The hunt for new lines in Northern BC.

words :: MJ Castor // photos :: Cédric Landry

In the late 1990s, top Whistler snowboarders (and a very select few skiers) started exploring the Sea to Sky corridor on snowmobiles because, as they saw it, the ski hills were getting too busy.

The best historical document of that era is Treetop Films’ Clearcut, filmed in the all-time snow-hammered winter of 1998–99. Realizing what was possible via snowmobile access, a new culture exploded.

A quarter century later, the local sled-access shred scene is established—maybe a bit too established. Certainly, there is always good fun to be found by going further and deeper but, for the classic zones, one could even say sledland is getting too busy.

The solution? Go north.

“I like seeing new things,” says Joel Loverin. “Anything new is amazing, anything different.” After more than two decades snowboarding in Whistler, Joel is accustomed to getting up early, snowmobiling in the dark and hiking for hours to access some the region’s big peaks and burly lines. “And getting away from the hungry sled skiers down here is nice, too. The ability of sledders in the Sea to Sky is pretty high—people can get into a lot of places they never used to.”

“The access is pretty gnarly. Everything is huge in there. Looks chill until you sled up to it, then it’s, Whoa…” – Joel Loverin

So he drove north to connect with photographers Cedric Landry and Cam Unger (an old roommate and shred buddy) who have both migrated to Terrace in recent years. “We found a zone a few years ago and did this crazy climb up a glacier,” Joel says. “That just opened up a huge new area—as far as you could see—but weather was coming and we couldn’t stay. We had to go back for another look.”

“We did the longest runs ever. Big, long tandem punches up ridges—huge punches and some of the longest tandems we’ve ever done. And then crazy runs. One run was a minute and 51 seconds of full-tilt ripping.”

“We’d get up super early and go as far as we could to get to these peaks, only to realize none of them get any sun at all that time of year. But that’s why we are there, scoping. We’ll go back and know when and where the light will be good. That always works for me—having an idea of a place, having been there and having photos of the lines I can study.”

“Camping by the highway is too loud so we found a spot not too far off. We had this arctic tent with a woodstove in it, but when the fire went out it got cold. Really cold. It’s pretty high elevation and the sun comes up way later. Getting up for early light we were so bundled—puffy pants, puffy jackets, heated socks…still frozen.”

“We saw a few heli-ski tracks but not one sled track. I’m not sure sledders have ever been in there. We saw one sledder once, from the top of a peak, waaaaay in the distance. That’s why we came here—that and perfect coastal snow. We went to all the sickest places we want to ride and now we’re juiced up to come back and shred.”