LIVING THE DREAM

”Powder Telemark Camp for All Levels, December 27, 1986 - January 2, 1987
For this 7-day powder telemark camp we will stay in the cozy and comfortable Durrand Glacier Chalet in a powder hound’s paradise ……………….”

This was the description in the brochure. Enough to entice a recent business school graduate working in a downtown Vancouver consulting firm to sign up for a new adventure. An adventure that has continued for the past 20 years and has no signs of slowing down.

Little did I know what was in store for me when I signed up to learn how to telemark ski with Selkirk Mountain Experience and a Swiss Mountain Guide named Ruedi Beglinger. I grew up on a dairy farm in the eastern Fraser Valley of British Columbia. Winters were spent skiing at a small local ski-hill, summers sailing in the Strait of Georgia. Mountains were nice to look at from the sun-deck, climbing a ladder needed a second person to hold the ladder and looking down from the top of the 50 ft. silo on the farm needed a lot of persuasion.

The first mountain summit I climbed was on December 31, 1986 and it was on this climb ending with a summit kiss that my fate was sealed. For me the passion for the person came first and the passion for mountains and mountain life naturally followed. For Ruedi the mountains are the first passion and as the partner of a person like Ruedi who is bound, in every respect, to the mountains this is the most important realization. There is no less passion and love for the partner but the mountains are part of the person you marry and you can never expect to be able to take the person out of the mountains or vice versa.

I have climbed countless mountains since that day - both actual mountain summits and many more personal mountains. Ruedi and I were married in 1990 and have two daughters, Charlotte and Florina, born in 1992 and 1994. We spend half the year living at the Durrand Glacier and half the year in Revelstoke.

“Living the Dream” is the phrase that I hear most often. And for the most part we do live the dream – owning and operating a back country lodge as a family in the Northern Selkirk Mountains. I think when people say this they are thinking of raising your children in the pristine mountains without the negative pressures of society, of having a job that allows you to ski/hike/climb all day everyday, of being off the grid and being surrounded by the most amazing scenery in the world.

For me “the Dream” is being able to say that what we do is not working but living and we can include our children in every aspect of our life. We love what we do and it is just our life – we don’t feel like we are going to work when we get up in the morning – we feel like we are going to live another great day with some of the most remarkable people who happen to be our guests. We are removed from the world of “face-book” - we actually get to meet, know and spend time with people from all walks of life who come to share the mountains and our life with us. The bonds that form cannot be replaced by any number of emails and our lives are enriched by every person that comes to the Durrand Glacier. This is also what I believe is the most positive thing that our choice of lifestyle has offered our children. They have made lasting friendships with many of our guests and they have been exposed to a very positive and genuine side of humanity that will give them a very optimistic outlook on life and the world.

”The Dream” also includes a lot of reality – getting your children educated, trying to make them well rounded members of society, finding time to spend alone with your spouse and as a family, incorporating hobbies such as gardening, reading and piano lessons into your life, running the business, finding and training the staff, running the lodge, cleaning the toilets, shoveling snow, doing hiking trail maintenance, organizing the helicopter ……………. getting a phone call from Marmot asking if I could write a story about our life in the mountains (add writer to the list of job requirements and reality). Our final reality is the guide service work we conduct in the harsh conditions of the mountains. We are so thankful that we’ve partnered with Marmot for many years. We test and use their gear every day and it’s never let us down.

Climbing a mountain requires commitment, focus, planning and believing in your goal. Being “Ruedi’s wife”(after living in Revelstoke for 17 years I received an invoice in the mail for the diesel generator parts that were ordered by “Ruedi’s wife”), living in the mountains, running a successful business in the mountains and raising a family in the mountains requires the same. The challenges are greater but the rewards are also exponentially greater than what I could ever imagine getting in a “normal’ life (and I certainly wouldn’t want to be anyone else but Ruedi’s wife!).