MOUNTAIN LIFE - Blue Mountains | Fall 2020

44 I ’ve been a snowboarder for longer than I’ve been a mom, but sometimes, admittedly, it’s hard to remember. Between making lunches and signing permission forms, it’s easy to bury the adventurous soul you once were. When’s the last time you carved out "ve days to do something that challenged you? Here we are, at the beginning of an epic tale—how two moms with a long history of shredding the gnar ended up in the backcountry of Golden, B.C. Spread out at the foot of the Purcells, Golden is not a red-carpet tourist destination that pretends people don’t live here. !is is a real town that welcomes you to come explore among the locals, whether you’re an Australian on a work visa, a ski bum "ghting for a berth in the upcoming Freeride World Quali"er, or a worker in the forestry or rail industry. It’s my kind of place—where you earn your way in with handshakes and smiles, just like you have to earn your turns in the backcountry. We were on a tight schedule and we hit the ground running. We grabbed our four-day lift tickets and rentals and headed out to meet our Big Mountain guide, Dylan Anderson. Dylan would be imparting a decade of local knowledge over the span of a day. We quickly realized Dylan taught my daughter to ski in the Blue Mountain Resort sta$ daycare, proving that the Canadian ski slopes are, indeed, a small world. SNOWBOARDER WORDS :: ALLISON KENNEDY DAVIES Into the Great White Open TOURISM GOLDEN Two moms conquer fears in the Kicking Horse backcountry