An Ephemeral Tour By the British Columbia Backcountry
Phrases and Pictures by Yan Kaczynski
I’ve been ready for a very long time to showcase a sequence from my dwelling mountains. A sequence that may be stripped from all of the blah blah blah and the superficiality of a too quick, too noisy trendy world. One that may reveal solely the important, and only some vanishing traces—as a result of everyone knows they are going to solely be seen till the subsequent snowstorm.
So right here you go, that is an ode to the mountains I like, a dichotomy of the immense and humbling and the complicated and easy great thing about the Northwest Coast Mountains of Northern British Columbia, right here on the land of the Tsimshian and the Nisga’a Nation.
“You wish to be quiet in instinctive deference to the cathedral hush and since nothing you would presumably say would add a factor.” – Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass
Photograph: Yan Kaczynski
Feeling grateful to get up right here, to stay, breath, and slide on this land. Tsimshian conventional territory, Northwest Coast, B.C.
Photograph: Yan Kaczynski
We embrace the weather and we immerse ourselves in regardless of the climate has to supply us.
Photograph: Yan Kaczynski
Photograph: Yan Kaczynski
Glaciated runs we ski usually up right here, from foreground to background.
Photograph: Yan Kaczynski
Among the traces had been trying superb within the alpine that day, so we picked one and skied it. It was extremely good, so we climbed again up within the daylight and picked one other one.
Photograph: Yan Kaczynski
Into the actual and unreal.
Photograph: Yan Kaczynski
Photograph: Yan Kaczynski
A really quiet Shames Mountain—our springtime on the Northwest Coast can appear like this.
Photograph: Yan Kaczynski
Ghostly spines
Photograph: Yan Kaczynski
My very own ephemeral line.
Photograph: Yan Kaczynski
Carving turns above the sheer cliffs of an enormous mountainside. It is the perfect snowboarding you may have by way of couloir snowboarding—steady powder snow on as much as a 50º slope. It’s nonetheless a no fall zone as you may see right here, so humility is required the entire method down. Moronail, ≈ 800m, 50º+
Photograph: Yan Kaczynski
Today there was just one observe up and one observe down. I felt privileged, robust and assured. A day I’ll at all times keep in mind.
Photograph: Yan Kaczynski
Hidden gems of the Shames backcountry—for those who have a look at the suitable locations you’ll discover inventive steep snowboarding like nowhere else, proper off the overwhelmed observe.
Photograph: Yan Kaczynski
