The summer issue of Mountain Life Coast Mountains has dropped.
Not that long ago, most of us were living in caves and getting out to roam around was the only way we were gonna make it. Even after the introduction of agriculture—when we began clustering together for comfort, safety, and convenience—much of human history was made by those willing push the edge and peek around the corners of life.
ON THE COVER: “When I first started as an adventure photographer, I thought it was all about the action—those big, explosive moments. As I’ve progressed, I’ve begun to realize that yes, the action is important, but shots of the people, culture, and those short in-between moments also truly strike a chord with me and stand the test of time. Here, rider Uwe Homm soaks in the moment between action shots as we wait for the sun to drop a few more degrees.” Photo: BEN HAGGAR
Times have changed. Mindless convenience is king, spoon-fed comfort is expected (or you’ll hear about in the comments section), and we’re being beaten into idle submission by the dark spectre of liability. Stagnation is imminent…
But not for everyone. There are still those who step over the line. Those who will seize that single tendril of possibility when it twists up from our subconscious and pulls us towards the door, the road, the anywhere-but-here.
They say narrow minds dislike open spaces—all that room for error, or for something difficult to sneak in from any side. But this magazine is for those who see open spaces as open opportunities—to just go, be, do.
Jundai Nakashio (left) and Riki Nakajima, car camping on a month-long road trip to Alaska. Photo: Tempei Takeuchi
The distance isn’t important, nor the duration, the regions, the reasons…It doesn’t matter if you’re alone with a canoe or sardine-packed into the backseat of a ’79 Bronco with two friends and three dogs—the decision is the magic: that single instant when your whole body knows it’s time to pull the chute, hitch a ride on the wind, and carpe diem yourself to parts unknown.
This issue is about that moment of commitment, and those who make it. It’s for all the idle roamers and the hard-driving trailblazers; the artists, the explorers, and the rockers of the boat. It’s for anyone who’s ever felt the pull to disrupt stagnation with abrupt relocation: the nomads, the wanderers…the vagabonds.
—Feet Banks
The Summer 2023 Issue of Mountain Life: Coast Mountains has hit the streets and includes some truly inspiring stories and images to light a fire under your feet and help you heed the call of the open road. Watch for these highlights to come online over the course of the summer as well:
Surviving Myself: Peter Chrzanowski
A mountain lifer to the core, Peter is many other things as well—skier, filmmaker, paraglider, mountain sport visionary, and sometimes notorious trainwreck. He’s also one of the most storied vagabonds in Coast Mountains history, with notable first descents and mishaps on some of the biggest and best-known mountains in BC. Feet Banks talks to “Peter Peru” about his upcoming book I Survived Myself, and digs into some of his wildest trips, travels, and travails.
Threedom
Full-on family vagabonding. ML publisher Todd Lawson and his family embark on a moto-mission from Ireland to India to Africa and back. On the road for over a year, the power-trio family created an adventure for the ages that’s part National Lampoon’s, part Eat, Pray, Love and 100% inspiring.
A Sickness Called Steelheading
BC’s Dean River is a pristine coastal wilderness watershed that many believe to be one of the best rivers for summer steelhead fishing in North America. Anglers looking to test these sacred waters generally arrive by helicopter and stay at fancy (expensive) lodges. Kye Petersen, Riley Leboe, and Jarred Martin can’t afford that. So they hopped on a sea-doo, chartered a boat, and strapped into a 100+km, ocean approach into a fishing adventure for the ages. A full-scale identity crisis/nervous breakdown wasn’t part of the plan though…
Whale Music
When a lifelong hit-the-roader hits the end of the road…a sailboat becomes the ultimate gateway for freedom. Agathe Bernard had no idea how to sail and no clue Sointula was before she bought her boat…she just knew something was calling her. “Then I heard the whale songs.” Agathe hits the high seas to discover just how much more the whales were singing as the man-made ocean noises ground to a pandemic-driven halt.
Hada: A River Rewilded
Wild Pacific salmon are among nature’s most prolific nomads but commercial open-pen fish farms on their migration routes poised an incredible threat for decades. Brian Hockenstein hunkers down on Vancouver Island’s Hada River to see what the first-generation or returning fish look like after removing the fish farms from their home waters.
Backyard: Nootka Trail
Stretching for 40 kilometres along the west coast of Nootka Island, the Nootka Trail has long offered an “unknown” alternative to the crowds and popularity of the West Coast Trail…but times are changing. For the first time since Captain Cook arrived at Nootka back in 1778 however, this time they may be changing for the better. Andrew Findlay hits the trail.
Plus: Brett Tippie and the bear, Sandy Ward’s weekend rip, Susan Musgrave and the Haida Potato, Zada pushes on, Feet’s Vagabond Essentials, Leigh Joseph’s Held by the Land, Jon Turk, Cougars, Greenland, Climbing the beast, and more!
Pick up the issue at all the usual rad spots, or check it online here.
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