Local Trips

skiing trips

Ski Bums
The editor of Backpackers News called me up with a problem. She was doing a piece on “Snowchasers” and was having a hard time tracking down a “true ski bum” to interview. Luckily, I know one very well. My son, Coby has been chasing snow from Alaska to Whistler from November to April for the last 4 years. He and his friends are renting a house in Pemberton this year, but I even have a hard time tracking him down. I just tried calling him and since the conditions in Whistler are ‘less than perfect’ he’s off on another chase according to one of his housemates. The ‘snow’ this week is the ‘surf’ in Sooke. I imagine he’s sleeping in his Honda Civic this week on the beach.

Coby has been skiing since he was 3 years old and has pretty much been on a quest to spend his winters in the greatest of style since. The last time he worked during the winter was at Skiing Louise when he was 19 and that’s what really got him started on this search for snow. He’s 24 now and has spent winters in Fernie, Alaska and Whistler. Fortunately he has a great paying summer seasonal job and can afford to take the winter off, sort of.

According to Coby you must budget your money accordingly. After saving money all summer the first thing you do is buy the early bird ski pass at your hill of choice, buy all the gear you need (this should be the best you can get and a couple of sets) For example, Coby has 2 pair of high end skis, boots, climbing skins, avalanche transceiver, shovel and probe, the best technical jacket and pants you can buy, awesome gloves and mitts, great quick drying base layers, a helmet, goggles, and a bunch of really goofy toques. As for casual wear – don’t bother cause you can’t afford to go out, ever. Next, rent a house with as many other ski bums as you can and post date all your cheques for the winter so you know that’s covered (actually the landlord insists.) Make sure one person in the house has a car. Do not buy furniture or other household stuff. Your parents can supply that. A mattress and sleeping bag are adequate if you don’t have parents. Take as many board games as you can from each parent’s home. Remember you can’t afford to go out anywhere after skiing. Make sure your food budget includes beer and get as much rice and pasta and tomato sauce in to keep you full. At Christmas you can save a bit of money by going home for about 3 weeks. (Whistler is too busy anyway) Eat lots while home, stash food from the cupboards in your bag, go grocery shopping with your mom just before you leave and tell her you’ll pay for the stuff you’re putting in the cart at the check-out (she always gives in and pays for your food). And then, stop at every food bank on the way back to your other home. To keep fit and avoid those annoying fees they charge at the gym make sure you go ski touring at least 3 times a week. Plus, you get the best powder for free! Make sure you paid off your credit cards before you got laid off your job. You’ll need to use them by March cause you’ll be out of money and driving to Alaska to spring ski.

Enough about money! Coby and his friends say it’s the lifestyle that counts. Each day a true ski bum gets up at 6 am and is out the door by 7 for first tracks. Otherwise you’re just considered a regular bum. They go to the most extreme places they can find and ski until dark. Whistler/Blackcomb has so much terrain and backcountry access that Coby and his friends have yet to try it all. This year they have found backcountry cabins and countless runs just off the Duffy Lake Road. For a change of scenery they will go anywhere anyone suggests as long as the snow is fresh and deep. When it’s raining to the top of the mountain they play scrabble or cook. I know this because I’ve had collect phone calls in the middle of the day with questions like… “is narc a word?” or “how do you make that Caesar salad dressing, mom?” Oh, the life of a ski bum.

Having just finished writing the above part of this article one evening ‘Lo and Behold’ 3 REAL ski bums walk into my ski shop the very next day!! Rhianna, Coby’s housemate is home for the weekend to make some cash teaching a tele clinic (and no doubt to stock up on lentils from home). Then, 10 minutes later 2 girls from Calgary, Aleta and Sheena, walk into the shop. They’re on their way to Bella Coola from Alaska. They’re planning a 20-day trip around the Mount Waddington area and will be ski bumming until April.

What a coincidence, I thought. I took the opportunity to interview them about their best and worst experiences as a ski bums.

Rhianna says her worst experience was 2 years ago at the Beaver Creek border crossing to Alaska.
“Yeah, 4 of us sleeping in a van at –35, for 3 days because we were denied access to the US and we were not going to drive back south no matter what. We didn’t own the van and we couldn’t prove we had any money. I guess credit cards and debit cards don’t prove anything. We were waiting for a fax from a notary public to prove that we’d borrowed the van and not stolen it. Remember?” she reminds me, “you got the paper for us and faxed it.”

“Oh yeah, I remember something about that. Did you guys ever pay me for the notary’s services?” I say.

It so happens Rhianna’s best experience occurred at minus 35 again. This time they were sleeping in a tent in the parking lot at Powder King, north of Prince George. They had been mistakenly told the hill was open during the week. It had dumped snow for a few days so they were pretty stoked.
“We woke up early, ready to get first tracks and no one was around. Turns out the info on the website was wrong and there’s no phones up there. So we’re wondering what to do, looking at all that fresh stuff when this big crazy ‘cat driver’ named Rick comes along and offers to take us anywhere we want to go. We can’t believe it! He knows all the best places cause he’s been there forever. He takes us up every mountain and we ski down the backsides, when we hit a road, there he is waiting in his pick-up to drive us back to the cat. It was awesome!”

“Oh yeah, I remember that” I say. “You guys had borrowed our expensive minus 30 sleeping bags for that trip. Do you still have them?”

Rhianna heads out the door of the shop to go skiing with one of our corporate ski passes and not 10 minutes later in walk 2 girls in expensive ski clothes. Both of them are looking right at me as they walk in the door smiling. They are acting like they know me so finally I say, “Am I supposed to know who you are?” One of them smiles and says yeah, “ I’m Aleta Corbett. This is my friend Sheena. We’re on a 4 month ski trip”

Of course!! Her parents, friends of ours, had emailed us from Calgary saying their daughter Aleta might drop in on her way back from Alaska. We go way back to ski racing days in Lake Louise when our family and hers spent every weekend together. I hadn’t seen her since she was 10 and the time she broke her arm skidding down a steep chute at a ski camp we hosted in Smithers.

So I ask them if I can interview them about their best and worst experiences. They agree and it turns out the best experience was an unexpected ride too, except it wasn’t up a powder slope but down an icy highway.

“ So here we are at a gas station in Watson Lake, Yukon, coming back from the worst conditions we’ve ever skied in our life, in Alaska, and this incredibly friendly truck driver comes over looking a little worried about 2 young girls driving alone on the long lonely Cassiar Highway. He offers to give us a ride but we have a big old Toyota Land Cruiser pulling a gear trailer. No problem, he says, we’ll just drive it onto the flatbed. And that’s what we did – Aleta had to do quite a neat 4-wheel drive trick just to get on the flatbed but it worked. So there we were - us, the car, and the trailer heading down the Cassiar all the way to Burns Lake. About 10 or 12 hours of driving in all and then he and his wife put us up for 3 days. We just came up to Smithers to ski for a day.”

I smile and hand them a free corporate ski pass. “Okay, what’s your worst experience?”

Their worst experience had to do with that little cheap gear trailer which was filled with skis and food (mostly rice from their parents home – seriously they confirmed this with me.) and all the gear they will need for the expedition to Waddington. “ We left Calgary, heading north for Alaska, full of hope and excitement and we had barely hit Edmonton when the gear trailer just fell off the car! Broken! Not good, we’re barely on the road and we’re having technical difficulties. But everyone we met was so helpful and someone found someone who found someone to weld it on a Sunday. That’s just how it works! You don’t know what will happen next or who will help you out.”

I can’t get enough of these two passionate gorgeous girls and offer to buy them dinner after skiing so I can hear more. They phone their “new parents” in Burns Lake who have the gear trailer stored, to see if it’s okay. They okay it as long as they are home by 10 pm or they’ll worry about them driving the icy roads.

Later, during dinner with Aleta and Sheena we run into Rhianna at the restaurant and introduce the intrepid skiers to each other. The two invite Rhianna to join them on their expedition to Waddington. Rhianna looks tempted but doesn’t think it’s enough time to get ready, but as she departs she says “You never know, I might show up at Anehiem Lake around the 8th.”

I wouldn’t be surprised. I remember the time she decided spur of the moment to go to South America by herself with a pair of tele skis in her pack and a few bucks in her pocket. Oh, the life of a ski bum.

So now that the editor at Backpackers News has forced me to chase after the mind of a “Snowchaser” one thing has become very clear. The ski bums I know are energetic, wonderfully enthusiastic young people. I love hearing their stories and am happy to be a small part of them. This vocation called ski bumming is actually a vacation sponsored a bit by parents and other adults who just wish they could be doing the same thing and get great pleasure just being close to them. I think I’ll be a ski bum when I grow up.

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