The Whistler Podcast

Season 2 Episode 10: An emotional experience in the mountains (with Jayson Faulkner)

July 30, 2021 Resort Municipality of Whistler Season 2 Episode 10
The Whistler Podcast
Season 2 Episode 10: An emotional experience in the mountains (with Jayson Faulkner)
Show Notes Transcript

This week in The Whistler Podcast, Mayor Jack Crompton and Cole Stefiuk speak to Jayson Faulkner about the Spearhead Huts project.

They discuss how Whistler’s counterculture helped this region have a pivotal global influence on action sports. Jayson shares memories of trips to the Spearhead Range as a child, before ski touring and avalanche safety equipment were available. And describes how his trips to the Alps inspired his interest in alpine huts. Jayson shares how outdoor recreation is a way of promoting sustainability and environmental sensitivity through an emotional connection with the outdoors. 

Jayson has compressed a lot into his career that’s focused on helping people fall in love with the mountains, from working on the Whistler Mountain marketing team, founding Escape Route with their Whistler Alpine Guides Bureau, serving as VP of Sales and Marketing at Arc’teryx, co-founding the Sea to Sky Gondola Corporation, and is currently serving as president and founder of Bridal Falls Gondola Corporation. He also was on the Whistler Council from 2011 to 2014.   

Speaker 1:

Today on the Whistler podcast, I'll ask Jason Faulkner to tell us all about the spearhead huts stick around.

Speaker 2:

[inaudible] one.

Speaker 1:

I am Jack Crompton. He is Cole Steph uke, and this is the whistle podcast. We want to acknowledge that we live, work and play on the traditional unseated territories of the Lua nation and the Squamish nation. Today. We're going to be talking to Jason, Faulkner and Cole. Are you a Mountaineer? Do you consider yourself a, a Mountaineer mountain, man?

Speaker 3:

I want to consider myself one. I'm hoping that this conversation with Jason will like give me the fire under my butt that I need to get up there because I'm usually like, I like it. But to the extent that he, uh, does it, I'm not quite there. I don't think like I'm two hours in the mountains and I'm good. You know,

Speaker 1:

I read a quote, uh, preparing from John Muir from 1895. So this is a, this is like an old quote, but it is thousands of tired nerve shaken over civilized. People are beginning to find out that going to the mountains is going home, but wilderness is a necessity and that mountain parks and reservations are useful. Not only as fountains of timber and irrigating rivers, but as fountains of life, I thought that was good. And it's amazing that even in just pre 1900 people where we're finding that relief in the mountains. Yeah. That's,

Speaker 3:

That's crazy. They weren't even trapped by technology like we were so it's even, it's even crazier.

Speaker 1:

Totally. Um, all right, well, let's get to, uh, ask anything and last week's headlines, I'll start. And, uh, my ask Cole, anything is, uh, you spent a full day in a gondola on the, see this guy gone to LA doing laps with max. Yeah. So my question is how long could you stay in a gondola with max?

Speaker 3:

Well, okay. We didn't do all day. We did about three hours and I, you know what, I could have done that all day. I could have done that from eight til seven at night, I had an absolute blast. It was a lot of fun. It w it wasn't work. You know, we were just hanging out. I do wish we got out though and went to the top for a beer, maybe at some point, but we didn't, we just kept doing the loop for the show, but I could have done it all day, man. It was a ton of fun.

Speaker 1:

And did you have people come in and ride with you at all? Or it was just to you? Yeah, just the two

Speaker 3:

Of us, the only person that we were like allowed to have him with us was our, our sales, um, our sales rep, one of our teammates, Kim who joined us, she helped us set it all up and she was the only one who's really allowed to. We were allowed to have on just given the, the COVID regulations that are still in place. So since she works with us and she was double dosed, we, she was, uh, allowed to come in with us. But I mean, we are going to do again. I'm pretty sure they loved it. We loved it. So next time, I'm hoping that we can get guests in the gondola with us and like chat with us on our way up. I think that would be a ton of fun.

Speaker 1:

I thought Darren's idea of, of speed dating was an interesting one. Like, like blind dates, you get on the bottom and then you go up to the top and then if, if one person gets off and the other one doesn't that didn't work out so well. And the person goes down except the next blind date. I hadn't

Speaker 3:

Had an idea. I like that too, for the winter season to do like chairlift conversations where you just like trap someone on a chair for the five minutes and have an interview with someone random, but it didn't really work with COVID. So maybe next winter we'll try something like that out

Speaker 1:

Right on. All right. Ask Jack anything, what you got

Speaker 3:

Last week, he asked you about breakfast sandwiches, or last time we did this. So I'm going to go a little harder today, cause I've been seeing a lot of people online talking about this. I do want your take on it. Uh, we talked a little bit about it, last episode we did, uh, but the pay parking in those four parks have taken place they're starting and, and people are not super thrilled. And they're asking about what there will be in, in regards to like our shuttle is going to be going seven days a week at some point, is there going to be some sort of locals pass? So I want to throw that to you now to just kind of like clear some of the doubt as to if anything's going to be going for locals in that situation, or if it's something that we need to just try and work around.

Speaker 1:

Yeah. The focus really is to come up with something that works for our community. I think what has been framed, my thinking and council's thinking is that last summer status quo is not acceptable. And last summer there was cars everywhere and we had very little ability to, um, uh, uh, manage it. And so our goal this summer is to learn about what works and what doesn't, and we've set in place, this, um, group of, of, of tools. And we will pay close attention to it and we're welcoming people's feedback and recording it. And, and in September, we'll do a review of what worked and what didn't. So it is kind

Speaker 3:

Of flexible on what, what happens this summer then. Yeah. I mean, you,

Speaker 1:

You have to, you know, put the program in place to learn about it and adjusting it a weekend before you've actually, uh, understood what works and what doesn't doesn't make a ton of sense. And so our goal is to, to, to learn and to improve and to make sure that the parks experience is a good one in the long run.

Speaker 3:

All right. Perfect. Thank you. I will ask you an easier question next time. No, no, I hope they get

Speaker 4:

Hard. Okay. Careful what you wish

Speaker 3:

For over here. All right.

Speaker 1:

So last week's headlines. I'm going to give you four and then we're going to talk about one. So the first is, um, flurry of activity for sea to sky search and rescue teams could be a sign of things to come. Number two Whistler way. Rezoning gets first two readings, number three, cos urges public to keep distance from sow and Cubs on the move in Whistler and for public survey launches for the Northland's rezoning,

Speaker 3:

Right? One for, uh, for, for zoning bylaws and stuff like that. So I think I'm going to pick probably one of the first or the one of the first of the third. I think, I think we should go with the third one, the, the bear, what kind of bear safety bear wear that kind of stuff to start, start off this conversation.

Speaker 1:

All right. Well, so, uh, the, the message was steer clear of the sow and her Cubs. Have you seen the Cubs out there?

Speaker 3:

I have not actually myself. They

Speaker 1:

Are like, honestly, the size of a small cat. They're they're amazing. But I think, you know, the, the, the cos is just saying to keep them alive, mom needs to stay alive and so stay as far away from them as you possibly can. It's a message. I think we get every year. Um, but important to me,

Speaker 3:

I do think that this year needs to be even more kind of nailed home the bear stuff, because last year was kind of, I mean, you saw it last summer and even kind of into the spring when there were still heavy COVID restrictions, the bears, there was less people a year and the bears were more, you know, they were more they're closer to us. They were hanging out. They were back into like where they thought they should be. And now with all the, you know, tons of more people planning on coming up here, which is of course, good to see the bears are going to be closer than maybe before. And like, we really got to nail home what to do, what not to do. If you see any bears, especially Cubs, right?

Speaker 1:

Yeah. Secure attractants, you know, clean your barbecue, like crazy. Don't leave garbage outside. You don't plant plants that have fruits or berries on them. The list is long, but the actions you take, you know, save lives of bears, which is a really, really big deal.

Speaker 3:

And it doesn't take much to know what to do. It's like a five minute read and you're prepared, you know, like it's not hard. So that's one. And then anything you're doing this summer, just plan extra. Like you're talking about search and rescue as well. We won't get into that too much, but just plan extra. Cause it's better to be over-prepared and it's better to, you know, what's the old carpenter saying, you know, measure twice cut once. It's the same with funding. It's everything's like that.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, totally. One thing we started to do last year is take our garbage home from the park. Um, because those garbage cans fill up quick. And if you take your garbage home from the park and it's less likely that that garbage gets outside of the cans and draws animals. So, all right, well, let's get to talking to Jason Faulkner.

Speaker 2:

[inaudible] Jason Faulkner has compressed a

Speaker 1:

Lot already into his life. He worked on the marketing team at Wister mountain. He worked as a banker in London. He founded the escape route with their Alpine guides bureau. He served as VP sales and marketing at our Terex. He was co-founder of the seat of sky gondola CEO for writers eyewear, and is currently serving as president and founder of bridal falls, gondola corporation. In his spare time, Jason served on row council between 2011 and 2014. He has ably led the spearhead huts project and continues to work hard to help people fall in love with the mountains. Jason is thoughtful kind. He's a lot of fun. He's a collaborator, but he is unafraid of controversy. Jason is a father to sons and partner to Bev. He is a thinker. He is an advocate for the mountains. Jason has invested heavily in this area. I am blessed deeply to be able to call Jason my dear friend. Welcome. Thank you for joining us on the Whistler podcast.

Speaker 5:

Thank you. Thank you. Um, that's more than true,

Speaker 1:

Uh, back at ya. Well, uh, we start the, uh, podcast with rapid fire questions. So these are easy. It gets harder later in the conversation. So what music are you listening

Speaker 5:

To? What music listening to? Uh, actually I was going back. I went down memory lane into 19, uh, early 1980s, 1970s, steely Dan. I was listening to just the other day was on my playlist. Um, but I I've listened to everything from, uh, uh, industrial rock nine inch nails, which I love putting on my mood too. Uh, I really enjoy a lot of the new bands that are coming out. Uh, Vancouver, particularly Bob Moses. I really like, and I can't wait to live. Music comes back and we can go see it again. I just, it's been a really missing a part of, you know, your month to month, week to week cultural experience. I love going to concerts. We haven't been able to do anything for a long time. Yeah, it's true. Cold.

Speaker 1:

Is there any like announcements of shows that are upcoming that you guys are helping John? Yeah.

Speaker 5:

Or I saw him in high school, uh, at the Coliseum, uh, but, uh, he was much skinnier than, but we all work. We all,

Speaker 1:

I agree. Um, what are you most curious about these days?

Speaker 5:

Oh, uh, what am I most curious about is the, the, uh, the handling of this pandemic and the great, extraordinary social experiment that we've all been put into and what that's going to look like in the rear view mirror a year from now for two years, um, and really, you know, what, what, what we could have done better, um, and in preparation for the next one. And I, I do think there are such big, big questions about how this has been handled worldwide on virtually every level. Um, it's going to be really interesting deconstruct what we could've done better.

Speaker 1:

Uh, what do you not get to talk about as much as you,

Speaker 5:

Uh, oh gosh. Um, I don't get to talk about paragliding as much as I'd like to cause Ben gets tired of hearing about it.

Speaker 1:

Have you been like, I have not heard about this part of your life or a year, a long time period?

Speaker 5:

Yeah, no. I started in 1990, uh, early, early days on black home with Janet Andris Bouchard and, uh, have continued to fly all these years, although sometimes for, you know, four or five years where I didn't fly at all, but got back into it quite a bit in the last two, three years. Um, I was just flying yesterday actually. And, um, I just love it. So it's super cool sport it's way safer than now, than it used to be in 1990. Um, and, uh, I would encourage anybody and everybody to try it at some point it's really special. It's closest things on a system applying that man has yet invented. Um, you know, my flight yesterday was hour and 10 minutes or so, and just, uh, just a quiet day. It was not a particularly great day for thermals, but it was still a gorgeous day flying around up there and Pemberton Pemberton's one of the best places, um, in Canada to fly extraordinary place to fly and, um, yeah, really highly recommended, super fun.

Speaker 1:

My, uh, my next door neighbor, uh, Ken Stanek just started flying about a year ago and it's all he talks, wants to talk about. So I can give you his phone number and then you'll get to talk about it a lot.

Speaker 5:

There's lots of support groups online, so I'm all covered, but like, it's a very addictive thing for sure.

Speaker 3:

You said Pemberton, but is there like a specific place or company if someone wants to try it out, cause I've always wanted to know, see this guy paragliding,

Speaker 5:

You can look him up online and a guy, uh, runs that school and he's running tandem flights and students through that program, like busy, busy, busy, also the Fraser valley. There's some extra excellent, excellent areas there, uh, at schools all that way too. A west coast story club website shows a bunch and um, yeah, people just look it up online. They'll find some guy does a fabulous job and he runs out of Hamburg, which is a great site to learn. And it's a really lovely area. The fly

Speaker 3:

Jack that should be if we ever go on a Whistler podcast field trip, that should be it. Yeah. We'll live from terrifying.

Speaker 1:

Yeah. Live and terrified. Yeah. Uh, Jason, who is the most interesting person in the world?

Speaker 5:

Oh, um, the most interesting person in the world Elon Musk would be very high on my list. Um, at least currently these days, he's, he's gotta be a fascinating brain to try to get around, dig around. Um, so we'll be ready at the top of my list to him, trolling Bitcoin, to trying to go to Mars, to being the world's richest man to being just an odd ball. Um, I mean, I, uh, he's, he's gotta be an interesting guy if you can get them down and actually exploring the mind a bit. Agreed.

Speaker 1:

All right. Well, let's, uh, move on. So you've talked to me with fondness about your first stint in Whistler sharing the Whistler mountain marketing office with Dave Murray and taking orders from Peter Alder. What made that such a special time for you?

Speaker 5:

Um, it was my dream job. Um, I had skied, it was her since 1968 as a kid, a friend of mine's family had a lot, they had bought in white gold subdivision, uh, for 20, I think they paid$2,200 for it and it was on the river and built this, uh, really rickety two by four constructed cabin that just had a whole bunch of floor space. And so I got to tag along, uh, through the early seventies skiing up here. And so it was always my dream to eventually work here. I want to work in the ski industry and be able to work in lesser. Perfect. Ideally, uh, wizard was, um, you know, I worked the first year that black hole, uh, opened. I was, uh, working there, um, doing my practicum, my scary management degree. And so I got to do so making a retail that was working with[inaudible], um, and, uh, that lift attendant, well, the rest of it, and that was really cool. And then, you know, uh, back to university and coming out and got a job. I first got a job as mountain, uh, marketing manager for gross mountain, and I was only there six months and then, uh, was surmount came in and, uh, asked me if I'd like to apply for the position there. I jumped at it, um, and then showed up to work. And, you know, I was 23, I think at the time and into this job. And I was in charge of guest services, which was 20 staff. And, um, you know, I w they were all much older than me. And, uh, there was only three men and the rest were women. And, um, and Jan Burgess was the supervisor and Jan was the force of nature. And I think she looked at me like, who's this young kid coming, you know, blah, blah, blah. It was awesome. And then Dave Barry and Dave was just let me share an office of tiny little offices together. And Dave was just so much fun to work with and so supportive and encouraging, um, really innovative, um, the views. And he had the ideas. He had Dave Murray, ski camps, et cetera, were, were really brilliant ideas. And with Mike Kirst, um, as the VP of marketing, uh, you're giving a lot of direction too. Um, it really was a very special, fun time, uh, create parties that, you know, the things that you couldn't get away with in a corporate world today, you know, still kind of ski area, that was all part of the culture and it was considered okay. You know, the parties, bestie and how crazy they, those got at times. Um, I mean, there were some really good stories, but, you know, we, everyone got to work every day and then worked super hard, um, whether it was most events or what have you, it was, it was really poor. It was a fun time to be here. I think in many respects, the 1980s was a real golden age for there as a resort because we'd come out of a bankruptcy. The resort was on its knees, uh, and was recovering. And we were really confident. We were really convinced that between with Wisser and black home is the two mountains that we were going to become the biggest, best ski resort in north America, if not the best in the world. And everybody shared that vision, it was everybody worked towards that same goal. Um, and, uh, I think it's really been nice to see that much of what was dreamed in the eighties is actually come true, both good and bad, but those come true.

Speaker 1:

And so that's interesting. You say that everybody had that vision in mind, I've hear about 1985 and rebar sticking out of the ground and in Whistler village and, and this sort of time of devastation after the, the downturn. Um, and yet the clarity was there that this was a vision that could be achieved even though, um, we'd come through the worst. Where did that come from? Do you think that sort of vision that we could get there?

Speaker 5:

I think it was because, uh, people realized, you know, that because they were all such passionate skiers then, and they knew everybody knew that the skiing here was really good, that the terrain was really exceptional. And so that there wasn't really any doubt in anybody's mind that w if we could introduce that to the rest of the world, they beat a path to our door. Um, plus at time, um, there was no real significant ski resort quote unquote in whiskey in BC. Um, and, you know, there were small regional resorts, like sun peaks at the time, Todd mountain, it was called Tod mountain, you know, um, uh, Panorama had recently been built, but it wasn't really that exceptional and so on. So there wasn't really a destination resort, and we just felt like our time had come that BC and our mountains and our terrain deserve to be recognized on the world stage as a major ski destination, because we have the goods, you know, we have the terrain, we had the snow, we had people, um, and that, you know, we were, we were well-positioned to do that. And I think also Vancouver was kind of coming of age, uh, X 86 building up to that was such a seminal event for the people of Vancouver and people feeling, you know, like, wow, we arrived, you know? Um, and I think all those things played into it where it was like, yeah, this is, this is our term. You know, this is our chance to, to be known and to, to develop this. So all of those things.

Speaker 1:

So you said earlier that, uh, you know, we've realized that dream, both the good and the bad. Tell me about the bad and, and what you feel. Um, maybe we could have done different or we can do different moving forward.

Speaker 5:

Well, I think, I mean, you know, obviously 2020 hindsight is, is, is great. Um, I think for the most part, what's, there's done an exceptional job. There's a reason why even, even, um, with the pressures we've had as of late in the last many years, I mean, whether it was hosting the Olympics, which was an extraordinary achievement all the way through wizards, hasn't put too many wrong, um, you know, good employee housing, as much as that's a big issue. It gets criticized all the time compared to most other resorts. I mean, what's there knew early on that that was a very important on it that needed to be addressed in your planning very early days and mostly dead. Um, you know, wizard has been held up as a model, um, around the world, um, as, uh, an extraordinary place that kind of got it. Right. Uh, we weren't too corporate. I mean, we used to say the last thing, we would never want it to be veil, right? Like Vail was the place that we looked to and said, well, that's certainly not who we ever want to be that. Um, and I think part of that, that idea of being, uh, outside of the mainstream a little bit, um, really served us well. Um, I remember when I was at our Terex Terex sold the company to Solomon at the time and the president CEO, Solomon, who was a lovely, lovely guy. It was 2000, 2001. And he said, which was quite something. And admission is a Frenchman. He said that in his opinion, the Whistler resort and Vancouver where the, where the most influential cities and resorts on action sports, anywhere in the world, that the, whether it was fat skis, twin tip skis, uh, mountain biking, um, that, that it was really this part of the world that was the center of action sports in his opinion. And that never would have happened. I don't think our embracing of those things to the degree that we did well, put it this way. It couldn't have happened in a place like that. It never happened in a place like, um, Aspen, because you didn't have the counterculture, you didn't have the true ski bomb kind of ethic to the same degree that you had here, coupled with this fantastic infrastructure and a ski area. So, um, you know, what could we have done better? Um, I don't think there's a lot of, I don't think we put a lot of feet wrong. I think more recently. Um, I, I'm more concerned about the general, uh, ski industry as a whole in that I think it it's, it's those loss of those feeders, small resorts, those community resorts, those community ski areas that are inexpensive for families to access and use that are the feeder ones that create more skiers and snowboarders and help families get into the sport for virtually no cost. Um, those are disappearing throughout north America. And I think that's a real problem because if this, if the sports that we love are going to sustain, you've got to have new generations constantly being introduced to them and introduced to the price that people can afford. And I think that's one of the real big challenges. This it's not unique to Whistler, but to the ski industry in general is it's so expensive now for someone to take it up. Um, you know, I've got three boys who all raise skiers and snowboarders that then was, or all the rest. And, you know, I've only been able to, there's only one of them that still, um, ski and they make cocaine livings and all the rest of it, but they just said like, I can't afford it anymore. The commitment is so huge and time and costs. I just can't pop up for a day. Um, you know, it's not a$50 lift ticket. Um, so I think that's a real problem. Um, long-term, um, I think that's an issue for this resort. And I think more specifically, should we have a challenge with in the whole corridor with outdoor infrastructure and clearly people want to get outside and the pandemic has accelerated a whole number of trends that were already in place, but we're going to develop over a period of five to 10 years and it just compressed it all until a year. Um, um, outdoor, active, outdoor, um, uh, recreation is a good example of that. I mean, you know, the sales about third gear, the sales of bicycles, et cetera, is off charts, right? Like just insane numbers. Everybody wants to do that. And yet government and I blame federal and provincial, but provincial, mostly has not responded adequately to increasing infrastructure. So, you know, you don't have the crowding of Joffrey lakes. Isn't an issue of just popularity of Joffey lakes. It's, it's a, it's an issue that there isn't other hiking trails that people can go to that are also really lovely that people can go and there's a parking lot and there's good information on how they get to them. Um, you know, shutting down the park last summer, what an insane thing to do. I, it made no sense to me when the, when people wanting to get outside and it was safe and all the rest of it. So I think that's one of our things that we haven't done well enough is plan for the future with regards to outdoor recreation and the popularity that we'll continue to have as people seek a healthier lifestyle, um, a more balanced life. That's not as urban, a little more switched off, uh, all those things as you know, counterweights to what is a very hectic, intense electronic. Um, uh, and I, I think we need to do more of that. And I, once there's done again, a pretty good job in trying to anticipate that, um, but it's tough over tourism is a real thing. And, uh, the only way to you can't, you can't manage it by suppressing a supply or, or suppressing demand. Uh, you have to increase supply in mind.

Speaker 1:

You were talking earlier about why Whistler, um, was successful and you mentioned it wasn't Vail or Aspen, uh, and there was this ski bum ethic and there was this, um, sort of commitment to the mountains. How much of that do you think is shaped by the sort of scale the gnarlier and the west coast weather and how much, I guess that's the question? How much do you think is shaped by the mountains?

Speaker 5:

I think it's huge. Um, I think we're a product of our environment, right? And I think the, if I look at other places in the world that I, I really love mountain scapes that I love, like shaman is a good, is a good example. You know, when you go to Chamonix and you're talking, you know, you go into to the local bank or talking to a bank teller, I guarantee you that bank teller is probably the more, most extreme athlete you could possibly ever. And he's one of thousands. He or she is one of thousands, how many that do things at a level that, you know, most people can even pretend to call their head and that's a pure product of their environment. And in some cases, third or fourth generation, um, doing the same stuff in the same terrain. And I think that was part of what was inspirational for the and whizzer, um, and why it was successful was absolutely being a product of the environment that we were in. We also had a bit more flexibility. It's not that bam, for example, didn't have extreme terrain and, you know, really exceptional for doing crazy skiing or stuff, or what have you, but because you were in a national park, there was a whole a on what you could or couldn't do and where you could do it and how you did it. And it was more, um, uh, traditional in kind of their outlook on a lot of stuff. Whereas here, it was still kind of the wild west and, you know, people were defining what they wanted to do. People were, you know, Nancy will have more of than was squatting, you know, in the trees with lots of other people that were doing that. You can never have done that in band. There was there wasn't that opportunity to establish that, that counter-culture view that I think was so important in how was got started. You

Speaker 1:

Almost found yourself, uh, permanently in London in the financial sector, but you read somewhere that people should live close to the things that make them the happiest, which meant coming back here obviously, and founding the escape route and doing all of the things you did. Do you remember where you read that?

Speaker 5:

I don't remember. I, I was, I was looking at my contract at the time. I had to make a decision if I was going to be able to extend my contract in London. And I'd been there a little over a year and I've been accepted into a, uh, executive MBA program in international business that I really wanted to do, but I kept thinking, well, what if I do that? And it's another two years and it's a huge amount of money. And if I do that, what am I going to do with that kind of apply that I'd be still wearing a suit and tie and commuting to an office downtown somewhere. And I had really been climbing a lot in England. Um, I've been really fortunate to, uh, get hooked up with some really great local climbers in England who took me under their wing and mountain biking a ton. And they dragged me all over England, which has extraordinary climbing for a small place. Um, and then I was doing a lot of trips to the Alps, and that was where I was motivated. I was just really, really super excited about that part of my life and less so about the suit and tie part. And so, um, that's what I, and I don't remember, I read that, but it just made so much sense to me. Like, why would you choose to do something that takes you in the opposite direction of where you really love to be? And then I called up my, my high school friend, Tom Dougan, who is the GM of, um, uh, Kansky, uh, which was down in Vancouver at the time and say, Hey, there's not a climbing shop in booster. I want to open one up. What do you think? And Thompson. Yeah. Great idea. So, um, that was that, and it was a pretty simple, but as I've told my kids many times, you know, it's, it's decisions like that, which changed the course of your life.

Speaker 1:

So was it the two of you hammered out yourselves or did you start big?

Speaker 5:

No, we, we, we, we just, you know, we had to find a space and we borrowed some money. We pull the money, we had our savings, we borrowed some money from Tom's mom. I think, I think, uh, she let us, uh, Joan lent us 50,$50,000, I think. And we opened up, um, there was a store, a climbing shop in Squamish that a guy we knew had opened and he just, he had just gone bankrupt and they had a whole bunch of like, um, product and they had displays and everything that they were selling. And we got it for like 20 cents on the dollar. And so overnight we had a shop because we just bloated up all this stuff out of this, this bankrupt shop in Squamish and moved to Twizzler. So we only had one of everything. We sold a pack off the wall. It was really funny because we just have a blank spot. We didn't even know where we're going to get some of this stuff. Um, it was really funny and Greg was really happy to sell us that stuff. He just returned from a long trip in Australia and that's why it went back. So anyway, we were lucky we had a good space and, um, it just kind of went on from there. So it was great. That's

Speaker 1:

Really good. That point where people buying their gear from Squamish and Vancouver. Yeah. Yeah. The main mountain

Speaker 5:

Equipment co-op was where everybody bought their stuff. Right. Um, but, um, it was just really, the early nineties is when the outdoor industry really started to take off. Like we went to the first ever outdoor industry trade show was the first year we opened a oven before then there was not even a trade show you could go to, to buy the stuff. And you had to, you had to reach out to the independent manufacturers and, you know, because we'd bought this clear out bankrupt stuff from the shop and Squamish and they were a Patagonia dealer, a good example is so we just call it Patagonia and said, yeah, we're a dealer here in Whistler. And they said, well, we don't have any dealers in Whistler. We said, well, no, we're a dealer. Cause we've got some of her stuff on the wall.

Speaker 1:

You didn't learn in business school that you needed a contract to sell other people's

Speaker 5:

Stuff. Yeah. That is the more stuff. So, um, yeah, so I think it was really started, I mean that the outdoor industry was just in its infancy at that time. And then just went crazy all through the night. Um, you're

Speaker 1:

Building community, I guess at the time around the store and around events, like a read about the spearhead passage out of bounds race. Yeah.

Speaker 4:

Well we, we, and we did, we did all these things. Like

Speaker 5:

We had a climbing wall in the village and Nancy Green, uh, Nancy Green lodge at the time and Al reign, they have big cement wall, which is at the end, the Lululemon's store sits on it. It was sitting on top of it and it was this big cement walls we approached Al and Nancy and said, could we build a climbing wall? And they were like, sure, why not? So we put up all these climbing holes and then it was the coolest bouldering wall because it was right in the village and you get all these people standing around just watching people climb. Um, and that was like 1992, I think. Um, and you know, we really felt that that was an important part of it was we, we formed, I founded the Alpine club, uh, was there with a couple of people. Um, we want it to be the first Alpine club in with, and we were able to convince the national club to allow us to be a section. And we were doing that because we wanted to advance the idea of back country huts. We wanted to have a voice, a local club voice, and, you know, back country recreation in the corridor. And that kind of thing was part of it as well. Um, and so, um, that was all part of it was building the community and then the race, um, that was the idea of doing a, uh, a back country, race, ski touring race, much like the, um, races that were occurring in Europe, around the world cup that we S we started. That was a little later, that was, I think the first one was 2002, 2003. Um, and then we ran that for three years. Um, and that could have been, you know, that's an Olympic event, uh, next time and it should be, it's an extraordinary thing to watch those guys race up and down mountains. Um, and, um, we, they were at wizard could have been in part of the world cup tour. Um, but we just, we couldn't get the funding for the, uh, after the third year. Uh, and, and we just, it was unfortunate, but just the energy and stuff ran up a bit. So

Speaker 1:

It was going to become an Olympic event and then it didn't, or it's about to become

Speaker 5:

An Olympic that is going to be an Olympic event into the Olympics. I was on the development committee for that. Um, and we were advocating for it, um, with the IOC, um, and submitting, um, our applications to have it included in the, we were trying to get it in the 2010 games here initially. Um, and the IOC kind of submitted, that's not really the right time for it and so on and so forth. So, um, uh, it was back in 2015 that they agreed to have it as part of the, uh, the upcoming Olympics

Speaker 1:

Up skiing. Like what's the, what's the event,

Speaker 5:

Great ski, mountaineering racing. So it's, um, generally courses that have like five to 7,000 vertical feet of climbing. Um, so, um, there, there are big classic races that are much bigger than that, and it's, who's the fastest up and who's, you know, combined time up and down. Many of these require, um, where you have to go through really technical terrain and you see these guys they're practically on cross country skis, but they're skiing super steep, coerced as a race down. It's a really amazing thing to watch. I mean, these guys are the same kind of fitness level as, um, you know, world cup, uh, cross country skiers, the guy who is the multiple world champion and was the world junior champion who was here in Whistler, Kilian Jordan, a who's a very famous racer now, ultra marathoner. Um, in the first event, the second event we had here in wizard, we had a Spanish national team came and he was a world junior champion. And the first day of race, we had a two day races like Sage races. The first day was a sprint from the Western village to the roundhouse and Kelly and journey won it. And he did it. And I think it was like 48 minutes. And when you came across the finish line, wasn't even breathing. It was unbelievable. Um, how fast? And he holds the unofficial world record for a thousand meters. So climbing, and it's just over, I think, 30 minutes, which is just extraordinary. So these guys are they're off the charts and Canada's done really well. Our women plays top three in the world cup. So, um, you know, we're, we're, we're not as strong, but we're wearing we're in the game.

Speaker 1:

Have you seen the thank you north face video released by Chris Wright from Liberty energy?

Speaker 5:

No, I haven't. No, I haven't seen it. You should

Speaker 1:

Watch it. So it's basically him saying, thank you, north face for all of the money you have spent building your products out of the petroleum products, and it's very cheeky and it's derisive towards north face. Um, but, um, I was reading, yeah, I was reading some big, because I guess north face has said to some energy company, we're not going to let you put your branding on any of our products. And so then these folks made this video, that's about a minute long saying, thank you. Very cheeky. Thank you. Yeah. Um, but I was reading somewhere that, that you haven't been shy about the environmental impact that the outdoor equipment industry has. You're not a person who has said, you know, these are, you know, environmentally sensitive products, as much as you're an advocate for protecting wild spaces. Uh, when you ran the escape route, um, you, you weren't making the case that we are perfect. Do you think the industry has made substantive steps since you sold?

Speaker 5:

Yeah, I think that's a really good question and they're not wrong and calling out the hypocrisy. Um, unfortunately as you know, um, it gets easier to be a hypocrite if you are a public company that is only answering to shareholders, quarterly expectations and where it's all about just pure profits. Um, and I, why I say that is when you look at it, a company like Patagonia, um, you, they have been by far and away, the leading consumer products company of any substantive size that has been an outspoken and ongoing advocate for environmental sustainability and environmental stewardship and responsibility. And the only reason that's happened is because it's still a privately owned company. Yvon Chouinard has refused to sell the company. He could have been sold it for a billion dollars, numerous times over 2 billion or whatever, but he never has. And it's because he doesn't care about profit motive as much as other companies do. He cares about the brand and its responsibility as a company. So they've been the leading light in the outdoor industry and they have, um, I think they've tried really hard, whether it's their initiative in the nineties on, um, organic cotton. Um, and I mean, at something like a kilogram of toxic chemicals to produce one t-shirt, um, like when they pick cotton, the normal cotton production, when they pick it in the field, they wear hazmat suits because the chemicals that are required are so toxic, they were the ones, Patagonia was the first one to say, this is crazy. The amount of water you use because of blah, blah, blah. And the organic costs we have to get, you know, the world off of this non-organic cotton to better quality, organic cotton, longer fiber, more soft is more durable, but it's more expensive to produce. And they, they did that soul. They, you know, they did that without, they knew it as[inaudible], I'd say every time they've made a decision that was in favor of the environment, it was also better for their business. And I, I totally agree with that because when they've done that, it has created a mind shift where all of a sudden it's like, no, I don't need to buy that option because I'm going to spend my money on this option, which is better for the environment. And it's also been good for a Patagonia, but they also are the first to admit they're not perfect. Um, you know, on a good example that the outdoor industry doesn't talk about much is, you know, that you always hear about that durable water repellency on your jacket, you know, that pills up the water. So I mean, that DWR treatment is a really, really nasty chemical. It's a repeat bad toxic chemical, and yet it's on every rain jacket, every Gore-Tex jacket that everybody buys. And there's lots of companies that are trying to come up with other solutions that work better that are more organic and so on. But the fact is it's really hard to do. Um, and the industry just doesn't like talking about that kind of stuff. Um, and what they do I try to do is on the other hand, maybe mitigate, you know, maybe you give a lot of money, like MEC did too. You know, they sold a lot of Gore-Tex. So a lot of stuff made out of petroleum, a lot of plastic kayaks. And then Dan, you know, they've tried to mitigate by education and then also giving money to environmental groups and so on that are trying to do the right thing. So, um, as with most things, it's very nuanced and it's very layered and complex, and there's no easy answer to any of them.

Speaker 1:

So as a, as someone who I know you to be someone who cares deeply about these mountains and the environment that you live in play in, was it ever tempting running an outdoor store to greenwash your company?

Speaker 5:

Um, no, it wasn't because, uh, we were, I guess we were, we were only, only in that we tried to carry brands that were independent. We liked family owned brands. Um, and because we felt that the family owned, uh, companies have more control. Um, so whether it was a skin supplier for ski touring skins that was family owned, or Scarpa, you know, the Scarpa brand hiking boots, you know, fourth generation family owned has strict gloves. I mean, the Hester gloves are a family owned, fourth generation Swedish company. Um, we tried to make our choices with companies that we thought were really responsible that we could fall in love with as opposed to going with the big corporate guys, uh, suffice to say, we, we never really chased north face because at the time we just, north face was just all about growth and volume and not, they haven't done great product, they have, but it just wasn't, it didn't fit the culture. We were trying to, you know, we were trying to advocate for responsible sort of outdoor, uh, um, you know, recreation, uh, whatever that means, but trying to put some sense of, you know, some sensitivity on the fact that you're consuming products and you're going out to nature and you're going to have impacts and you need to be aware of those impacts so you can mitigate those impacts.

Speaker 1:

So you had a long connection to these mountains, as you said earlier, do you remember your first trip into the spearhead?

Speaker 5:

Um, I do. Um, we used to hike off the back of Whistler when I was a kid like 13, 12, and my best friend's dad, uh, spend Matheson who was a local brick layer, stone Mason. Um, he used to build fireplaces and lesser, but he had this real crazy, um, sort of attitude towards skiing, wherever we went skiing. Whenever we went up, was there a span water to put your skis on your shoulder? And you went for a hike because there's no ski touring here. So you had to boot pack everything as everybody remembers back then. Um, and he would just drag herself into stuff. We had no avalanche, no avalanche training, no transceivers, no probes, shovels. I mean, none of that existed. And we would just, he would just lead us on these, these long expeditions to go try and find some powders though somewhere. So it was more up into, um, we would do singing paths. We would, we would hike up and over, um, flute and then out over Omo and stuff and boot packing the whole way in this field saying pass stupid stuff like that. Uh, and then on the black home side was the year that black home opens. And, um, we would hike up to the top of black hole peak because the lifts only went as high as the rendezvous. And we would hike up the Ridge on black home peak and then hike out over, uh, to a black home glacier, uh, by a horseman and then ski all that. And that was way out there. And like, that was a big mission. And similarly there was really no terrain gear at the time and no avalanche transceivers or probes or anything, but everybody was, you know, there were just a few people that were trying to get after it. And, uh, just to explore the terrain much like, you know, many generations have done before we showed up.

Speaker 1:

You remember your first night, uh, at russet lake?

Speaker 5:

Um, yeah, we camp, I don't ever camp at the lake once it was in the summertime. Um, cause we used to come up in the summer when I was like 12 or 13 and the, um, you know, that was, you know, we used to like to hang out last lake because it was, there was nothing there that was just lost late. You know, we'd been walked like when people don't remember is that this whole valley was logged stem to stern. Like it was massive. It's bringing up really nicely in the last 40 years. Um, you know, there were places that you wouldn't recognize today. Lost lake is one of them. I mean, it was logged all the way around it. Um, but we would, we'd like to spend the time in the valley in the summer, but you know, the bugs and all the rest. But when we were like 12, 13, and we hiked up singing pass and just camp, we didn't stay in the hot, we had an old crappy tent just stayed near the lake. And that was that. But yeah, usually we were at that age, we were like to stay close to the Val well biking back then. Yep.

Speaker 1:

So, um, I want to talk about huts. You've, you've been an Alpine hut promoter for a long time. Keysight Wendy Thompson hut. Uh, and now the spearhead huts. What inspires you to spend so much time on these projects? It occurs to me. You could have been in the mountains more if you spent so much time and promoting huts, what inspires you to do that work?

Speaker 5:

Um, because I, I guess part of it is I spent a lot of time in Europe. Um, all the years I was at Arteric, uh, as a partner and there, um, I spent a lot of time in Europe. I was really fortunate from the time I was there in London and climbing there and then going back and seeing a lot more of the elves. And I was always came away so impressed with the infrastructure that they had for hops, because you you'd be up at this hot and in lock the door, you'd see three generations of the same family out for a weekend, hiking in the mouth. And I just never, just never saw that in north America. You just never saw it in us because you typically wouldn't see the grandparents up there. You might see mum and dad with her eight year old mate or their teenager maybe, but you wouldn't see, you certainly wouldn't see the grandparents. And that was because of that infrastructure where people had a place to sleep. They didn't have to carry everything on their back. And it always made sense to me that, you know, we had all this extraordinary terrain in BC, a world-class mountains by any standard. There are ranges are as big and as bold and beautiful as any in the world. But access here is really tough. Um, you gotta be a pretty committed hardcore. Um, and you've got to walk a long ways out of the valley, especially in the coast mountains. And it just made sense that we would have to develop these hots because, you know, when you give people a place to sleep and shelter, uh, it just makes the whole experience a little more accessible and more comfortable. Um, and, um, I also believe adamantly that getting people, uh, into outdoor recreation was a way of promoting sustainability and environmental sensitivity that because, and that stem from hearing people in the city who didn't do any of these kinds of sports, they'd never been hiking before and they couldn't understand why you would monetize that mountain or that valley. Why wouldn't you log it? Or why wouldn't you mind it, it has no other purpose or value than that. And, but, you know, as well as anybody that if you have an emotional experience, if you go up in the mountains, see an Alpine metal for the first time, instantly that mountain has massive value to you because it's, you, you get it. It's like, holy crap, this is super important. This is really meaningful. It's super impactful. And we should take care of these places. So I always felt that if you could get more people into the outdoors, you know, very responsibly, sustainably with a very light, light ham, um, you can create this much bigger constituency that cared about it. They're much bigger constituency that saw it as important to manage more responsibly and to protect so hot sort of a great way to do that. Um, and, um, you know, especially with the climate that we have when the coast range in particular even more, so they make a lot of sense.

Speaker 1:

Yeah. Um, you don't want to be stuck out there without one sometimes that's for sure. So the keys and Clare hut is, is built. It's at rest that lake that's the first of the spearhead huts, um, project. Tell us about the project. What's next. Uh, and how do we find ourselves here today with the hut built and moving towards?

Speaker 5:

Well, if you, if you couldn't have picked a worst year to open a up, oh my God. Um, you know, we opened up, you know, the, the worst avalanche season started the avalanche season, probably in history and Wester. Um, so nobody can move any, but where, and everybody was terrified to go outside of the ropes. And then we got open for two months of relatively smooth running, like everything was working well, and then COVID hit shut down. So we've been, we were shut down since, uh, March last year and, uh, we're reopening this week finally. Um, so we're open the case and Claire hut is finally open, uh, reduced capacity for the next two weeks. And then with the new health restrictions, we're hoping we'll be at full capacity in July. Um, and, um, you know, so it's been really tough because we're a nonprofit. Um, we don't have, you know, we can't borrow money and we don't have, you know,$500,000 in our bank account. So we've been really just burning through the little bit of savings and working capital that we've had for the last year, keeping the lights on quite literally keep the lights on out there. Um, and, uh, so we're very excited that we're going to be open again, and we know that it's going to be very, very popular, again, very high demand. Um, so while we've been going through COVID, of course we put the second half, the Macbeth hot, uh, has really just been on hold and, and with Brian and Andrea Hill, who are the benefactors who are funding that hut, um, we haven't done any additional work in development, uh, on the design and so on as we've been just really focused on the existing hut, uh, case in Clara, getting it open and operating, but, uh, yeah, we'll be starting. You got two finishing projects on the case and Claire, which is our solar Ray and getting that up and we're going to do some fundraising for that and also, uh, uh, water, uh, water for that. Uh, so you won't have to melt snow anymore. Um, we're going to be drilling for water, a water system, um, and we're going to be fundraising for that. So it was about roughly$200,000 that we're going to have to raise to finish those two key infrastructure pieces for the hut. And then once that's done that head is fully completed and it's good to go for the next, you know, many decades. And then we can really focus on getting Macbeth bill and then subsequently Patterson after that

Speaker 1:

People want to give to the project, where did they find the opportunity,

Speaker 5:

Spearhead huts website? Um, you can donate there. Um, and, um, you know, our best donors are the ones that have used the hut. You know, they come back like, oh my God, what a spectacular facility and how do I help? So we'll be reaching out to existing donors or past owners, I should say. Um, as well as, you know, um, your donors as well, it'll all be welcome, but, um, we, we will really want to finish those two last components because then we don't have to burn as much, uh, propane for, uh, cause a lot of that has been for cooking or I should say melting water, melting snow for water, which is, uh, consumes and to refill a propane tanks, we have to use a helicopter to fly. So we can just reduce our CO2 footprint substantially if, um, if we can get those pieces in place.

Speaker 1:

Um, and so w Macbeth and then Patson, and that's the end that it's, at that point, you've got three dots that

Speaker 5:

Would be, uh, um, you know, those, those are going to be another, I could see another five years before those two hots are completed. Um, and, um, you know, that, that, that would be the end of the system in the sense of its completion as a project, but obviously over time. And when people start using doing the link up of the hotspots in summer and winter, I think it's just going to blow people's minds. Like people don't have really only a very handful of people actually know how extraordinary that is. And most people in Western, I would say don't understand actually how extraordinary the spearhead range is. Um, both in winter and summer. Um, it's a really extraordinary, very special place, quality of the skiing and winter quality of the train, the perspectives that, you know, everything. And then the summer is just a whole nother experience. That's just extraordinary. And that will all be on top when we get this stuff stuff

Speaker 1:

It's so exceptional in the summer. I mean, I think most people know it from, from the winter, but the summer up there is a, it's one of the most special places in the whole

Speaker 5:

World. Talk to you about that as Arthur art to John Arthur, Dijon, who's a counselor and a good friend of yours. You talked to Arthur and I have done a couple of days hiking through the spearhead in the summer. And I mean, it's, it's really beautiful. It's really stunning. It's uh, it's yeah, it's a beautiful range. We live in a beautiful place for

Speaker 1:

Sure. That, which means something coming from the two of you who spend so much time in the mountains, that when you say that place in the mountains is, is, is, is special. Uh that's that says something important. Where's the next? So you talk about the European hot system and how exceptional they are, where a couple of other places where something like this should happen. What's your, what's your retirement gig? Well, you know,

Speaker 5:

Um, you know, there was a real, funnily enough, a real missed opportunity was a Duffy bank. Um, there are a number of the legal huts and the Duffy, uh, and as part of the, the challenge we have in our, our current system in our province in land use for crown land, is it so incredibly difficult to get approvals, to do something like build a hut now that people just go and build a illegally? Um, the problem with that is that, um, they're designed to be hidden. So that's not always a good thing for, I find that in the middle of a storm. Um, and they're also, um, they're not done with any real detailed planning of what could work. So the number of the illegal Hutson and the Duffy lake, if they'd been planned as part of a system, including Keith's hut, you would have, and the Marriott basin, the Wendy Thompson hut, you could have this amazing traverse again, summer winter traverse in the Duffy, um, that on its own is very different than spearhead range, but it is no less beautiful and spectacular. And in some ways it's even more friendly in summertime hiking. Um, but that, that's not to say that couldn't be done. Um, but it, it, um, you know, that would be a great one to see if that could ever develop and evolve. I was contacted if you give me an idea of this too, I was contacted by the chief of the little watt band back, um, in one of the chiefs back in, uh, oh six, seven years ago, wondering if there was a way that we could connect the spirit head huts down into Skookumchuck because they've got the hot Springs there and they've got the community there, and they're really looking for economic development that they could come up with to help. And, you know, he was wondering if it was possible, like if could you build a hut system that would terminate there cause you know, like the onset experience they have in Japan where, you know, you start start and finish your ski tour at a hot Springs, you could maybe do the same thing there. And I was saying, absolutely it's potentially there, but, um, you know, it's the road access and so on, there's some real challenges there, but the terrain would support it. So those kinds of things that I are still not, you know, maybe not the next 10 years, but in the next 20 years, those things are all possible for sure for that kind of thing, I think is inevitable. Okay.

Speaker 1:

So tell us about your, your day job, but you are doing right now at, uh, at bottle falls, gondola.

Speaker 5:

Well, we, we, um, uh, coming out of Cedars going on that model, which again is quite rare in north America, which is very common in Europe. Um, we knew it was very successful, um, and it achieved a number of things, but there were also things that we weren't able to do on that project that would have been nice to do. And I was approached, um, by lots of people wanting to duplicate that model somewhere else and BC and Yukon and so on. And I started looking for other sites that I thought maybe there's a, uh, an additional component that we can add to this, which is, um, actually protecting and enhancing or renewing a landscape that had been heavily impacted. And the site that I found was auto bridal faults where you've got the great business case, because you're right on the highway, got almost triple the volume of traffic that you've got and see the sky,

Speaker 1:

Just so just to, so people know this is near just sort of east of town. Yeah.

Speaker 5:

And you see, um, they, uh, bridal falls is, uh, was an old tourism center there. They used to be Dino was there, uh, many, many years ago. Um, and, um, uh, it goes right out from there to about 1,250 meters. It's just a single gondola. Um, and it's the same scene model, but the difference from the sea to sky is that while not quite a bit bigger, it's a much more significant, um, because the lift is almost three times the cost, it's quite a bit bigger lift, um, the longer and higher, um, and the terrain is quite exceptional. Um, and that it services the whole chip Mount Creek valley, which has been very, very heavily log for decades. Um, there's only about eight to 10% of the old growth left. Um, it was heavily used by traditional first nations, uh, for traditional uses for hundreds of hundreds of years. And they've effectively been driven out of there. It includes champ peak, the self face of champ. He an area called Lavington bridge, which has prime go habitat. Um, and, and all of the wildlife, um, has been basically driven out of there because of the motorized use very heavily overrun by ATVs and so on. Um, and first nations have stopped using it for things like regalia storage, cold water bathing practices, and so on because they're competing with machines and ATVs and logging. And so our proposal was to create a tenure that was part of our project that would just have trails for hiking and non-motorized, and we would protect it against, you know, like basically stop the logging or severely reduce it. Um, we would, we would shut down the motorized use so that it would be a non-motorized experience. And we would then reclaim or restore a lot of these areas where a lot of illegal trails have been built through wetlands and Alpine areas is there's a road that's been punched right through this Alpine beautiful Alpine Ridge. It's just crazy big four wheel drive road, it's nuts. Um, and all of that was the idea of kind of protecting and reclaiming and bringing back sanity to restore the traditional use. So our first nations partners is chamfers nation, who are the goat, people who live at the base of Mount sham. Um, we're working with a couple of the other really key first nations out there to come up with this plan that we would basically, um, create traditional use areas, which is the first time that's ever been done in BC, where you would actually have areas that would be treated by the province as a higher use of traditional use. And they may be even areas that are close to the general public and only available for guided or first nations youth. Um, and that's what we hope to accomplish. And so it, it has this whole other element that wasn't there at sea to sky where we're actually creating a great business. That's going to employ a lot of people that was great for tourism. And first nations are partners and investors in the project, but it also then has this land use piece that protects and, um, changes the fundamental land use of over 4,000 hectares of heavily logged terrain and to being something that's now a hundred years sustainable, you know, um, responsible practice, um, and at a much higher economic benefit than the logging could ever do. Um, so we, we were pretty excited about it and our first nations partners are super, super excited and, uh, we knew were working on it for about five years now. We're hoping to get very close to final permitting and stuff. Um, um, in the fall, if all things go well, COVID slowed things down, but, um, and other complications as these things do, but, uh, it's been going well.

Speaker 1:

And w and so if that, if that happens in the fall shovels in the ground in the spring, is that it's simple as it is. Wow.

Speaker 5:

Yeah. Yeah. And we're, um, you know, both Lyft companies are really keen partners, Palma liner and dopamine are the only project in the world that's been offered, uh, participation by those two lift companies, um, which is extraordinary. Um, they believe in what we're doing, and that's saying a lot bigger than what they do all over the world building say seam dollars and ski areas all over the world. So, uh, yeah, we're pretty excited. This community is really behind it. Chilliwack community has been super strong behind it. Um, and, um, yeah, w we feel we could create something quite unique and, uh, I'm, I'm really confident we'll be able to do it. So

Speaker 1:

We finish up, uh, every podcast with the same question. We're sort of uncreative, Hey, Cole. Like we don't really,

Speaker 3:

Yeah. I guess that's what you could say. Yeah.

Speaker 1:

Yeah. We don't have too many big ideas. So the same question finishes every what's that? Yeah. So what book are you reading podcasts? Are you listening to, that has inspired you, or you are learning from,

Speaker 5:

Oh gosh. Um, what's the most recent book I was reading, uh, was council of Canadians, uh, whose water is it? Uh, which I was, that's been sitting on my desk and I've been working my way through that. I tend to try to read, to have kind of a couple of books on the go that I go back and forth to. Um, the other one I was reading, um, uh, was, well, it was, um, uh, crimes and misdemeanors, um, of who's the author of that one, which is just an interesting boy, my podcast that I really like, um, I'm really fun of Sam Harris. I listened to a lot of Sam Harris, um, and, uh, his waking up podcasts are, uh, brilliant. Um, I really like the way he approaches subjects and things. He's very measured and very logical about his stuff. So I'm really enjoy, I've been new drug Sam Harris for a long time. Uh, yeah, so good summer reading. I had one the other day and I can't remember it. I'm having a senior's moment. This other one I was going to read anyways. I don't have it on my desk.

Speaker 1:

Well, I tell ya I was so looking forward to sitting down with you and talking today and, uh, it exceeded my expectations. So thank you. It was very, uh, interesting and I'm grateful for all the work you've done for this region to open up the mountains to us. It's, uh, it's important. And I I'm, I'm excited to see it open further to, to people that vision that you shared of three generations of people walking through the door of a hut in the mountains is compelling. And, um, it's a, it's a good vision for life that I feel like you're really delivering on. And so thank you for that.

Speaker 5:

Thanks for having me. And, uh, um, I think it's a great idea that the podcasts that you guys are doing too, and, uh, there's so many good stories to tell around this space that we call home. And, uh, I really hope the community never loses those stories. That's why the museum's always been important and so on. And what you're doing is really, really good as part of creating that culture.

Speaker 1:

So cool. At the beginning, we were talking about whether you're a mountain man, and you, you said that you hope that the conversation inspired, put a little fire under you to get into the mountains. Are you fired up to get into the mountains?

Speaker 3:

You probably couldn't really see, but I wasn't really focusing on the camera too much. Cause I was just constantly Googling. I got like 40 tabs open of different locations, different hot, like I want to do it all, man. Like at first. Yeah. I want to, I'm I'm more excited now in the case in Claire hut, I really just want to do that Trek so bad. Yeah, yeah,

Speaker 1:

Yeah. It's um, Arthur Deshaun, who we talked about, who is on council with us and has been the mountain planner at Whistler Blackcomb for 40 plus years has walked everywhere in this mountain range. And to hear Jason say that, uh, you know, talk to Arthur about the spearhead and how beautiful it is. I know I said it to Jason, but it really struck me that yet it says something when mountaineers talk about beautiful mountains, you know, this is the one place that you need to visit. Um, and you know, russet lake is, is really accessible. And as long as you are prepared and, and make sure you go with someone who knows what they're doing in the summer, it's, uh, you know, four to six hour hike, depending on how, how quick you go. And, and, um, it's an incredible place to be and safe because it has that hot there that supports people being out there. Yeah.

Speaker 3:

Yeah. I looked into that lake as well. It looks beautiful. And I just want to try all this out as soon as I can. So hopefully we get a nice, uh, summer. That's not too hot so that I can do that. Cause I wouldn't be doing it in the 35 plus degrees that we've been getting lately. It looks like

Speaker 1:

It like this. He waves crazy. It's going to be gnarly anyway. Okay. Well, uh, thank you all for listening to the whisper podcast. It's brought to you by the resort municipality of Whistler and mountain FM. He is Cole. I am Jack talk to you next time.[inaudible].