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There is a special kind of loneliness that only glider pilots seem to appreciate…climbing thousands of feet above the mountains in columns of rising air, suspended underneath engineered fabric, with only a small reserve parachute separating the pilot from injury or death if things go wrong. It’s a beautiful sport in spring, summer and fall for the small, but stalwart, group of Elk Valley paraglider pilots. And they are pilots. The current open distance world record cross-country flight in a paraglider is 588.27km, a tasked achieved in Brazil this October. Climbs over 10,000ft are common. But as winter arrives in the valley, hopes of soaring flights are usually abandoned in place of speed paragliding, a death defying fringe sport comprised of adrenalized aviators who barrel-roll through canyons of ice at 120km/hr. Continue reading “Fernie paragliders achieve winter soaring flights”

Steelmaking coal is experiencing a moderate recovery after prices dropped to US$130/t in July of 2019, sparking layoff news at Teck Resources, North America’s largest producer of steelmaking coal, which has six operating coal mines in Alberta and B.C. that produced 26.2 million tonnes of steelmaking coal in 2018.

According to Statistics Canada, steel production in the U.S., Canada, and China – a key indicator for steelmaking coal markets – has risen from approximately 160 million tonnes in 1990 to approximately 760 million tonnes in 2008. Since 2008, at the onset of the global economic downturn, annual steel production has averaged around 725 million tonnes. Continue reading “Steelmaking coal experts optimistic on price despite emerging green-tech”

How I came to live with Hillary Clinton’s private yoga instructor, Nateshvar, started with a gunshot. My father. He walked into the bedroom that he shared with his two children and wife in East Vancouver, retrieved his prized hunting rifle from under the bed, and ended his decades long battle with mental illness.

I wasn’t surprised when I got the call from my stepmother. In a way, I felt relieved for the whole family, who’d been living under the dark cloud of my father’s paranoid schizophrenia since the late 70s. My brother Daniel and I repainted the bedroom and filled the bullet hole in the ceiling. Continue reading “Editorial: Suicide and Hillary Clinton’s private yogi”

Cattle ranching is a critical industry that binds together all chapters of the great Canadian agriculture story. The Waldo Stockbreeders Association in Jaffray B.C., which celebrated its 80th anniversary on Saturday, is part of the glue that holds the book together. The event took place in the Jaffray Community Centre on Saturday evening. Compared to Fernie, with its thriving nightlife and modern art scene, the ranching culture around Jaffray, with its large open fields juxtaposed to serrated peaks, is like visiting another country where cows still roam the range, men in cowboy hats fix fences, and children work in kitchens. Continue reading “Kootenay cattle ranchers roping in prosperity”

Seventy-year-old Dave O’Haire, capped in a felt hat with feathers, walks down a side-street in downtown Fernie B.C. He looks up through a tangle of electric cables and transformers to the mountains on the west side of Elk Valley.

“The great thing about Fernie is, whether you walk down a street or an avenue, or an alley, there’s always a view,” he says. “If you go to resort towns, you don’t see anything. In Whistler, you’ve gotta take a chairlift to see the mountains.”

O’Haire shares his story from a desk in the public library – his blue fishing vest illuminated by the afternoon sun. He has the eyes of a young man, even though he almost lost one while forking manure with his brother on the family homestead. O’Haire seems stuck in the sweet spot, somewhere between youth and old age. Continue reading “Stuck in the sweet spot between youth and old age”

We live in a world that’s getting more fast-paced, hectic and disconnected. Hours blend into days, days into months and months into years. Thank goodness there are still places to get away. Places where it’s ok to live in denial for a few days. Where it snows hard enough to close the highway. Places where the temperature drops and moisture freezes into plates of ice that can snap power lines. Places where people read by candlelight surrounded by impassable mountains. Places where wild fish wait patiently for the insects of summer. Where bears rest dormant under old stumps. Places where you can take the first chairlift of the day and carve your way down through legendary powder. Places where rabbit tracks lead you into a cathedral of white. Where the only sound is that of your heart – or if you’re lucky, a wolf’s howl at twilight. Places where crows and ravens perch in trees waiting for garbage that never comes. Where bundled up people ride fat tired bicycles between Christmas parties. Places where coffee shop windows steam-up with tales of high adventure. Where old stone buildings refuse to fall. Places where great food and drink abound. Where wood smoke hovers like a ghost over homes filled with dreamers and workers. Places you’ll miss when you leave – where loneliness is the grand prize. Places where frozen rivers twist like ribbons, wrapping the valleys like gifts. Where you need to plug in your vehicle, or face a short walk to the shops. Places where live music and live theatre rattle the rafters of an old train station. Places where people smile behind their scarves. Where the stars are bright and the fog is thick. Places with wolverines but no werewolves. Where ski trails outstretch endurance. Places with great hockey teams. Places where you can let go of your cares and fill your battery at the recharging station of life. Places like Fernie, British Columbia.