The 20th anniversary issue of Mountain Life Coast Mountains has dropped!
Editor’s Message: Feet First
Is there a cleaner metaphor for the pull of the mountains—that ethereal longing that brought us all here in the first place—than the literal pull of a T-bar gliding us uphill to potentially the best turns of the day?
On the one hand, T-bars will never die because they are the lifeblood of small, family or community-owned ski hills. Shredding Vancouver Island’s Mount Cain in 2012, a lifer named Bill Coyle, 72 years old at the time, laid it down perfectly for me: “We’ll never have a chairlift,” Bill said. “Insurance, maintenance, everything goes up when you deal with chairlifts. These North Island storms can shut down a lift pretty fast and it’s a heck of a lot easier to rescue people from a T-bar.”
Falling while riding a T-bar is a bit different though. Getting dragged uphill because a handle got caught behind your knee is a basic rite of passage for most skiers. (Murray Ridge, in Fort Saint James, BC, is where this first happened to me. Longest T-bar in North America, and I was dragged up at least 40% of it.) T-bars are also a nightmare to ride as an adult with a really young kid, but that’s part of it too: a bit of sacrifice to share the stoke.
And sharing the stoke is important around here. With this issue, Mountain Life Coast Mountains celebrates our 20th anniversary. When the magazine started, Whistler Blackcomb had four T-bars; this season we are down to just one: T-bar 2, in Whistler’s aptly named T-Bar Bowl. Time is chasing all of us.
Similar to those first sketchy, knee-hooking T-bar rides, this magazine is a testament to the value of not really knowing what you’re doing but doing it anyhow. And if you can keep your nerve and hold on… good things can happen.
If you can keep your nerve and hold on… good things can happen.
We’re proud we held on. Because, with any new endeavour or passion, that opportunity really comes just once—there’s only one first ride. And that’s a wonderful thing.
This issue, I want to thank all the readers and advertisers and athletes and photographers and writers and artists and everyone who has taken the ride with us these past two decades. Here’s to taking chances. Hold on, up we go. –Feet Banks
Issue Highlights
Mountain Lifers: Paul & Gail Morrison
As a hall-of-fame ski/bike/mountain photographer Paul is known as the “Master of Light,” but the Morrisons are also foundational members of the Whistler community who helped usher the town, and the wild side-channel of mountain culture it created, from infancy to ubiquity.
20 Years of Coast Mountain Covers
We had zombies on the cover for November 2012’s “End of the World” issue. And sent our favourite Olympian Julia Murray on an underwater mountain bike mission for Summer 2015’s “Wheels & Water.” Local artwork has graced the cover a half dozen times, while mountain biking’s pulled nine cover features, and once it was just a bunch of waterdrops in a spider web. To nab a magazine cover takes talent, vision, timing and a bit of luck. To celebrate all the above—and the incredible photographers and athletes who create our covers—we rounded up the best of the best, according to ourselves and a few special-judge friends, for a visual walk through the past two decades.
Duffy Lake Road: History in the Making
In the first years of Mountain Life there was an unwritten rule: “Don’t talk about ski touring off the Duffy. Don’t put the location in photo captions. Don’t blow up the spot.” And then a guidebook came out, and outdoor blogs with GPS coordinates crawled from the cyber-ooze of the Internet. And yeah, things have changed. But that doesn’t mean there isn’t some nice turns to be had up there, along with some interesting history most people have never heard.
Before the Light Dies
Longtime Mountain Life contributing photographer Paul Bride talks about his new, career-encompassing book of stories and photos from around the world and why some of the best adventures come from fearlessly going places you’re not supposed to go and hanging out with the “shadow people.”
Back to the QP
After decades of not, conditions have been lining up nicely on the famed Blackcomb quarterpipe. Dano Pendygrasse recalls the early days and recent revitalization of one of Canadian snowboarding’s most iconic natural features.
Bio Electric Expedition-ing
Science has proven plants are sentient: Trees can communicate danger/drought via mycelium fungal networks and some plants can “hear” caterpillars eating their neighbours and will release toxins. With this in mind, long-time columnist, adventurer and PhD organic chemist Jon Turk investigates how time spent among these “smarty plants” and in other natural environments create a sort of bioelectric synergy. And that’s why we like it so much.
The Canvas of the Can
In mountain towns, a beer can is rarely just a beer can. It can be an inside joke, a friend’s latest art or a celebration and love letter to the sports and culture that keep mountain folk pumped. Of course, what’s inside the can is pretty good too.
Plus: Artist Jackie Chapman, Gear Shed, independent downhiller Stef Fleck, and more!
Check the full issue HERE and pick up a free print copy at all the usual rad spots.
Check the ML Podcast!
