photo: David R. Gluns
The powderful Purcells
A dozen backcountry skiers aged 54 to 77 head for the Kootenays to prove they’re only as old as their last set of fresh tracks.
"Sue, run over here, quick!” calls Emilee Fanjoy. Outside the ski lodge window, the late afternoon light is highlighting a set of perfect, wiggly ski tracks coming off “Wishbone Ridge,” about a kilometre east.
Sue Port staggers up from where she is reading in the cosy sitting area. “Run? I can hardly walk!” she complains, crossing over to the window to admire those hard-won turns from earlier in the day.
Old ski tourers never die. The coming week here at Powder Creek Lodge in the Purcell Mountains will be evidence of that. I’m with a group of 12 crocks, the ski touring friends I join each winter for a trip to a backcountry ski lodge. Over the years, we’ve sampled perhaps a dozen different lodges spread across the mountainous powder zone of southeastern British Columbia, including the snowladen slopes of the Monashees, Selkirks and Purcells. We’re keen to venture into some new terrain at Powder Creek.
Last night at dinner, we did the math on our ages. Of the dozen of us, our average is 64. Bert Port is the oldest at 77, and nobody is under 50. Totalled up, we have some 360 years of accumulated backcountry ski touring experience. It’s that core knowledge that allows us to explore the wild slopes around Powder Creek Lodge without a professional backcountry ski guide.
Read more in the current issue of British Columbia Magazine
