Explore Magazine Winter 2024

Seasons and styles change. When I was a kid, I sported packable K-Way windbreakers in the autumn, then moved to my treasured Sun Ice quarter-zip ski jacket by December. (Anyone remember Sun Ice?) As a more serious snowsports enthusiast in my teens, my interest in technical fabrics led to spending way too much cash on Gore-Tex and Entrant. By the late ’90s, the puffy jacket became ubiquitous, driven by The North Face’s now-classic Nuptse, which debuted in ’91. The list goes on: merino wool. OutDry. Lifaloft. Primaloft. PFC-free DWR. DWR-free face fabrics… But one item of apparel has been here the whole time, and likely will stay here, too. Fleece—the official outfit of the outdoorsy for 40-plus years. A lot of people sport puffy jackets and it doesn’t mean they’re…

I moved to Ucluelet nine years ago after a break-up with my ex-fiancé in Australia and a one-way ticket back to Calgary—my hometown and home country. Dying for waves and longing for the path that leads to my favourite beach, Florencia Bay, it took me all in all four flights, an 11-hour drive, one ferry ride and another three-hour drive to touch the northwest Pacific. I spent 10 days, glorious days, living in my tent before finding a room to rent and figuring out how to live and work in paradise. Pronounced you-KLEW-let—or Ukee (you-KEY) for short—the quaint old fishing village of the past is coming up roses… or better still, let’s say it’s coming up rhododendrons. Bursts of vibrant rhodos are found in abundance in the town of about…

"So, you want to work as a guide?” It was the first day of the 1974 Swiss mountain guide apprentice course and the instructor meant the question rhetorically. All of the students enthusiastically answered “Yes!” Not Ruedi Beglinger. “I couldn’t lie,” he chuckles at the irony. “I said ‘No. I just want to climb super hard alpine routes.’” A friend had cajoled him into joining the course and once he graduated in 1975, Beglinger fell in love with the craft. He’s been guiding ever since. That’s 50 years of leading skiing, climbing and hiking, with 45 of them in Canada. This means Beglinger might be the longest serving full-time mountain guide ever. “It’s the guests that inspire me,” he says. “I realized pretty quickly sharing an experience with a client…

Flips off cliffs. Forty-five-degree steeps (or steeper!). Triple-digit speeds. This is the Freeride World Tour—a worldwide ski and snowboard competition that will stop at six mountains in 2025 to see the best freeride skiers and boarders compete for big-mountain supremacy. It’s an in-your-face sporting competition like few others. Because at Kicking Horse Mountain Resort, in Golden, British Columbia, you can ski right to the on-slope viewing area, watch the athletes compete live—literally speeding downslope toward you—and even high-five them in the staging area. You’ll live vicariously through a competition you’d likely never have the nerve—or skill—to tackle. And that’s OK. Because you can still feign to be an FWT athlete at Kicking Horse, whether you carve groomers, brave one of the 87 in-bound chutes or hike into the other FWT-worthy…

Looking for on-hill excitement but can’t make it to Golden? If you’re quick to the hill, you can catch the PwC Tremblant World Cup at Mont Tremblant, Quebec, on December 7 and 8, 2024. More than 15,000 fans will watch 72 of the world’s top women ski racers compete for the podium in a vibrant and fun atmosphere. coupedumonde.tremblant.ca A legendary springtime event in BC, the Whistler Ski and Snowboard Festival takes over the slopes from April 8 to 14, 2025. This unique event combines the best of mountain culture and art with on-slope competition and an epic aprés scene. There’s a reason locals say, “Party in April. Sleep in May.” whistler.com/events/world-ski-snowboard-festival…

T he first time I went snowshoeing, I used traditional wooden snowshoes, on a two-day winter excursion in New Brunswick. I still own that pair, although it’s been years since I’ve worn them. The last several times I wore snowshoes, they were modern aluminum ones. Although those are the types generally sold in outdoor stores and rented for short-term use, traditional snowshoes are still being made. In fact, they may be experiencing a renaissance. “I think there is a rebirth in people’s desire to have traditional snowshoes,” says Bern Crawford, a member of the NunatuKavut Inuit in Happy Valley-Goose Bay, Labrador. He has been making traditional snowshoes for 40 years. He started out by repairing his own snowshoes. “I would disassemble existing snowshoes to salvage babiches (the rawhide, gut or…