The hills don’t have eyes at Whitecap Alpine, but their ears are doing just great.
Words :: Feet Banks // Photos :: Jessy Braidwood.
Article sponsored by Whitecap Alpine.
It happens to a lot of hikers—most, actually.
You start the day on a fresh trail—one foot in front of the next, everything going great. And then it strikes: the earworm, an involuntary tune or bit of a song that pops into your mind and sticks with you almost every step of the day. A loop of endless sonic monotony that only you can hear.
Annoying as they can be, hiking earworm tunes don’t hurt anyone; they can even help pick up the pace (or potentially save your life—after breaking his leg and crawling off a mountain in the Peruvian Andes for three days, Joe Simpson claims a Boney M. song took over his brain and helped push him to continue).
An earworm is an involuntary tune or bit of a song that pops into your mind and sticks with you almost every step of the day. A loop of endless sonic monotony that only you can hear.
Top scientists can’t agree on any single remedy to expel an earworm from your mind but the expert hikers at Whitecap Alpine Adventures have figured it out with Soundscapes—a hiking program that includes an outdoor concert midway through the hike. Beats the earworms every time (and creates a memorable and unique hiking experience).
“Soundscapes is a hiking trip with live music,” explains Leah Evans, ACMG Summer
Hiking Guide and Program Director at Whitecap. “Over the past eight years of
guiding I’ve wanted to partner music and hiking together somehow and make something unique. I’ve done a lot of hiking, but I can specifically remember all these hikes in detail—what songs they played, where exactly I sat in the field. It surprised me how much the performances deepen the experience.”
But to be clear, Soundscapes hiking is not a roaming minstrel following you around as you explore the alpine either the Coast or Chilcotin mountains (both are accessible from the lodge and offer quite different hikes and views).
“It’s two set performances,” Evans says. “The artist will usually be up there the whole
time interacting with the guests, but they only perform twice: once on a hiking day out in a natural amphitheatre or a field of wildflowers or somewhere like that—we do it wherever the weather is good. And then there is another concert back in the lodge on the last night of the trip.”
“It’s pretty cool,” explains Jessy Braidwood, Pemberton-based photographer and natural-born hiker who joined the Soundscape hikes in 2023. “We hiked for a couple hours to this beautiful meadow with wildflowers and this big expansive view. The music plays and it’s so beautiful and peaceful with echoes off the rocks…people cry.”
Whitecap’s McGillivray Pass Lodge accommodates 15 people and Braidwood says after spending a few days together before the performances, the whole thing feels like a private concert for a select group of friends. “You go on day-hikes every day—guided, catered, snacks—it’s so fun. It’s gorgeous up there. So you feel pretty connected to everyone else, you’re in it together.”
The summer of 2024 will mark the third year of the Soundscapes program. “This year we have Emmet Jerome coming in to perform,” Evans explains, adding that Jerome plays country folk with a heavy blues influence and is known for his stage presence and warm performing style.
“Our goal is to showcase lesser-known Canadian artists that will wow and astound,” Evans adds. “Generally, the musicians are up there at the lodge with the guests, hiking and spending time together. So far, the artists have all come away with some really dedicated fans. It’s just the sort of experience people remember forever.”
And then there’s the hiking itself. With two mountain ranges to choose from, hikers on the Soundscape trip have plenty of options. “The Coast Mountains are rocky with long ridgelines,” Evans says, “and the Chilcotins are more grassy rolling ridges, with some peaks, and more minerals and colour in the soil. We have mellow valley strolls all the way up to 24-km days. The sunsets are amazing, it’s perfect for stargazing, and when the light pours into McGillivray Pass it looks like some foreign magic land.”
It should be noted that the lodge also has a turntable and well-stocked record shelf to give hikers at least some control over the potential earworms of any given day. But after the soundscape performances, those songs in your head will be accompanied by memories of the time of your life.
Whitecap Alpine Adventure’s 2024 Soundscapes Session is set for August 19-23. https://whitecapalpine.ca/trips/soundscapes/
