Red Heather: A Backcountry Skier is Born (Again)

As children growing up in Israel, we barely ever saw snow. Snow was this novel thing that you would see in movies or drive for hours to touch, briefly, and then forget about for another couple of years. No wonder then that when Maya and I arrived to Canada in 2006, we didn’t know how to ski. At all. We picked it up quickly though, and it was super exciting. After a couple of years we got into backcountry skiing and spent many weekends in the mountains, making memories. Nevertheless, my last backcountry ski trip was in 2015, a few weeks before our first son, Neil, was born… We do lots of outdoor activities, but we usually do them as a family. Also, we still feel more comfortable with warmer temperature activities such as hiking and cycle touring.

Fast forward to 2020 – when a friend suggested that we join them ski touring with our now five year old son. I was intrigued. When I asked Neil about it, his face lit up in excitement. I realized we absolutely had to give it a try. The plan was for the kids to use their light cross country skis with skins for the uphill. Then they would switch to their heavier downhill ski gear for the way down. Neil has been skiing downhill since just before he was two, and has a few seasons of cross country skiing under his belt too. He loves the snow, and has dragged me skiing on countless wet days… He’s fit and strong, and rolling all the details around in my mind, it seemed very doable.

So we did it, and it was fun. In fact, it was fun enough for a return trip a month later. The kids had no trouble skiing up to Red Heather, and up to Paul Ridge. On the first trip we towed them back up for a second lap. Then we skied down the trail, which is really the most fun part of this trip. In the coolness of the early evening, it’s a fast ski down the slaloming road, with countless little jumps on the sides to keep everyone happy. A thigh-burning adrenaline-filled ride right back to the car.

On our second trip the weather was much clearer. Once we got up to Paul Ridge we started towing the kids towards Elfin Lakes. Initially the views got better and better, and it was mostly easy going except for some slightly tricky side hilling sections. That ridge seems to go on forever, and we ran out of time and decided to turn around. On the way back there was one short steep pitch that was very hard to tow a kid up. Eventually we flailed up it and continued. In truth, it was a bit much and the views didn’t really get any better after the first section anyway. At least we got some extra exercise out of the whole thing. It was a relief to get back to the point from which it’s all downhill and an easy (and exciting) continuous ski back down. Once again we were at the car, all smiles.

After those two trips, the stars somehow didn't align this winter for another backcountry ski trip. Would I do it again? Definitely! I look forward to getting back into backcountry skiing again, slowly. Perhaps it's time to get back into some other hibernating outdoor activities, such as rock climbing, and eventually mountaineering, or even try some new ones...