approached his parents, urging them to send their son to Vancouver School of Art. “My parents said they’d do one year and one year only,” he explains of those first tentative steps into the art world. Hogg started his education in 1947 and did end up completing his degree, with a short break in 1949 to return home to Kimberley and start work with Cominco: a career he’d have until his retirement in 1985.

“Isabel and I were married more than a decade when we realized we didn’t have a painting on a wall,” Hogg laughs. “My first few attempts went into a bonfire. Then, after a while, a few went on the wall.”

Hogg began painting in 1963: a time when several

of the Group of Seven artists still actively painted, driven by the belief that distinctly Canadian art emerges from direct contact with nature. It was less than 20 years since the death of the celebrated Canadian artist Emily Carr, with whom Hogg shared ample inspiration and influence: the wild landscapes of what’s now known as British Columbia, and the First Nations peoples who have long inhabited them, are subjects that both painters approached with reverence, respect, and keen attention throughout their careers.

In 1966, British Columbia Magazine — then called Beautiful British Columbia Magazine — approached Hogg and encouraged him to submit his work to a jury.

The result was Hogg’s first published painting printed on the back cover.

“That was definitely a pivotal moment,” he says.

“I started getting phone calls from all over Canada. I started painting in earnest.”

That same year, Hogg’s painting titled Rocky Mountain Grandeur won an award that saw the work featured in the 1970 Calendar of John Laing & Son Ltd. in England, which was distributed worldwide. The original painting was then purchased by the Right Honourable James Sinclair, father of Margaret Trudeau.

Across his six-decade career, Hogg — who has completed over 1,850 paintings

— received plenty of awards and accolades, and became a member of the Federation of Canadian Artists. His work has been sold and shown internationally, including in Europe, the UK, and Asia.

Despite being displayed on walls across the globe, it’s the stunning Rocky Mountain Trench that provides an endless well of inspiration for Hogg, who has spent much of his long life camping, hunting, fishing, and exploring amongst its forests, lakes, and peaks.

He recreates the beauty of these East Kootenay landmarks on his canvases using vibrant colours, careful attention to detail, and a masterful application of light and shadow that adds depth and dynamism to each painting. Viewers are drawn immediately into the scene — and are almost able

right: the pianist played the organ at the Presbyterian Church in Kimberley and Cranbrook for an incredible 62 years.

“She was the backbone behind my art, and I give her all the credit,” says Hogg, with an easy and abundant warmth for his high school sweetheart. “She looked after all the framing and matting, and kept track of all the galleries that paintings went to. Plus, she raised three kids.”

These days, the couple has downsized into a cozy apartment in Cranbrook.

Hogg’s art can be viewed perennially at the Friends Art Collective in Kimberley, where a dedicated wall showcases a wide selection of his work.

Like the other Kimberleyand Cranbrook-based artists who operate the Friends Art

"ISABEL AND I WERE MARRIED MORE THAN A DECADE WHEN WE REALIZED WE DIDN’T HAVE A PAINTING ON A WALL." to hear the water braiding down the Bull River, or smell the crisp late-fall air in a stand of pines.

Hogg’s paintings also pay homage to the ways we interact with nature and have historically built culture upon it. Forgotten barns, rustic log cabins, and horse-drawn plows often feature on the landscapes he captures. Driven by a respect for and deep interest in the Indigenous peoples and cultures of the region, much of Hogg’s work also features their community members, regalia, and traditions.

Hogg’s wife Isabel is a gifted creative in her own

Collective, Hogg regularly works a shift in the welcoming space, happily chatting to the public who peruse the local art on display.

As for his painting practice lately, the embers still cackle and throw light, though the burn is slower.

“I used to have a big studio, but not anymore,” Hogg explains with a smile. “But I’ve still got my easel up.”

OPPOSITE | Isabel and George Hogg at the Friends Art Collective gallery in Kimberley. Over his six-decade career, Hogg has completed over 1,850 paintings. — Nicole Leclair Photo

Friends Art Collective is located in the lower level of 196 Spokane Street, in the Platzl parking lot in Kimberley.

Its doors are open Tuesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays from 10:30 until 3:30.

– Britt Bates

The tRENCH |

Winter 24/25 23

BUSINESS

Rec N’ Effects A surging Kootenay-wide economic development effort to build outdoor gear right here aims to reap from what’s soldered, sold, and sewn. Andrew Findlay reports.

In 2019, longtime friends Matt Mosteller and Kevin Pennock got together for some back-of-the-napkin scheming on small town economic development.

Specifically, the duo wanted to do something to leverage the Kootenays’ natural and outdoor adventure assets and promote the region as a burgeoning hub for outdoor gear designers and makers, or “rec-tech” as it’s known. KORE — Kootenay Outdoor Recreation Enterprise — was born in that meeting, and it’s been on a tear ever since.

“We’ve gone from maybe a dozen brands to more than 70 KORE members,” says Pennock over the phone from his home office in Kimberley. Pennock is KORE’s executive director.

He and his co-conspirator Mosteller are a pair of creative powerhouses who know how to get things done. Spirited and sociable, American-born Mosteller juggles many roles, including as a C-suite executive as Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Resorts of the Canadian Rockies. He’s 24 Winter 24/25

| The tRENCH

also a freelance writer, blogger, and speaker who runs custom outdoor wellness retreats for celebrities. Pennock, a driven and focused creative, is a renowned filmmaker and producer, founded the popular Ride Guide TV series, and managed nordic events for the 1988 Calgary Olympics among many other projects.

Inspiration for KORE came in part from other outdoor recreation hubs that have blazed trails in the rec-tech sector. For example, the Outdoor Gear Builders of Western North Carolina (OGB), launched in 2013, is based in the artsy, adventurous, and craft beer-loving city of Asheville, North Carolina, a city sadly devastated this fall by Hurricane Helene flooding. OGB now boasts more than eighty brands, including Fox Suspension, Rockgeist, Kitsbow, and Industry Nine.

Member businesses collectively employ 1,100 people, spend $8.3 million US annually on locally sourced materials, and are major contributors to North Carolina’s $28 billion US outdoor recreation industry.

Though Western North Carolina and the Kootenays

are on opposite sides of the continent, they share similar economic narratives with roots in heavy industry. In the case of North Carolina, timber and textile manufacturers once dominated, as well as chemical giants like DuPont: once a major employer and taxpayer that closed a massive plant in the region in 2002, laying off 1,500 people. In Kimberley, the home base for KORE, Teck shut its Sullivan Mine in 2001 after a century of production.

“The closure left behind a vacuum, but also a powerful opportunity to reimagine small town Kootenay economies and to make the connection between outdoor recreation and the outdoor gear sector,” Pennock says.

Outdoor recreation is a substantial economic driver in B.C. A 2020 study by University of Saskatchewan economist Patrick LloydSmith valued the annual economic benefits of outdoor recreation in the province at $16 billion. However, the link between outdoor recreation and B.C.’s thriving outdoor gear sector has, up until recently, flown under the radar. Gear designers and makers want to live where access to the outdoors is easy and plentiful.

Asheville, North Carolina proves the point, as does Salt Lake City, Utah, which is home to Black Diamond Equipment, Cotopaxi, Gregory Mountain Products, and Kühl, among many other well-known outdoor brands.

That’s why creating a critical mass of outdoor entrepreneurs, and supporting their growth and collaboration, are key focuses at KORE. One of the organization’s biggest successes so far is the annual Rec-Tech Summit in Kimberley, a connector event that brings entrepreneurs

They shoot, they KORE — KORE’s 2024 Rec-Tech Summit in Kimberley included guest speakers David Harley, founder of Valhalla Pure Outfitters, with over $50 million in annual sales, former U.S. Olympic Committee member Jenna Celmer, CEO of the Basecamp Outdoor hub, and North45 owner/marketing pro Ricky Lee Jones, who took his company from $50K in annual sales to $1.5 million in just 12 months. — Photos Courtesy KORE

ing and expanding its efforts over the next two years.

Currently, the roster of KORE members includes previously existing and established brands like Durston Gear, who make ultralight packs, tents, and more, and Ambler, who create hats, toques, and felt slippers. Other members are fledgling upstarts, like Fernie’s Ghostrider Equipment, which manufactures bike-specific bear spray holders.

Waste Deep Ski Company is another relative newcomer to the outdoor gear business.

The boutique Fernie-based startup produces handmade skis and poles using a mix of bamboo and composite materials. Co-founder Doug Fisher is a 68-year-old retired management consultant who splits his time between Fernie and Toronto. He says he got bored with retirement and “wanted to have another impact.”

THE MINE CLOSURE LEFT A VACUUM, BUT ALSO AN OPPORTUNITY TO REIMAGINE SMALL TOWN KOOTENAY ECONOMIES. “We recognized that [KORE] was a unique and ambitious emerging industry cluster that had some passionate and capable leadership to bring companies in the rec tech sector together and help them succeed,” says Laurel Douglas, CEO of ETSI-BC, about their decision to help fund KORE. Recently the provincial government awarded KORE a $448,000 grant through the Rural Economic Diversification and Infrastructure Program (REDIP). This was the second year of funding under the REDIP program, and KORE was one of 10 Kootenay organizations to receive a grant.

Matt Mosteller, KORE’s co-founder and board chair, called the support “massive.”

Pennock says the funding will allow KORE to continue grow-

“I saw a hole in the ski market and thought we should be using recycled and natural stuff,” Fisher says.

The small company has already released a bamboo pole and plans to launch a bamboo ski this year. Fisher explains that, like any pioneering pursuit, it’s been tough sledding but that KORE has been instrumental in fostering important connections with other entrepreneurs in the outdoor gear space.

“The opportunity to meet fellow manufacturers has been wonderful,” Fisher says. “I’ve generated sales through exposure at KORE events and have also found a young product rep to take on sales for our firm through KORE.” KORE’s achievements and successes haven’t gone unnoticed, and have inspired another B.C. community to continued on page 27

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and people in the economic development sector together in the same room. In the fall of 2022, at the inaugural summit, Dan Durston of Golden-based Durston Gear met engineer Cam Shute, the former head of product design for the now defunct company Genuine Guide Gear, or G3.

The two geeked out on gear and entrepreneurship. This meeting quickly accelerated to a collaboration and the launch this past spring of the Durston Gear Iceline Pole, a three-piece trekking stick co-designed with Shute that weighs in at a feather-light 135 grams.

The Economic Trust of the Southern Interior (ETSI-BC) manages a $50 million economic development endowment and was an important early supporter of KORE. So far, ETSI-BC has funded the organization to the tune of $212,000.

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take a closer look at their own outdoor economies. Following KORE’s first Rec-Tech summit two years ago, attendees from Squamish returned to the coast with a plan to launch SOARE (Sea to Sky Outdoor Adventure Recreation Enterprise).

JoJo Das, executive director of SOARE, says there were almost four hundred companies in the Sea to Sky region creating and innovating in the outdoor gear space but “with no central organization con-

In May 2023, KORE piloted Re-Hub, a mobile gear repair program, at Revelstoke Re-Fest.

Pennock explains that, moving forward, KORE plans to hire two tailors to grow this program as a traveling pop-up to encourage a re-use, repair, repurpose, and resell ethic in the Kootenays' outdoor gear world.

“From my perspective, KORE has basically put the small manufacturers of recreational gear from the Southern Interior of B.C. on the map,”

GEAR DESIGNERS AND MAKERS WANT TO LIVE WHERE ACCESS TO THE OUTDOORS IS PLENTIFUL. ASHEVILLE, NORTH CAROLINA PROVES THE POINT, AS DOES SALT LAKE CITY, HOME TO BLACK DIAMOND, GREGORY AND KÜHL. necting them together.”

“KORE played a pivotal role in the ideation process of SOARE. Seeing KORE get off the ground helped in validating our own thoughts and hopes for our own outdoor rec-tech network,” says Das. With solid funding in place, KORE hosted their Rec-Tech Summit version 3.0 this fall, and Pennock returned to the Banff Centre Mountain Film Festival in November with a marketplace highlighting dozens of Kootenay brands.

The organization is building trails that fork in new and creative directions. KORE board member and Ambler owner Christian Rawles is heading up the KORE Outdoors podcast, while a monthly virtual speakers series features outdoor experts and insiders sharing their knowledge, experiences, and challenges. On the geographic branding side of the equation, KORE introduced the Kootenay Approved campaign aimed at harnessing the Kootenays’ lifestyle appeal and how it informs and relates to the outdoor gear sector. At the same time, a new digital marketplace is supporting direct-to-consumer sales for KORE brands.

says ETSI-BC’s Laurel Douglas.

“Getting them included in the Banff Mountain Festival was a big deal. They have helped foster a lot of new collaboration, including facilitating the re-shoring of some manufacturing from China back to Canada. And they’re contributing to the circular economy with their repair labs.”

More than five years ago, when Mosteller and Pennock planted the seeds for KORE, they were motivated and inspired by interesting and locally-made gear, a taste for adventure, and a fondness for getting outside. But the pair were also thinking about the bigger picture: namely about how the outdoor gear sector can play a small but crucial, value-added role in diversifying the economies of small town B.C., where once big industry and raw resource extraction dominated.

“We want to support outdoor gear entrepreneurs and attract people with talent and ideas to the Kootenays,” Pennock explains. “This is all a part of a nexus of opportunity that we’re creating.”

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YOU FUNNY

Buck-Toothed Treasure Once hunted to near extinction, the mighty beaver — Canada’s royal rodent — celebrates a half-century of hijinks replete with parachuting, internet sabotage, and a big ol’ butt that smells like your grandma’s pantry.

With 2025 approaching, it’s important to be prepared for the notable anniversaries we'll encounter in the upcoming year. March 2025 will mark the 50th anniversary of the naming of the beaver as an official symbol of Canada. Of course, the prominence of the beaver in Canadian history dates back much farther than 50 years; if not for the European obsession with felt hats, perhaps Canada never would have existed.

The Europeans were so obsessed with felt hats that they hunted the European beaver almost to extinction.

The European man’s desire to signal his social status with a top hat sent the Hudson’s Bay and North West

companies d e e p into the hinterlands of Canada where t h e beaver was once again hunted close to extinction.

Thankfully for the beaver, felt hats eventually went out of style.

Due to its integral role in the settlers’ exploration of Canada, in 1985 Parliament created an Act to provide for the recognition of the beaver, or Castor canadensis, as a symbol of the sovereignty of Canada.

The beaver has often been called “Canada’s most beloved rodent,” a title probably earned either because it is among the least rodent-like rodents, or because its butt smells like vanilla. Rodents are characterized by a single pair of continuously growing incisors in each of the upper and lower jaws, and — while butt

smells may vary — by a pair of scent glands used to mark territory, one of which does indeed smell like vanilla.

Being Canada’s most beloved rodent doesn’t stop beavers from getting into disruptive hijinx. In April 2021, a beaver chewed through a crucial cable in Tumbler Ridge, B.C., leaving 900 people without internet. Rumour has it that the beavers were adamant that the citizenry of Tumbler Ridge was “spending too much time scrolling” and needed to “log off and touch grass.”

While the beaver is an official symbol of Canada, the most incredible beaver tale actually comes out of the United States, from nearby

around the shores of Payette Lake and the area’s beavers were seen as “problematic.”

The population of beavers in Idaho was regarded as struggling, so the strategy was to relocate instead of destroy. The original plan of packing the beavers into more remote locations using horses had to be scrapped, as it turns out horses and beavers don’t enjoy each other’s company — not to mention that in 1948 the quality of both automobiles and roads in Idaho were significantly lower than today.

The IDFG designed and tested special crates that would self-open on landing, and tested them with a male beaver who became known as Geronimo. Reporting on

about the potential damage to infrastructure, whereas some citizens insisted that the beavers were a part of nature and should not be disturbed in any way. Due to online uproar — the story made national news — the beavers were permitted to stay for the winter of 2021.

This addressed concerns about their ability to adequately prepare for winter after relocation, and they were eventually relocated and their dam dismantled.

While the quality of remote roads in the area may remain the same as in 1948, advances in four-wheel drive technology means that the beavers were probably relocated using a truck. This is less exciting for both people

IDAHO OFFICIALS ATTEMPTED A UNIQUE METHOD OF RELOCATING “PROBLEM” BEAVERS: AIRDROP. ACTUALLY DROPPING BEAVERS OUT OF PLANES. Idaho. In August 1948, the Idaho Department of Fish and Game (IDFG) officials attempted a unique method of relocating “problem” beavers: airdrop. No, not sending photos of beavers via Bluetooth. Actually dropping beavers out of planes. (With parachutes, of course!)

At the time, new developments were springing up

these tests, The Idaho Statesman claimed that Geronimo took to parachuting quite naturally and would eagerly enter the crate for each new test.

Cranbrook had its own run-in with “problematic beavers” in 2021, when the proposed relocation of a beaver family at Idlewild park had citizens facing off.

City officials were concerned

and beavers. Wouldn’t the world be a more magical place if beavers were always relocated using airdrops? If beavers must start again in a new place, we should at least treat them to a flight before they build their new lives.

–Sarah Stupar

The tRENCH |

Winter 24/25 29

When It's “Time To Play”, Working Together Makes Everything Better!

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OUR COMMITMENT TO WATER QUALITY Teck’s Sullivan Mine operated from 1909-2001. Since the 1960s, a comprehensive mine water collection and treatment system has been in place to manage and protect surface water and groundwater quality.

Teck actively monitors, maintains, and upgrades systems to ensure protection of the area’s water resources. These measures have resulted in significant improvements in water quality indicators in Mark Creek and the St. Mary River, recognized by a BC Mine Reclamation Award for Outstanding Reclamation Achievement.

Learn more at teck.com/Sullivan

Odes to the Love From Above

Lusti, Mac, THE MOMS Two childhood friends reflect on a daydream turned dream day.

w: Darren Davidson

Nelson Rockandfalla — Located 23 kilometres west of Invermere, Mt. Nelson’s 3,313 metre (10,867 foot) peak is regularly summited in summer, but its face had never before been skied, until March of 2021.

Two Alive Crew — Raised in Invermere, ski mountaineers Ian McIntosh and Christina Lustenberger at the top of a run marking what she considered the best day of her life. — Ian McIntosh Photo.

(Facing page) A birds-eye view of first-decent turns. — Bruno Long Photo.

&

nn McIntosh still wonders why her son, a world-travelled big mountain skier, base jumper, and bonafide guiding pro, struggled so much in the 1990s classrooms of his Columbia Valley youth.

But Ian McIntosh is quick to place blame where he believes it belongs.

His avoidance of status-quo life. Twenty years of audacious plans for high stakes expedition, ideally on someone else’s dime. Maybe even the misadventures and crashes — including one so brutal it made Good Morning America’s newscast. The 42-year-old points the finger for the whole shebang, misspent grade school years included, at his mom and dad.

“I blame my lifestyle single-handedly on my parents,” laughs the husband and father of two. “If they’re worried about me,” McIntosh concludes, “it’s their fault.”

Like countless Kootenay kids, including his long-time schoolmate and fellow pro big mountain skier Christina Lustenberger, McIntosh was plunked into weekend glacier hikes, lake life, and ski lessons at a young age by parents with deep ties to their backyard bounties.

Time earmarked for studies was regularly squandered, often with a mere glance out the window of Invermere’s J.A. Laird Middle School — where the westward view of grassland, forest, and arid canyon arcs towards a skyline of Purcell Range peaks, punctuated by Mt. Nelson, a 3,313 metre (10,867 foot) sentinel visible throughout the valley.

“And therein lies the problem,” says Ann. “Ian just didn’t want to be in the classroom.”

A scholar, he wasn’t. A storyteller, he was.

Mom recalls a back-to-school day when young Ian presented a descriptive essay about his previous summer’s shenanigans, in front of new classmates.

“So he goes in and reads pages and pages about the summer,” Ann says. “But then, he had to hand it in.”

SEE A REAL RIPPER ON PAGE 34

32 Winter 24/25

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the

Mountain

A REAL RIPPER CONTINUED FROM PAGE 32

“The pages were all blank.”

Nearly 30 years later, McIntosh and Lustenberger, age 40, are experts in the pursuit of adventure and maverick storytelling. Where remote travel chronicle and alpine journal pages are empty, they’ve seen opportunity. And both earned livings at it. The pair are members of the prestigious global athlete team sponsored by The North Face brand: a dream team that includes luminaries like pioneer extreme skier Scot Schmidt, free climber Alex Honnold, and Himalayan guide Dawa Yangzum Sherpa.

Eclipsing its popularity amongst the global adventurer caste, the label’s ubiquitous puffy down jacket was noted

by Vogue last year as “a reliable go-to amongst the fashionable set,” paraded on stage and luxury shopping strolls

by A-listers in the Ariana Grande/Adam Sandler realm.

For buddies and followers of the pair — more often known to friends and family as Lusti and Mac — their individual accomplishments are admired, likely revered.

By age 11, Lustenberger was representing Canada as a ski racer.

“Oh yeah, she was a real ripper,” McIntosh recalls. “A force to be reckoned with.” (But, adds her mom Jane, the kid wasn’t studious either, preferring to “hang outside upside down in a tree” rather than obey teachers and do homework.)

By age 21, Lustenberger ranked in the world giant slalom top 30, competing in the 2006 Torino Olympic Winter Games before moving to ski mountaineering and guiding, after five knee surgeries abbreviated her racing career. Since then she’s notched numerous first descents, recently completing a two-year project in Northern Pakistan before moving on to an assignment in the New Zealand Alps.

McIntosh’s bio notes exploits from “the fjords of Norway to Yosemite's Half Dome,” including 100 BASE jumps — where athletes leap from towers, skyscrapers, or cliffs using a parachute to land. Some of McIntosh’s jumps of faith are made wearing a wingsuit, a webbing-sleeved jumpsuit that enables folks to soar free for numerous kilometres to, literally, fly.

Inarguably though, the Invermere skier’s claim to fame is a 1,600-foot crash in Alaska while filming in 2015.

“I wish something else popped up when you Googled my name,” McIntosh laughs, on the phone from his home in Pemberton, B.C. Viral within days, the footage made CNN, Fox News, CBC, and 30 other global networks.

Of all their alpine accomplishments, though, the two consider their 2021 first descent of Mt. Nelson — the peak that poked the blue skies of their childhood daydreams — a career highlight.

Just eight kilometres from their hometown slopes at Panorama Resort, albeit it postcard-pretty, Mt. Nelson was in fact named in honour of the admiral who led a 34 Winter 24/25

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Lines and Lineage — Lustenberger and McIntosh are members of The North Face global athlete team. The pair grew up together. Both sets of parents were friends, and even co-workers from time to time, for over 30 years. At left, Christina and her mom Jane, shortly after the Mt.Nelson first descent.

“ I still get butterflies when I ski and look over at Mt. Nelson,” says Jane Lustenberger. “How would anyone ski that, nevertheless my little girl?”

horrible 18th century war in the ink-black Atlantic. It’s renowned amongst serious summertime mountain hikers for falland-perish exposure and, for decades, deemed a super-steep and un-skiable shark tank of rock shard, deathly chutes, and cliff band.

But, so sweetly scripted, the first-descent story pitch earned North Face approval. On March 4, after days of reconnaissance and weather watching, the pair left town at midnight, along with a crew including cinematographers and a local guide.

“I heard her drive away,” Jane recalls, “and I didn’t sleep all night.”

Starting under the stars at 1:45 a.m., they laboured up and up, reaching Nelson’s peak at 8:45. a.m. After a few fleeting minutes at the top, with the sun rising higher and snow stability worsening, they anchored off a rock and rappelled down into a vertiginous but side-slippable slope, re-roped to rappel over a second cliff band, and just as the massif’s face began to dangerously warm, skied out, whooping into the bowl far below.

Lustenberger’s first text was to her mom. She was already in the ski shop with her husband Peter, who’d been watching the descent through a telescope, celebrating with schnapps.

Reflecting on the Mt. Nelson spectacle three years later, Mac’s mom Ann says she doesn’t think any mother would want their kid to do what Ian and Christina do.

Jane Lustenberger agrees.

“I still get butterflies when I ski and look over at Mt. Nelson,” she says. “How would anyone ski that, nevertheless my little girl?”

Even after careers of 20-plus years, both skiers have greater aspirations still in mind. More triumphs. More tumbles.

And more worry for the moms.

But of the two daydreaming kids who years ago turned their classroom gaze from books towards windows out to the wild and very real world, Ann concludes she’d change nothing.

“If you take away drive, and you take away passion,” she says, “there’s not much left.”

Sticking it where the sun sure shines From the Alps to the Andes to your hometown hill, who doesn’t dig a sun pit?

W + P: Jesse Heinrichs

icture this. You’re skiing down the piste of a foreign ski hill, carving corduroy and gliding through glades, when suddenly the sweet, tantalizing smell of a Schneiders Hot & Spicy Wiener fills the crisp alpine air.

As the delicious aroma wafts through your olfactory glands, you scan your surroundings, wondering which mountaintop restaurant is the culinary culprit. With none in sight, you realize the only logical explanation for this is you’ve become so hungry you’ve begun to hallucinate hot dogs.

The truth is, that torturous tug on your tastebuds was no mirage.Tucked in behind the larches and spruce, out of sight from

passersby, barbecuers char chuck patties and brown up bratwurst, all from the privacy of their own makeshift pubs.

These outdoor watering holes — known to legions around the ski world as ‘sun pits’ — are snowy pit- stops for the weary riders who know how to find them, and contribute to those short lift lines on sunny Saturday afternoons.

Typically built in a sparsely wooded area and almost always south-facing, a sun pit could be described as a glorified snow fort built by and for adults. These frosty walls offer asylum from chronic knee pain, marginal snow conditions, inflated beer prices, and even the fervor SEE LIFE’S THE PITS ON PAGE 37

The tRENCH |

Winter 24/25 35

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Sun Pit Etiquette LIFE’S THE PITS CONTINUED FROM PAGE 35

1 I F YOU BREAK IT, FIX IT. Many pit builders leave behind a community shovel; if you knock off a chunk of pit, patch it up.

2 C LEAR OFF THE SEATS. If you’re the first one in after a fresh snowfall, pitch in and shovel off the benches. Your neighbours appreciate it!

3 PACK IT IN, PACK IT OUT. 'Nuff said.

4 N O KIDS IN THE TEACHER PIT. The teachers see your kid five days a week. Give ‘em a break.

5 S TAY OFF THE FRESH GROOMERS! If you lose track of time and find yourself leaving a pit after hours, stay away from the fresh corduroy.

Skiing on groomed snow before it has a chance to set causes icy, dangerous ruts.

6 P ICTURES ARE COOL,

LOCATION TAGS ARE NOT. A curious person will put in the work to find pits themselves, and that’s part of the fun.

Don’t let the internet ruin a beautiful tradition.

of Family Day weekend.

For a battered boarder or a suffering skier, the frozen benches of a sun pit are a sight for sore thighs.

Sun pits can be found on ski resorts across the globe, from Chile to Chamonix. Legendary filmmaker Warren Miller documented many adaptations of sun pits throughout the years; his timeless 1956 film Have Skis, Will Travel is just one example of his odes to this quirky element of ski resort culture.

Focusing the lens more locally, the good people of the Trench also have plenty of passion for the pit — and at each resort in the region, they do it a little differently.

Kicking Horse Mountain Resort in Golden, with so much terrain above the treeline, features serene, sun-soaked spots perfect for

Some, like the Hot Dog Pit, have built-in stages, and if you stumble upon it on the right day, you might come across a four-piece string band strumming away with frozen fingers.

The next day, in another pit, you might find yourself grooving to an authentic vinyl-toting DJ flipping discs next to another fella who’s just as masterfully flipping burgers.

Some pits, like the Geezer Pit or the In ’n’ Out, are easy-access and built close to a run for the sake of our arthritic companions.

Others, like The Penthouse, a little piece of paradise pie, are built in the boonies, far from anything or anyone bothersome.

There’s the classic and well-known Easter Pit, boasting big snowy walls and wide benches in a sunny clearing. And there are non-conforming pits, like the Willie Nelson,

Sun pits can be found from Chile to Chamonix, and aren't unique to Kimberley. Warren Miller documented many pit adaptations in his timeless film from 1956, Have Skis, Will Travel. catching those warm afternoon rays.

Fernie folk prefer to build their pits with a view of something dangerous, so they can sip a cold one while waiting for someone brave to either fly or flounder on a steep line.

Kimberley locals prioritize seclusion, sunshine, and vistas — and they do so in that order.

It’s not clear why sun pits are so abundant in Kimberley. Maybe it’s the surplus of sunny days. Maybe it’s the fact that Kimberley is home to plenty of retirees whose knees can only limp them down a handful of runs before it’s time to call it quits.

One thing is clear, though: Kimberley sun pit culture is as good as it gets. Each season, the pits on Kimberley Alpine Resort are built in all shapes and sizes, and each one has its own unique purpose.

which gets no sun at all.

Some, take the Hit Pit, are meant for watching young people fly over jumps — others, like the Teacher Pit, are meant for getting as far away from the youth as possible.

These venues, however varied, share a couple core values — the first being that their locations are shared quietly and only through word of mouth: these are locales only for those in the know.

Secondly, they’re sacred sanctuaries. They provide us with a place to escape everyday life; to self-medicate — whether with a cold beer, a little ibuprofen, or something greener — with good friends, and to soak in our special corner of the globe.

Kimberley certainly isn’t the center of the sun pit universe. For locals, though, it sure feels like it is.

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Rapid Succession In 1962, Panorama opened with a V8-powered rope tow. Six decades later, even before the last of autumn’s adventurers shut ‘er down, the mountain’s original runs host the racing world’s fastest company. Trench senior writer Kevin Brooker caught up with two hometown speed freaks to ask: what’s the rush?

Man O’ Soar — Invermere’s Manny Osborne-Paradis at full flight during Kitzbuhel, Austria’s infamous Hahnenkamm race. Considered the world’s most prestigious downhill, the race has been held annually since 1931.

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ost skiers hate November. What’s to like? Summer fun is long past, yet skiable snow is agonizingly slow to accumulate. But would you believe that in our very midst dwells a stock of the planet’s hardest-charging skiers who have already been carving it up for weeks?

For over 30 years, starting in the first weeks of November — thanks to

a combination of early, if artificial, snowpack and superb facilities — Panorama Mountain Resort near Invermere hosts ski racing’s royalty for their final tune-up before the season begins in earnest. Setting the pace is 23-year-old Invermere resident Cassidy Gray, a three-year veteran of Canada’s alpine ski team and a 2022 Olympian.

She recently assumed the official title of Panorama’s

“Ambassador of Speed.”

“It’s a huge honour for me,” says the affable Gray, caught in late-summer between gruelling workouts in the endless grind that is top-level ski racing. “This position was first held by Manny Osborne-Paradis, the speed specialist who is a legend in this sport.”

No kidding: Osborne-Paradis made four Olympic teams, won three times on the World Cup Tour, and

was once clocked at 159 km/h in a downhill race in Wengen, Switzerland.

“Cassidy’s a killer,” says Osborne-Paradis, now an up-and-coming financial advisor who works out of Cranbrook. “It’s cool to see.” (There’s a deeper peek into the retired speedster’s point of view on page 38).

Says Gray of her new role, “Wherever I travel now, my job is to let the

Racinfacin’ — (Clockwise from top) Gray and Osborne-Paradis on their hometown hill.

During training at Chile’s Nevados de Chillan this past summer, Gray gets a quick tech-tune from Alpine Canada coach Micheal Franciolli, runs gate in the Andes sunshine, and makes the commute to work with the rest of the Women’s National Team.

— Photos Courtesy Alpine Canada.

world know about this awesome resort in the Purcells that not only has world-class race facilities, it’s also got everything a green-circle family or double-black-diamond freeskier could ever ask for.”

Gray says she owes everything to her ski-mad family and the resort itself, which motivated them to relocate to Invermere from Calgary when she was seven years old. Shortly thereafter, she got into the race program. “Believe it or not, I was late to the game,” she observes. “A lot of kids start much younger than that.” For example, Panorama’s up-and-coming mogul star Cole Carey is a 19-year-old member of the national freestyle team, and has already clocked 17 seasons on the snow.

When it comes to nextlevel-speed, that didn’t come immediately to Gray.

“I think I always wanted to go fast, but it definitely took a lot of work. One thing about the Panorama program I appreciate is that we spent a lot of time skiing the whole mountain — including the back bowls — almost more than we ran gates.”

Gray has since developed into a powerful technical skier whose specialties include giant slalom and super-G. What about downhill? “That may come in the future. Sometimes a skier can age into downhill, which is actually not as hard on the body as the technical disciplines,” she explains.

So which global athletes make the drive up Toby Creek for the early-season November sessions?

“It’s a huge variety,” Gray

notes. “The Canadian team is always here, and there are a lot of juniors from provincial teams. The Swiss come over often, and we’ve also had the Austrian and French teams.”

Austrian superstar Marcel Hirscher has been there, winner of 67 World Cup races. The Norweigians are often in the house, Slovenia too. “And there are a lot of Americans from high-end ski programs, like Burke Mountain Academy in Vermont, where Mikaela Shiffrin went.” Shiffrin has more World Cup wins than any other alpine racer, woman or man. Gray happens to know plenty about the U.S. scene, since she attended Colorado University in Boulder, where she won an NCAA giant slalom title for the Buffalos.

Panorama is amongst only a few North American resorts able to provide world-calibre race training before some have even put away the Halloween decor — Alberta’s Nakiska and Colorado’s Copper Mountain and Loveland are the others. Osborne-Paradis says that in preparation for the World Cup tour’s first race of the season annually slated for Lake Louise later in the month, the migration of mega-talent to Pano’s sessions has often been star-studded.

“We ran a little race one year, just a fun race,” he recalls. “Seven of the guys finished in the top ten at Louise, and a few were on the podium at the World Championships.”

In Europe, he adds, the collection of lightning fast luminaries would attract a SEE OLD TIMER ON PAGE 40

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Winter 24/25 39

OLD TIMER CONTINUED FROM PAGE 39

media barrage of reporters, cameras, and crowds. “But over here, the stars get some room.”

Meanwhile, watching over this summit of racing friends and rivals is Steve Paccagnan, Panorama Mountain Resort’s President and CEO, who has been with the resort off-and-on since the mid-80s. “I can’t describe how proud we are of what this mountain has become, for ski racing and everything else,” he says. Like many resorts, Pano experienced numerous ownership changes in the years since its inception in 1962, when Fritz Zehnder of Invermere and Guy Messerli of Switzerland installed a rope-tow powered by a V-8 engine on a run now known fittingly as Old Timer.

runs, the resort is coming into its own.

“We’ve built slopeside real estate and a new quad chair that serves beginners, while making it easy for them to transition to steeper slopes,” Paccagnan explains. “We added 1,000 acres of gladed terrain to the expert area of Taynton Bowl, and we now have two cats — named Jekyll and Hyde — that will run you out to the far reaches for a small fee.”

Critical to the resort’s early-season ski racing program, Paccagnan points out that Panorama has invested heavily in state-of-the-art snowmaking technology. “We have over 400 snow guns that generate the lightest artificial snow product ever made,” he says. “Even when it gets pushed to the sides of runs, it remains dry and very skiable.”

That’s good news for amateur skiers,

Guns and Hoses — With a state-of-the-art snowmaking system that includes 400 guns, Panorama is one of three resorts in North America where world cup racers can train in early November.

What looks today like long-term stability began taking shape over a decade ago when a group of local investors purchased the resort. “But give all the previous owners credit,” notes Paccagnan. “Like us, they continually added to the resort’s facilities and terrain. Everybody sensed that this could become one of Canada’s greatest ski destinations.”

With 1,300 vertical metres of elevation — it’s the sixth highest ski resort in Canada — and perfectly-pitched 40 Winter 24/25

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who favour a much softer ride than ice-loving racers.

Typically the guns fire up in mid-October and aim, much like Cassidy Gray, to be race-ready by Halloween. “Preparation is everything in our sport, from dryland training, to course inspection, to having the right mindset in the gate,” Gray explains. “So, yeah, I’m very proud of who I am in training. But now I need to put that in my racing, to ski like I know I can.”

Manny’s World

On the topic of his lust for the velocious, Hunter S. Thompson, the legendarily vice-addled journalist who had his ashes fired out of a cannon, said this: “Faster, faster. Until the thrill of speed overcomes the fear of death.”

At high speeds, organs creep into the body cavity, blood pressure falls, vision blurs, legs cramp, and breathing labours. You might black out.

“I always say up to 140, 145 — we always trained at that speed — that was fine,” says Invermere’s Manny Osborne-Paradis. “You can get into a predicament and get out.”

“But over 150, 155,” the Canadian downhill and Super-G specialist explains “it gets really scary.”

Over a 16-season career in which he earned 11 podium finishes and four Olympic Team selections, Osborne-Paradis excelled at speed.

“I was never an athlete who enjoyed going inverted, but speed was always something I was comfortable with and really enjoyed.

The faster I go, the slower my thought process got, and the more calm I got.”

The average skier motors along at between 16 and 32 km/h, or 10-20 mph.

The 40-year-old dad of two was once clocked just a hair below 160 km/h on Switzerland’s legendary Wengen downhill course, and soared what might well be a record 89-metres off the infamous Kamelbuckel, the Camel Humps, on Val Gardena, Italy’s Saslong Course.

As for crashes, Osborne-Paradis walked away from spectacular tumbles “with only a few bruises” in which he tore through massive safety nets, broke both skis, and in one case ripped off both sets of bindings and the buckles on one boot.

An FYI for drivers looking to experience similar velocities along the pokiest stretches of Highway 93/95: a speed of 150 km/h will land you a $483 fine. And three licence demerits.

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Rainbow Weekend Warriors From Fernie to Golden, Chi Chi to Ru Paul’s pal, big gay ski days go loud ’n’ proud.

W: Rebecca Edwards n the mountains, there’s a place for everyone.

That’s the message behind the wide array of Pride events planned throughout the trench this winter. All our resorts will showcase the diversity of these mountain towns and celebrate the spirit of love and unity — all while throwing some loud, proud, colourful parties.

Over in the Elk Valley, Fernie Pride Society is continuing its Rainbow Connections series with monthly outdoor meetups. They’ll also host the third annual Big Gay Ski Day at Fernie Alpine Resort in February: an afternoon social ski and apres party.

“We really emphasize that the outdoors is for everyone,” says Courtney Baker of the Fernie Pride Society. “We try to schedule different activities each month, like skating, cross country skiing, or snowshoeing, and spread them around each of the Elk Valley communities of Fernie, Elkford, and Sparwood. These events are meant to be casual and social, and anyone is welcome to join.”

On the other side of the Rockies, Panorama Mountain Resort hosts their Second Annual Pride and Ski Festival from March 20 to 23. Last season’s festival drew close to 1,000 people to the resort to enjoy fun activities all around the

‘Bow Show — 2SLGBTQIA+ Pride ski weeks have been running across North America for years. Whistler celebrates its 32nd year this winter. Over 3,000 attend Aspen’s every year. (Clockwise from top) Panorama, Fernie, and Kicking Horse celebrate too. — Photos Courtesy Panorama, Vince Mo, Kicking Horse mountain, including the main event: the Big Drag Ball with Miss Vanjie from the popular show Ru Paul’s Drag Race. There were events on and off the slopes, including a Pride-themed painting session and a Wonderland-themed costume party.

“We went all in, we wanted to really celebrate the diversity of our community,” says the festival’s co-organizer Cory Archer. “One of the highlights was the Pride Run down the main ShowOff run. We all skied down together waving coloured smoke bombs and turned the entire run into a giant rainbow.”

Archer, whose drag name is Chi Chi, also performed at last year’s Drag Ball, and says Pride’s message is clear: everyone is welcome.

“I was born and raised in Invermere, so exploring the outdoors as a member of the 2SLGBTQ+ community has been a really big part of my life,” Archer explains. “Our festival’s goal is to showcase that Panorama Mountain Resort is for everyone — and I’m a living example of what that message can mean.”

Just down the Columbia Valley, Kimberley Alpine Resort and Kimberley Pride Society will jointly host Pride Ski Day 2025. Happening this spring, it features group ski activities with sunny spring conditions, warmer apres events, and maybe a little less costume coverage.

Back up north in Golden, the Third Annual Kicking Horse Mountain Resort Pride Ride takes place on March 15, with a large group ride from the top of the mountain followed by colourful celebrations in the base area.

Wherever you find yourself skiing or riding this season, be sure to check out the festivities!

For event schedules, ticket sales, and discounts on ski passes and accommodations, check social media and the following resort websites: ferniepride.ca, panoramaresort. com, skikimberley.com, kickinghorseresort.com.

The tRENCH | Winter 24/25 43

Free Pass By skin, sled, and ‘shoe, Creston backcountry winter lovers’ head west for the best.

W: Danette Polzin hile Kootenay locals anxiously await those first big snowfalls of the season so they can make tracks, Creston is not typically front of mind.

Yes, its microclimate draws many a snow-hater for its relatively warm winters.

But look to the west from the valley bottom and far above awaits a winter mecca: Kootenay Pass.

Welcome to the good ol’ Salmo-Creston, as it’s warmly referred to by locals.

Many drivers detest it, as it’s considered one of the most extreme passes to drive in Canada. And this is also why the locals love it: guaranteed wilderness adventure.

The Pass is a section of Highway 3 that connects Kootenay communities from west and east, and also provides roadside backcountry, accessed with ease. It costs nothing — other than a tank of gas, some gear, and time and energy. (So maybe it costs a lot.)

The Pass has become popular though.

Some might say too much so. Post-COVID, finding parking on a bluebird day is harder than the Grinch’s heart. Early birds with determination and 44 Winter 24/25

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patience, however, usually nab a spot.

Parking at Bridal Lake at the top of the Pass — rising to a whopping 1,775 metres; one of the highest in Canada — grants access to epic ridgelines on both sides of the highway.

Skiers and boarders just park, skin up, and pick lines of varying degrees of difficulty.

Snowshoers can enjoy a quality-packed trail up either side.

To the south — approximately 3km up the mountain — Ripple Ridge Recreation Site maintains and rents two cabins.

These popular offgrid cabins are reservation-only, and peak season bookings are often secured up to a year in advance.

Ripple’s sister across the valley can also be seen: Cornice Ridge.

Access to this ridgeline is directly off Bridal Lake to the north, up another well-packed route leading to views and terrain that are equally dramatic.

But. Kootenay Pass is not for the inexperienced or fool-hearted.

If you haven’t got the gear or know-how, Ka Papa Cedars Trail gives a gentle, but awe-inspiring outing that is both family and dog-friendly. Located off a large parking lot just prior to the avalanche gate and Char Creek FSR on the east side of the pass, hikers and snowshoers will delight in this ancient cedar grove loop that crosses Summit Creek.

Greeted by tower-

Photos: Top – Lucas Jmieff / Bottom – Lauren Powers

Many drivers detest it, which is also why the locals love it: guaranteed wilderness adventure.

A clear trail provides easy access to Ripple Ridge (also called Lightning Strike), and steadfast die-hards with legs as strong as their willpower can find their way to neighbouring peaks. On a clear day,

ing coniferous trees, the trail boasts fun snow features where kids and playful adults alike can launch into snow banks and down snow slides. And it’s often so well-packed that it can be hiked in boots — but it’s wise

to throw in snowshoes just in case.

And if your winter style is skis and a track powered by a motor, Kootenay Pass also has you covered.

It’s a sledder’s paradise, seen by pick-up trucks and empty trail-

ers parked along the highway through most of the winter’s months.

Pick your forestry road, gear up, and let ‘er rip.

Again, a big ‘but’ here.

Some riding areas require membership or a day permit from Kokanee Country Snowmobile Club — and purchasing a membership helps support the club’s many initiatives.

Kootenay Pass offers winter adventures for most folks, but not all. Always know before you go. Be

prepared. A Google search provides accurate directions to your destination, as well as weather, snow, and avalanche stats. Winter is unforgiving, so if anything, be overprepared. Avalanche gear is a must. Many of the Pass areas can have a high avalanche risk anytime throughout the season.

Image: Matt Kuhn Photography

Signature Winter Events in Fernie

November 29

December 21 – January 4

February 15

February 28 – March 2

Ski Season Opening Day (Tentative) at Fernie Alpine Resort

Holiday Events & Activities at Fernie Alpine Resort

2nd Annual Ponies and Planks Skijoring

48th Annual Griz Days Festival

Holiday Kick-Off (#SpendItInFernie)

NYE Fireworks at Fernie Alpine Resort

Twilight Craft Fair

NYE Parties at various locations in town

Fast horses, skilled riders, and fearless skiers & snowboarders race for a great cause! Last year’s debut was a hit, packed with adrenaline, fun, and unforgettable moments. Get ready for even more excitement this year!

Fernie’s biggest winter celebration and a weekend for the whole family!

Competitions, live music, lumberjack show and more.

This inclusive event is free for spectators.

There is so much more happening in Fernie!

From film festivals, concerts and winter sports competitions to weekly trivia, jam nights, arts & crafts workshops and more. Visit the website for details.

FernieEvents.com I #ferniestoke

BY: J E FF PE W PHOTOS: KAR I M E DIG

Alone & Alive Greg Ovens ran away into the B.C. wilds when he was a kid. He told his parents not to look for him. He’d be happy, he said. Half a century later, he’s still out there. Just him. And 900,000 followers.

W

hen Greg Ovens was thirteen, he gazed outside his classroom window toward the Coast Mountains’ snow-capped summits of Golden Ears Park, 11 kilometres north of Maple Ridge, B.C. Struggling to focus, he daydreamed about following in the footsteps of his pioneering survivalist heroes. He studied Bradford Angier’s classic How to Stay Alive in the Woods and Larry Dean Olsen’s Outdoor Survival Skills. He idolized Robert Redford’s portrayal of mountain-man Jeremiah Johnson, and followed Dick Proenneke’s adventures building a log cabin by hand in the remote Alaskan wilderness.

That summer, he ran away from home, heading for the backcountry of Golden Ears Park. At dawn, before leaving, he wrote his parents a note: “Going to the bush. Don’t bother looking for me. I’ll be happy.” He took a knife, fishing line, supplies, and the family dog. He followed a creek leading to the Fraser River, fished, and set camp.

He cooked two small trout for himself and the dog, laid six minnows on a rock to dry, and built a debris shelter of ferns and maple leaves.

Almost half a century later, Ovens’ passion for bushcraft remains. Now 61, Ovens has lived and worked in B.C.’s Rocky Mountain Trench since 1993. In 2016, he secured a spot on season 3 of the History Channel's Alone — which took place in Patagonia — after a rigorous North American application process. Ten contestants were dropped off in the remote Patagonian wilderness, vying to outlast each other to win the $500,000 US prize. Ovens survived 51 days before falling ill with hypothermia and tapping out.

In the years that followed, Ovens amassed a wildly successful social media following. In 2019, he quit his

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drywalling career to promote Ovens Rocky Mountain Bushcraft, where he now has over 200 YouTube videos, some receiving as many as 18 million views.

From his Canal Flats bushcamp, where he’s squatted the last three years, he laments on his first adventure in the wild to his 880,000 YouTube fans. “As it turns out, just before dark, I got discovered by dad. He kinda figured out where I might go. I was devastated.”

I stumbled upon Ovens on a YouTube reel in 2023 and, like most of his fans, I was captivated by his gentle demeanour, gravelly voice, and no-nonsense approach to teaching bushcraft. I tried to place him in time: a ‘70s rock star who hasn’t slept in days? A bushman thawing in ice? A 19th-century goldminer? A fan commented he was the embodiment of Western Canada. There’s something rugged and primitive about Ovens, yet something sweetly innocent. In one episode, he bundles horsetail stems and rubs his teeth. “It’s working,” he says smiling. “Cleans them right off, though ya gotta spit the little pieces out.”

He trims nose hairs with a tiny stick lit on fire and makes beds out of moss in the cradle of tree stumps, using woven grass blankets and hot rocks from the fire. He prepares meals from foraged plants, concocting stews from cow parsnips, wild onions, nettles, and fireweed. He traps gophers and fishes for trout and salmon. “I got caught out in the rain,” he says to viewers while taking a brush out of his pack. “Good time to wash my hair.” When his hair becomes dishevelled, he tells viewers he’s starting to look like Led Zeppelin’s Robert Plant.

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Greg's Four Essential Bushcraft Skills People Should Learn

1 HANDMADE TALE — Despite numerous sponsorships, Ovens makes many of his own tools of the trade, including this ferro rod, left, for starting fires. His best advice for wilderness ignition solutions? Carry a lot of Bic lighters.

DISHEVELLED CONT. FROM PAGE 46

In November 2023, I emailed Ovens after realizing his camp was only a short drive north of Kimberley, B.C. where I live.

We attempted to schedule an interview, which proved challenging due to Ovens’ busy schedule. He had several trips booked throughout the year: road trips to Maine and Boston to fish and work with his production team, boar hunting in Oklahoma, and working with a Quebec film crew on Vancouver Island. Over the phone, he informed me, “This guy that watches my channel said, ‘I’ve got 1,200 acres and it’s full of pigs,’ so naturally, I have to go visit.”

I shared my Ovens’ obsession with acclaimed Nelson, B.C. photographer Kari Medig, whose work embodies his curiosity for the world, shooting for cli48 Winter 24/25

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ents such as National Geographic, Outside, and Patagonia. Intrigued by Ovens’ adventures, Medig began following him on social media. Two months later, we journeyed up the Rocky Mountain Trench to meet, interview, and photograph Ovens. “I’m driving across the mountains ‘cause I like the guy’s face,” Medig remarked in the car. “He’s quite tender. There’s something super likeable about him.”

Sipping coffees in the truck, we pondered the renewed interest in bushcraft. “I feel we’ve been mourning something we used to have in terms of survival,” Medig said from the passenger seat. “I think it’s a deeper feeling of evolution of tens of thousands of years. So instinctual. We ended up with so much comfort in our lives and

there’s this purpose we’ve lost.” After a quiet pause, Medig mused, “We’re constantly seeking fire. I’ve got a heated floor in my bathroom for God’s sake.”

We met Ovens at a turnout in Southeastern B.C., a few kilometres from his camp. His truck’s driver window was covered with plastic sheeting. “I had to smash it yesterday,” he said, smiling. “I carry a spare key in my pocket now.” We followed Ovens through a maze of forest service roads and arrived at his camp.

A tarp was strung above a sleeping bag and hammock suspended between two trees. A fire smouldered in a pit assembled from rocks and concrete bricks he’d salvaged from the dump. Beside the fire SEE MAZE ON PAGE 50

FIRE STARTING

Don’t believe that you’re going to get a fire going with a bow drill.

Always have a lighter. I use ferro rods all the time.

2

LEARN PLANTS

3

SHELTER

4

WATER PURIFICATION

Nobody knows their plants automatically. I eat wild plants all summer.

Anywhere in the world, there’s a handful of plants you can find. You should know the ones that are going to be practically anywhere you go: stinging nettle, dandelion, plantain. I know thousands of plants. Get a good plant identification book.

There’s so many different ways of making shelter. I always try to build a shelter under big trees or a cave or rock ledge. Build your fire. It’ll reflect the heat back.

Always boil your water. If you’re in a survival situation and you get sick from dirty water, you’re going to have a problem.

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MAZE CONT. FROM PAGE 48

was an uneaten yam from last night’s dinner and some potatoes wrapped in foil.

Cast iron pans, coffee cups, and an oven grate hung from surrounding trees. He offered us a damp camp seat around the fire. “People find it hard to believe that this is how I live, but I’ve been in the bush for fifteen years,” he said sipping coffee. He told us, if need be, there are other places he can go in the area. “It only takes me an hour to pack up and go.”

Last winter, when temperatures plummeted to -35℃, Ovens was forced into a motel to keep his German Shepherd, Finn, warm. “I wasn’t going to stay in the hammock at -35,” he explained. “I’ve got good gear, but it’s not enough for the dog. He doesn’t like it when it gets that cold.”

We sat around the fire DINING OUT — Ovens often cooks for two — himself and his German Shepherd, Finn. “He’s my best buddy. If I cook a steak, he gets a steak.” -- Zachary Fowler Photo

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while Ovens speculated about the recent surge in bushcraft. “I think a lot of people are panicked about what they see happening in the world,” he told us.

“They realize they might have to homestead to raise and grow their food.

I think people are relying on technology too much. What happens if it all crashes?

People want to know that they can survive if things get bad.”

Ovens reached into his woodpile and split a log with a hatchet. He reflected on his time in Patagonia.

“Unfortunately, I got to the stage where I wasn’t thinking straight. I couldn’t warm up. You think you’re all rugged and macho until you find yourself developing hypothermia, but I had a great time. It was life-altering.”

Though he’s serious about his bushcraft, he always appears to be having fun. Ovens became a

fan favourite on “Everybody breaks Alone. He’d comb up into cliques — his long hair with Navy Seal tough a bundle of sticks.

“It’s important guys, all pushy to keep your hair — then there was clean when ya got the outdoors and no shampoo,” he bushcraft folk. said. “Ya gotta look Greg was just so good for the camera, but doesn’t friendly.” really matter what I look like out here I guess.

I’m not going to the mall.”

Zack Fowler, the winner of Alone: Season 3, manages Ovens' social media and YouTube account. On a Zoom call last spring, he mused about Ovens’ appeal, while two video editors worked on Oven’s content in the background of his barn attic studio.

“When you show up for Alone boot camp, 20 people are eyeballing each other to see who they might be competing against,” Fowler reflected. “Then it works its SEE BEST FRIEND ON PAGE 51

Rocky Mountain Bushcraft Most Novel YouTube Episodes

› How to Make a Cattail Down Jacket › How to Catch a Fish with a Mousetrap › Starting a Fire from a Sandwich Bag › Making Primitive Fishing Hooks › Bushcraft Fish Smokers › Cooking a Steak on Hot Rocks in your Vehicle › Old Man’s Beard Survival Blanket › Ten Killer Survivor Fails

re: Bushcraft Bushcraft refers to the skills and techniques for surviving and thriving in the wilderness with minimal equipment, emphasizing self-sufficiency and a deep understanding of natural environments. It involves using traditional tools, such as a fixedblade knife for carving and food prep, an axe, a saw, and fire starters like ferro rods or flint and steel. Additional tools include a tarp or emergency blanket for shelter, a pot or cooking gear for preparing food, and a multitool for various tasks.

Practitioners work harmoniously with nature while building shelters, finding and purifying water, and foraging for edible plants.

canning and building bun- guilty to one charge, which kers, the adoring female was illegal fishing under the fans, or the people who Canada National Parks Act. just want to camp, fish, I’ve been going there for and learn how to start a 35 years and you were alfire. “I’m always thanking ways allowed to keep the people for subscribing,” he fish. We phoned back to reflected. “It’s important.” Maine so the production Kimberley’s Luke guys could obtain our park Dearden, 14 — a huge permits. In retrospect, we Ovens fan, having watched should have asked them Alone and countless Ovens’ to check the regs, but we videos — is well aware of assumed we were good.” In how gracious a celebrity handing down his decision, Ovens is. When family Justice Eric Tolppanend friends spotted Ovens pull- said he didn’t find the ofing out of a burger place, fence intentional or conthey followed him up a dirt temptuous but found the road and caught up to him. conduct to be “reckless.”

They explained what huge In his introduction video fans they were and told him for Alone, Ovens reflected about Luke. on when things don’t alOvens contacted Luke’s ways go your way. “Things EXOTIC LOCATION — Ovens Rocky Mountain Bushcraft has over 200 YouTube videos, some receiving as many as 18 million views. But, mom and before long, he just go wrong. They don’t says the host, “I don’t envision living in a hammock when I’m 80.” was having coffee at Luke’s always go smooth,” he stathouse with his family. “We ed. “I’d say, fifty percent BEST FRIEND is his best friend. You can't CONT. FROM PAGE 50 help but feel the intimacy of way down to ten. Every- time with him while watch“In the situations I’ve been in, I body breaks up into cliques ing his videos.” shoulda been dead ten times over.”

While Medig rigged his — Navy Seal tough guys, all pushy — then there was the lighting and took test shots, outdoors and bushcraft folk. Ovens was at ease in front met Finn,” Luke said, “and of the time things work Greg was just so friendly. of the camera. “I washed Greg gave me his bow drill. out, if that. Just as long as At the hotel, we started my hair in a puddle this I just listened to him talk you don’t get injured. In talking about building traps morning,” he said, chuck- and tell bushcraft stories, the situations I’ve been in, with restaurant forks. It was ling. “A nice, clear puddle.” and about the time he I shoulda been dead ten an instant friendship. We Despite the irony of liv- lifted weights with Arnold times over.”

And, when things don’t spent a lot of time looking ing with a camera in the Schwarzenegger.” Months at leaves and plants and bush, it hasn’t changed later, during hunting sea- work out, Ovens hopes discussing what we’d do how Ovens lives. He films son, Ovens dropped off a people possess some baif we won. Greg’s just that his adventures, bushcraft ferro rod with Luke’s name sic bushcraft survival skills. guy you want to be your demonstrations, and fire- engraved on the handle.

“That way, you’re not gobest friend.” side chats then sends them Ovens’ celebrity status ing to panic,” he said. “I’ve Following the show, the to Fowler’s team to cre- hasn’t always come with- been lost a few times when two became close friends. ate the episodes. “People out its challenges. In 2019, I’ve known I won’t get out Fowler — who had devel- think I’m down to earth. Fowler and Ovens filmed before dark, so I start a fire. oped a successful social They know this is how I live. part of a 30-day survival Fire’s always number one. media business — offered Many bushcraft guys live in challenge in Banff National It’s all glory til nighttime. to manage and expand Ov- a house and go out for a Park. They obtained fish- When the bush starts comens’ YouTube channel. “It’s weekend to demonstrate ing licenses but didn’t re- ing alive, you don’t know if his soft-spoken gentleness,” their skills.” alize that mountain lakes it’s a cougar, a grizzly, or a Fowler suggested to explain Although Ovens pre- in Banff, Yoho, and Koo- bucktail deer.” On Alone, part of Ovens’ appeal. “He's dicts he’ll reach a million tenay National Parks had Ovens kept his fire going for got nothing but his genu- YouTube subscribers by switched to catch and re- forty days. Once, he was lost ineness. He's there, alone 2025, he’s never taken his lease a few years ago, due on a backcountry road for a week. “Always stay with in the bush, just him and his popularity for granted. He to whirling disease. dog. When he talks to the responds to fans through “I ended up with six your vehicle. Never venture camera, it’s probably the email probably far more charges,” Ovens said. “It far,” he warned. “I’ve spent only person he's talked to than most influencers, cost me $60,000 to fight a week in a broken-down in days. It's like everybody whether it’s the preppers and I ended up pleading vehicle. I had food and beer

so that sure was helpful.”

In his Fireside Chat with Greg, Episode 7, he advised viewers to stay positive. “It's easy to get discouraged in life,” he counselled, “but just remember, sometimes things turn around and are totally different. You can go from the worst low to the greatest high all in the same day.

So keep the faith. Be patient. Don't get depressed.

Don't get discouraged.”

Late into the afternoon, Medig and I prepared to head home. Finn, Ovens’ beloved German Shepherd and YouTube icon, became antsy for a walk.

Ovens quieted him firmly, yet gently. “Finn loves the bush. If I have to take a motel ‘cause it gets too cold, he gets bored. He just can’t wait to get back to camp,” he said, chuckling. “He’s my best buddy.

Finn eats better than most humans. If I cook a steak, he gets a steak. But, he’s no freeloader. He pulls his weight around here. He’s got his own merch, t-shirts, and coffee cups, so I think he deserves a steak every now and then.”

“I’m not getting any younger,” Ovens said softly, standing by my truck. “It can be tough: the cold, the dampness, but I’m just going to keep plugging away.

I’ve still got a lot of years of bushcraft left.” Along with producing further social media content — which, according to Fowler, might include Spanish translations — future plans involve writing a book on survival, buying a gold claim, and building a house on an acreage. “I’m in my 60s,” he said. “I don’t envision living in a hammock when I’m 80. Who knows, next week I might go to Hawaii.”

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Kimberley BC, Canada | Kimberley.ca

BY B RITT BATES

GIFT I T RE AL GOOD ‘Tis the season to be generous — and in honour of it, The Trench compiled some pleasant presents from across the East Kootenay. Give ‘em something great this winter — for Yule, or not.

All across the Rocky Mountain Trench, inspired makers, creators, and entrepreneurs add sparkle and shine to our communities. When the gift-giving season arrives — or you’re simply looking to woo that special somebody over the winter — local businesses offer up great reasons to delete your online shopping link and look instead to the people who power our hometowns and their economies.

The Trench took a peak at some of the East Kootenay’s perfect presents — from the humble to the heavenly, the accessible to the astronomical. Looking to spread some wintertime love? Here are a few of our favourite finds.

STOKE JUIC E Juice That’s Worth The Squeeze Stoke Juice grew out of a humble, family-run business in Kimberley — and it quickly became an empire: their fresh, cold-pressed juice is available at grocery stores and cafes in dozens of cities across Western Canada.

The juice Stoke slings is always raw and organic, with two to three pounds of fresh produce in each 500ml glass bottle, packing a whole lot of nutritional punch per sip.

Want to give the gift of a fresh start? Stoke also offers an array of cleanses, offering a deep-dive into health and restoration. Give digestive systems a break, immune systems a boost, and minds a burst of clarity with one, three, or five-day juice cleanses.

You can pick up individual Stoke juices from cafes and stores across the Kootenays, and order cleanse packages directly from www.stokejuice.com.

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2 024 GI FT G UIDE

Good groceries abound at Morchella Market — this is the perfect place to put together a bountiful gift basket to nourish your favourite person.

K E Y C I T Y T HEATR E

M O RCHELLA MA RKET

T IMBER LA NDIN G

Key To Their Heart

Mmmm Mm!

Home At The Base

All the world’s a stage — and one of the Kootenays’ best is in downtown Cranbrook. Key City Theatre is a performing arts and concert venue, run by passionate and welcoming locals who are committed to breathing life into local arts and culture.

Owned by two intrepid and inspired entrepreneurs with a passion for good food and tight-knit community, Morchella Market opened its doors in downtown Cranbrook in 2021.

This bustling little market and cafe has quickly become a hot spot to grab a delicious warm lunch, healthy smoothie, freshly-made snack, or well-crafted espresso.

Go big, or go home. Or better yet, go home to something big.

This winter, a wide range of acts will be gracing the Key City stage: many musicians, including Corb Lund and Matt Anderson; the critically-acclaimed Snowed In Comedy Tour in January if you need a chuckle; fantsastic musical theatre; and everything from ballet, to burlesque, to circus acts, and more.

The theatre, lobby, and gallery space are open, airy, and gorgeous — and Key City Theatre the perfect destination for date night. Pop a pair of tickets into someone’s stocking or card.

Good groceries abound at Morchella: many of the products filling their expansive shelves are locally crafted or supplied by other small businesses. From local grass-fed dairy, to locally-roasted beans, to healthy pantry staples made with care, Morchella Market is on a mission to stock the best they can find — and it’s a perfect place to go to put together a bountiful gift basket to nourish your favourite person, inside and out.

At the base of Fernie Alpine Resort lies abundant opportunity. Welcome to Timber Landing: a prestigious development of ski-in, ski-out estate lots nestled into the forested slope of one of the ski resort’s most desirable locations.

Give your loved one the blank canvas to build their dream home where they’ll be surrounded by unparalleled mountain views, bathed in Rocky Mountain sunshine and world-renowned winter shredding.

If Santa’s busting out the big guns this year, take note: these slopeside lots start at a cool $450,000.

The tRENCH | Winter 24/25 55

JUNE 15, 2025

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2 024 GI FT G UIDE

All four Creston wineries are estate wineries, meaning that their wines are crafted solely from grapes that the winery owns, grows, and harvests themselves.

R AV E N ’ S N E ST R ESO RT

TO BY C REEK

C RESTON WINES

Low Key, High Times

Brrrahp It Up

Wine O’Clock

Overlooking an expansive view of the Columbia Wetlands, Raven’s Nest Resort and Campground is a stunning getaway — whether it’s for a romantic holiday, solitary retreat, or shindig with friends.

Give ‘em the gift of getting wild. Toby Creek Adventures, based near Invermere, operates daily snowmobile tours that provide epic fun for the whole family.

Tucked into the verdant valley at the western-most edge of the East Kootenay, cute l’il Creston boasts four world-class wineries.

Connect with nature in the spacious campground of unserviced sites nestled into the lush pine forest. If a hot shower is preferable, book one of the eight cabins perched on a bluff with an iconic view of the valley. For a unique experience, book one of the two Glamping Domes: luxurious, spherical abodes featuring modern comforts with a dash of adventure.

The Ktunaxa-owned Raven’s Nest Resort is just a stone’s throw from Fairmont Hot Springs, if a soak is needed after a day outdoors. Treat someone to a little trip and nest in at this stunning Rockies hideaway.

With access to private land, exclusive groomed trails, and a cozy alpine cabin, a day trip with Toby Creek means adventure that’s as accessible as it is adventurous.

From quick and easy follow-the-leader jaunts, to more daring half-day excursions that offer off-trail playtime, there’s a trip for every skill level, including beginners.

Kids aged five and up are welcome to join, and anyone aged 16 and up can drive a sled.

Everyone gets trained on-site!

Skimmerhorn, Red Bird, Baillie Grohman, and Wynnwood Estate all offer expertly-crafted wines and unique tasting experiences at their gorgeous wineries with expansive views of the Creston Valley. All four are estate wineries, meaning that wines are crafted solely from grapes that the winery owns, grows, and harvests.

After last winter’s cold snap decimated a great deal of Creston crops, this holiday season is an ideal time to support local wineries, to wish them a cool — but not too cool — yule.

Fresh air, big mountains, and a generous dose of adrenaline: give them an adventure deep into the Rockies, and an experience they won’t forget.

The tRENCH | Winter 24/25 57

20 24 GIFT GU IDE

Striking a balance between boho, glam, and earthy, White Birch makes jewellery that fits beautifully into any Kootenay wardrobe.

6 REA S ONS TO S HOP LOCAL This season, there’s a reason — six of them, actually — to make your holiday shopping a hometown thing.

1 When you shop local, you get

something unique — something you won’t find anywhere else.

It’s authentic. Just like the folks you’re buying from.

2 Show pride in the place we live. And help protect the small businesses and mountain town culture that makes our hometowns one-of-a-kind.

3 Local businesses contribute WHI T E B I RC H H A ND MAD E GO O DS

I NVEST MEN T S

Adore ‘Em? Adorn ‘Em

Nothing says I love you quite like ballooning dividends.

White Birch Handmade Goods has humble beginnings: this gorgeous jewellery is crafted by Tessa Ironside, a talented creator who balances entrepreneurship and motherhood while living on an acreage in Golden, B.C. While staying true to its roots, White Birch now employs a small group of passionate women, and has been featured in Canadian media like Chatelaine.

Striking the perfect balance between boho and modern, glam and earthy, these stunning pieces easily fit into any wardrobe. Using blends of leather, brass, and wood, with a focus on sustainably-sourced and upcycled materials, White Birch epitomizes Kootenay chic.

You can order your adornments directly from www.whitebirchhandmadegoods.com.

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Pad Their Portfolio

For the investor who likes local, there’s the grandaddy of them all: Teck. With Swiss commodity trading giant Glencore Plc’s US$6.9-billion acquisition of Elk Valley Resources (Teck Resources' metallurgical coal business) in 2023, Teck stocks soared, but have since levelled out.

Find the latest on the TSX (TECK).

While you’re there, if you lean towards littler, check out Cranbrook’s Eagle Plains Resources (V:EPL), a junior company that explores and develops mineral properties all over Western Canada.

And if technology’s your thing…the cryptocurrency/data hub at Canal Flats’ Columbia Lake Technology Center and its parent company Iris Energy (IREN) are traded on the Nasdaq. Iris went public in 2017.

financial support and volunteer time to many local non-profits.

Amazon doesn’t help your kids’ team or the local food bank.

4 Get a trustworthy, expert opinion on what you’re purchasing, and any help you need afterwards, by simply walking through the door or dropping a line.

5 Pay here and it stays here.

Local businesses re-circulate 4.6 times more revenue in the local economy than their chain competitors.

6 Locally made products are cleaner and kinder. Shop local and you are reducing your environmental impact with less packaging and transportation.

TAMARACKCENTRE.CA | Cranbrook BC

Find it here.

SHOW / TELL

A dozen East Kootenay photographers share snapshots of moments caught between land, sky, shadow, and seasons, each a telling tale from our vast corner of the world.

“Soon after summer draws to a close and autumn begins, the annual Fall Fair makes its much-anticipated return,” says Cranbrook shooter Morgan Turner. “The smell of mini donuts and cotton candy fills the air, and the evening’s soundtrack is excited screams and the roar of machines.

Neon-bright coloured lights illuminate the grounds as the sun dips behind the horizon in a sea of warm pastel colours.

It’s nights like these that make lasting memories.”

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TOP | Lisa Kinnear splits her time between Crowsnest Pass and Kimberley. “Hot summer days produce dramatic evening thunderstorms that reverberate through our valleys,” says Kinnear of this photo near Frank Slide, AB. “Few slept through this storm, with its booming thunder and lightning.

I was able to capture these bolts before the storm overtook my shooting location.”

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BOTTOM | Matt Kuhn says Fernie’s distinct seasons and diverse landscapes provide the perfect backdrop for his work, life this image here. “Fun light painting an image of a lone tree one night, creating a super neat visual,” Kuhn explains, “and bewildering passerbys into thinking there was some twilight zone things going on.”

OPPOSITE | On assignment for The Trench debut issue, Kimberley’s Nicole Leclair worked with a group of soon-to-be-graduates who modelled vintage prom dresses. “This model, Paige Johnston, arrived with pieces she wore in her cosplay, including a handmade shawl and elf ears,” she says. “I was moved to abandon the shot list for a moment and spend some time getting her portrait.”

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OPPOSITE | Cranbrook’s Trevor Phillips considers himself extremely fortunate to have been able to photograph a herd of bison near town, during the winter of 2024. “These magnificent animals were killed off by governments of North American to starve the indigenous people who called these lands home. It’s great to see farmers and governments trying to repopulate the species again.”

TOP | A Ktunaxa member of the Aq'am reserve, Blaine Burgoyne, photographed the St. Eugene Church, as part of a Shaw TV show a couple years ago. They wanted some B-roll footage of Burgoyne taking photos. “So I brought the interviewer over to the church and he started filming. This is one of the shots that came out if it.” The St. Eugene Church opened in 1912 and closed in 1970. “The heart’s repaired with love,” says the 34-year old, “like stained glass windows.”

BOTTOM | World-travelled photographer Jesse Winter shot this photo while on assignment for The Globe and Mail covering a prescribed fire on the Aq’am territory, near the Cranbrook Airport, in April, 2023. “It was my first time seeing fire of this scale up close, and it was an incredible experience,” says Winter.

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ABOVE | While filming an engagement video for a friend in West Creston, Binil Philip saw a herd of elk in the field as the sun was setting. "At first," says Philip, "I thought about driving by, but then decided to stop. That led to a photo I now cherish, reminding me of the amazing place I call home.”

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TOP | “We’d already spent the entire day at Silver Springs, but it was another relentlessly hot East Kootenay summer, so stopping for a quick jump in the river only felt right.” So went the noteworthy day Kimberley’s Noah Ko snapped this photo. “I guess I found out what I would do if all my friends jumped off of a bridge.

It also happened to be my birthday and there’s nowhere else I would have rather spent it.”

MIDDLE | Photographer Mike Graeme spotted this trio of Bighorn Sheep while on assignment for The Narwhal, near Grasmere. “Illness, harsh weather, and habitat loss nearly wiped out bighorn sheep from Yaq̓it ʔa·knuqⱡi ,‘its homelands,” says Graeme, born in Nelson. “To support the herd's survival, the First Nation — commonly called Tobacco Plains Indian Band — is working with the province to restore critical bighorn habitat in the Galton Range by thinning forest to emulate cultural burning practices that helped bighorn thrive for millennia.”

BOTTOM | Cranbrook photographer Jenny Rae Bateman headed to Wycliffe last summer for the bronc riding competition at the 35th Cranbrook Pro Rodeo. “Bareback bronc riding is one of the more physically demanding rough stock events,” she says, “with nothing more to hold than a leather rigging known as a cowboy wedge, the cowboy can’t touch the horse, himself or the rigging with his free hand.” As a photographer, there’s no other event that compares to this.

OPPOSITE | “This was shot while on assignment for a story about the resort in Kimberley, and it was lunchtime,” Revelstoke-based photographer Bruno Long recalls. “I rolled in with a fun little crew of families and hung around while everyone went inside for lunch. Sometimes, the best images happen when you stand back or walk away from the crowd and take in the whole scene. Everyone just parking their skis outside for lunch was a moment that I couldn't resist."

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OPPOSITE | SUP enthusiast and global adventurer, Bruce Kirkby, asked Kimberley’s Nicole Leclair to join him for a special day of year. "You know the one, when the snow starts but the lakes aren’t yet frozen,” says Leclair. “Bruce and his paddle board brought life, movement, and colour to an otherwise desaturated and still surrounding.”

TOP | “This is one of those perfect days,” recalls Fernie’s Nick Nault. “Not often 50cm’s overnight lines up with a bluebird day. The groomers that night couldn’t keep up so you didn’t have to go far off the groomer to find overhead snow. This shot is taken 20 feet off the side of the groomer dead centre of The Bear.”

BOTTOM | Spencer Robertson, based out of Fernie, usually focuses on portraits. In this case, he focused on his son Kai, who preferred high speed action to sedentary poses. “Sliding down the footpaths trodden in the early-December snow, Kai couldn’t get enough of his speedy toboggan.

Every incline along Lizard Creek in Mount Fernie Provincial Park is another opportunity to zoom ahead of mom and dad.”

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Feb. 15 FSA VINTAGE POKER RIDE. Fernie Snowmobile Association Feb. 28-Mar. 2 48TH ANNUAL GRIZ DAYS FESTIVAL

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explorecrestonvalley.com/upcoming-events-calendar for up-to-date event info Dec. 1 O-CELLI. KRSS AUDITORIUM. crestonconcertsociety.ca

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cranbrooktourism.com/events & keycitytheatre.com for up-to-date event info Dec. 4 ED TALK: A TEA TIME TALK. Cranbrook History Centre Dec. 5-7 A CHRISTMAS CAROL. Cranbrook Community Theatre Dec. 12 MOUNTAIN SONG COMMUNITY CHOIR CANDLELIGHT SHOW. St. Aiden Orthodox Church Dec. 31-Jan. 10-12, 16-18 THE ADDAMS FAMILY. Key City Jan. 3-4 BANFF CENTRE MOUNTAIN FILM FESTIVAL WORLD TOUR. Key City Jan. 29 SECHILE SEDARE. Key City Jan. 30 SNOWED IN COMEDY TOUR. Key City Feb. 1 COLD RIDE. haveagoodride.com/coldride Feb. 6 EPIDERMIS CIRCUS (14+). Key City Feb. 8 BURLESQUE LOVE BITES (19+). Key City Feb. 9 A CRASH COURSE IN CLOWNING (19+).

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Feb. 15 SLEEPING BEAUTY. Key City

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Apr. 3 JOHN REISCHMAN AND THE JAYBIRDS. Golden Theatre

Apr. 3 BOOM. Key City Apr. 19 SARAH HAGAN, PIANIST. Key City Apr. 23 THE KNITTING PILGRAM. Key City

KIMBERLEY

tourismkimberley.com/play/events & centre64. com for up-to-date event info Dec. 7 NORTHSTAR HOLIDAY VENDOR MARKET. Kimberley Conference Center Dec. 13 TENTATIVE OPENING DAY. Kim. Alpine Resort Dec. 23 SANTA’S PARADE. Kim. Alpine Resort

Apr. 19 WESLI. Golden Theatre

COLUMBIA VALLEY

travelcolumbiavalley.com/event for up-to-date event info Dec. 6-7 HOLLY JOLLY MARKET. CV Centre Dec. 13 WARREN MILLER 75 IN. CV Centre Dec. 25 CHRISTMAS DINNER AT THE GREAT HALL. Panorama Mountain Village Dec. 31 NEW YEAR’S EVE DINNER AT THE GREAT HALL. Panorama Mountain Village

Dec. 26-Jan. 1 HOLIDAY FUN. Kim. Alpine Resort

Dec. 31 TORCHLIGHT PARADE AND FIREWORKS. Panorama Mountain Village

Dec. 31 FIREWORKS. Kim. Alpine Resort

Feb. 16 LANTERN SKI. Panorama Resort

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Jan. date TBD INVERMERE SNOWFLAKE FESTIVAL. Kinsmen Beach

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Dec. 4 BANFF FILM FEST. Golden Civic Theatre Dec. 21 HOLIDAY MARKET. Saturday, Mount 7 Rec Plex Jan. 23 SECHILE SEDARE. Golden Theatre Feb. date TBD MASQUE PARADE. Golden Spirit Square Feb. 7-13 KICKING HORSE GOLDEN BC PRO. Freeride World Tour Stop Feb. 22 KHC LIVE KICKS/PIANO HEIST. Golden Theatre

RADIUM

radiumhotsprings.com/events for up-to-date event info Dec. 26-27 VILLAGE SLEIGH RIDES. Radium Hot Springs Centre Dec. 27-28 RADIUM HOT SPRINGS WINTER WONDERLAND MARKET. Radium Hot Springs Centre Dec. 31 VILLAGE NEW YEAR’S EVE FIREWORKS AND BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION. Brent’s Shack / Springs Driving Range

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For nearly 20 years, Kootenay Media has produced some of Southwest BC’s most beloved local media – independently owned and grassroots.

In early 2024, with the support of locals, communities and their businesses, we launched The Trench — a magazine dedicated to people, life, culture and business throughout the Columbia, Elk and Creston Valleys.

Collectible, and out three times a year, the magazine reaches over 400 high-traffic, select businesses and 400 more rooms at hotel/resort and boutique accommodators in Kimberley, Cranbrook, Invermere/Radium, Fernie, Creston, Golden and The Crowsnest.

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BIGGER PICTURE

Still selling — Shot in 2017, this portrait shows Kimberley business owners (from left) Angela Symes, Celeste Needham, Maria Reynoso, Denai Bell, and Christina Chalifour. Despite soaring costs, a pandemic, and extra challenges male entrepreneurs don’t face, all five are still running businesses. — Nicole Leclair Photo

Show Her The Money It was a modern feminist anthem back when bangs were backcombed to the ceiling, well before corporate and non-profit pronoun expectations became wallto-wall.

New Wave diva Annie Lennox and soul queen Aretha Franklin teamed up for the smash track Sisters Are Doin’ It For Themselves in 1985 when, according to the Canadian Chamber of 84 Winter 24/25

| The tRENCH

Commerce, women held 43 percent of all the country’s jobs. Today that number is 48 percent. Women business ownership has grown a bit, too. In 2017, women were majority owners in 15.4 percent of all Canadian businesses. Now, it’s 18.4 percent.

What the ‘80s music mavens didn’t sing about then, but might now, is how much more difficult it would become to make a go sans bros in 2024’s steeper-than-ever entrepreneurial landscape.

According to Creston-based mental health expert and new magazine publisher Lynn Hiscoe, ladies nowadays face the same soaring small business challenges that guys do — and more.

“I think there are business issues related to women that men don’t have,” says Hiscoe, who held the first Kootenay Women in Business Summit in September.

“I felt there was a need to look at emotional and

mental health in business, with a focus on women,” says Hiscoe, a psychotherapist for 25 years.

The therapist, who’s contributed how-to mental health programs for university and federal government agencies, has taken a close look at big-picture stats and telling hometown trends alike. She knows of eight women-owned businesses in Creston alone that have shut down. Nationally, the pay scale is slightly tilted: 37.1 percent of women entrepreneurs earn less than $50,000 annually, compared to 31.7 percent of men entrepreneurs. Maternity leaves force many women back to their businesses in only six months. And loans are often more difficult for women to get, Hiscoe adds.

A headline in September’s Wall Street Journal highlights a decades-old issue brought on by the fact two incomes per household are

all but mandatory nowadays, upwards of $150,000 required annually if a young family wants its own home.

“More Women Are Working Than Ever,” says the WSJ caption. “But They’re Doing Two Jobs.”

Hiscoe quotes stats that show women employees and business owners alike work four extra hours a day to cover household duties.

Add to that the challenges here in B.C. and elsewhere to find daycare, for parents who work nine-to-fives.

According to Canada’s Minister of Small Business — a woman — Rechie Valdez, the equal participation of women in the economy “is not just the right thing to do, it's the smart thing to do.”

Studies show that by advancing gender equality and women's participation in the economy, Canada could add up to $150 billion in GDP. For women looking to up their cumulative busi-

ness-owner game, there are places to start: Ottawa has poured $7 billion into the Women Entrepreneurship Strategy (WES), aiming to boost women-owned businesses' access to financing, networks, and expertise to start up or scale up. The province’s WeBC program supports women business owners in B.C., and closer to home, the Columbia Basin Trust offers a number of support and start-up programs, too.

As for Hiscoe, she’s decided to walk the walk, publishing her first-ever issue of Kootenay Women in Business magazine in September. And go figure — from publishing to delivery to ad sales, the upstart mag maker is, you got it, doin’ it for herself. Find out more at kootenaywomen.ca.

– Darren Davidson

basecamp of the kootenays