MOUNTAIN LIFE - Coast Mountains | Fall / Winter 2017

38 MLCM FALL/WINTER 2017 ENVIRONMENT words :: Feet Banks You can’t recycle broken skis. There are no composts for flexed-out snowboards with blown edges. And while more than a few ski bums have breathed an extra season or two of life into their gear with a roll of duct tape and some swallowed pride, the sad reality is, the gear responsible for much of our joy in the mountains too often ends up in a landfill— timeless symbols of a privileged, wasteful lifestyle. “I think humanity is losing its perspective on its place in nature,” says Whistler resident Randi Kruse. “Mountain culture has its roots in environmental philosophy—we see the value of pristine nature— but with more than 3 million people visiting this valley each year, how many really learn or understand what makes this place special?” Kruse, a business and marketing consultant, is quick to point out admirable, local sustainability efforts— pedestrian infrastructure reduces the need for cars and cuts emissions, the Whistler Conference Centre achieved a 90 per cent landfill waste diversion rate in 2016, while Whistler Blackcomb recently banned plastic drinking straws. “But no one has tackled the fact that we are throwing away three tonnes of used skis and snowboards each year,” she says. “That’s enough to fill a Peak 2 Peak gondola.” And like an overloaded gondola, Kruse thinks that waste is hanging over all of us. Manufactured with a tightly packed combination of metal, plastic and fibreglass, skis and snowboards can’t really be recycled so, according to Kruse, they need to be repurposed. “There is a limit to what our planet can handle,” she says, “but human ingenuity is limitless.” A few years ago, Kruse began envisioning new ways to use and enjoy trashed gear: a ski could be cut and used to create a firewood box or a wine holder, or to form an A-frame roof for a bird house. As the ideas kept coming, Ski Heaven was born—a ski/snowboard upcycling company celebrating mountain culture and helping to reduce our impact on the environment. “I wanted to reinvent what mountain art looks like,” she says. “Skis and boards are physical reminders of our connection to this place, and to the memories made with people exploring the mountains together. I can’t just see that as garbage.” Envisioning snowboard benches, snowflake ski wall art, mini ski keychains and classic ski-Adirondack chairs, Kruse began transforming waste gear at the start of the 2015/16 season. Two years of later, she’s upcycled and sold more than 700 skis and snowboards and diverted about 1,500 pounds of waste from the Whistler landfill. “It was a tragic irony that something we use to access remote natural places would become an ecological burden,” Kruse states, adding that her handiwork is helping create a new mindset in the mountains, but admits her progress only leads to NON-DISPOSABLE FUTURE SKI TOWN WASTE IS WORSE THAN YOU THOUGHT, BUT THERE IS HOPE. Ski Heaven's Randi Kruse reveals some pure mountain wisdom on an upcycled ski throne. TODD LAWSON