MOUNTAIN LIFE - Coast Mountains | Winter Spring 2020

41 LIFER According to Gary McFarlane, it’s a lot harder these days to be a true and proper dirtbag. “For one thing,” he says, “you need to spend 75 bucks a month on a phone plan so you can post your photos on Instagram.” Gary has faith that there are still penniless kids travelling the world like he did in the late ‘80s and ‘90s, but he’s aware that things have changed. “People still go on trips but the travel I remember is just taking off and seeing how long I could live on what little money I had. These days, a ‘dirtbag’ shows up at a climbing area in a $100,000 van and wants to camp for free. It’s different.” A born-and-raised Vancouver kid who got his first snowboard in 1982 (a wooden Burton Performer that he still has), Gary made it to Whistler in ’85. “They didn’t allow snowboarding so I skied—skied hard, worked at The Keg and went to Greece every summer where I slept in a bamboo hut on the beach, living cheap and partying.” To stretch their limited funds, Gary and his buddies concocted entrepreneurial schemes. “We’d do hair wraps with yarn or organize parties and bring people to them so we could drink for free. I patched jeans for cash and one year I bought a bunch of bikinis in Bali and brought them back to Greece to sell on the beach. That dream job wasn’t so dreamy, turns out women are very particular about their bikinis and want to buy them before they go on holiday.” Working winters in Whistler fuelled the call to adventure and Gary dirt-bagged his way through Europe, Turkey, India, Pakistan and Nepal, en route to Annapurna basecamp. “The seats on the bus were too small for even my skinny ass,” he recalls, “so my buddy and I climbed onto the roof and rode on top of the bus all the way, listening to Cat Stevens and seeing the lights of Kathmandu as we arrived… we were just learning about the world and experimenting—young and strong and stupid, out there to push ourselves.” After travelling through Southeast Asia (“met a girl, she broke my heart”) and working a stint in Australia, Gary returned to Greece, then Norway (another broken heart) and eventually Sweden, where he played a winter of hockey. “The Swedes thought I’d be good because I was Canadian. I had a different style than they were used to, but I think they got a kick out of having me on the team. Then I heard it was dumping in Whistler so I hitched back to Athens to fly home. I was back skiing and working at The Keg two days later.” Another trip to Sweden for his brother’s wedding introduced Gary to rock climbing and bike touring. “My buddy and I rode around Sweden after the wedding and I got into climbing. With just a few months’ experience, I thought it would be cool to bike through Siberia and use the bikes to explore and put up some new climbing routes in China at a spot I’d read about. I’ve always suffered from a lack of perspective.” GARYMCFARLANE After 30+ years as world traveller, entrepreneur, community builder, and soft-core nude photographer, Gary McFarlane is making the logical next step to… ninja warrior? PHOTOS COURTESY GARY MCFARLANE