Stories

Partnerships in business can be win-win if you’re willing to work with what you think is your competition. The end goal should be to increase the sport of ski touring and helping to ensure the customers win with strategic partnerships. We have been fortunate to partner with skimo.co for knowledge and advice for boot fitting, mounting and equipment.

By Kieran Crimeen

A couple of weeks back Joel got a heads up from one Andrew Wexler aka The Best Skier On The Mountain that he should check out Commonwealth Couloir. This was a line I’d put on my ‘never even consider’ list so I was apprehensive to say the least. Still, Joel has a winning smile and it’s hard to say no to the guy so we went up for a look.

We were stymied at the first cliff band by snow, rock, spindrift and a general lack of ability. Retreat was the only option but the fires in the Temple of Stoke had been, well, stoked.

By Kieran Crimeen

A high pressure system poked its nose in on the tail end of some snow so the weekend looked like a great time to head up to the Columbia Icefields area and have another go at the Skyladder.

After agreeing to leave Canmore at some stupid hour (1.45 for those interested) I went to sleep fidgeting nervously because a) it’s an intimidating route and b) the Backcountry Alpha aka Peter Knight would be in attendance. We howled up the Parkway, nearly losing a wheel that wasn’t bolted on properly and got underway at 4.30. I crushed the approach, dropping Joel and Peter for at least 20 seconds before they caught up and had me puffing to keep them in sight.

Why are you here? It's a great question that businesses should ask themselves when they are starting out. What do you want to accomplish or achieve by doing what you do? It's something that we have been talking a lot about as we are getting ready to open our doors this fall. Why are we here? And we get it, that you should sell something to keep those doors open. But beyond that. What gets you up in the morning? Keeps you up working on the thing late at night? There are shops everywhere selling things and doing that. Some well, some not so well. But beyond selling something, what is your purpose?

In the autumn of 1995 the north face of Mount Robson was finally skied. With little fanfare and no media presence, Ptor Spricenieks and Troy Jungen, from Whistler, walked to the mountain, climbed to its summit and the descended the giant face. (...) Spricenieks recalled, "We dropped in right off the summit and it was really, really, really, really steep and really, really big and we were way scared. It was great." Quoted from Powder Pioneers by Chic Scott