The Stoke

The real money-shot is about 28 seconds in. The editing of this video is a bit over-the-top, but hilarious.

I headed home from the hill fairly early today (see my last post re: the freezing cold). I’m so glad I hitched home when I did, because I had a great talk with the man who drove me into town. He’s been living in Revelstoke for 20 years, so naturally I wanted to know his opinion on development here. I imagined there would be some hostility from long-time locals about how things change when hoards of new people move who have no sense of history. The conversation was really rewarding - he’s been involved with a lot of the actual infrastructure creation (he’s a forester by trade), and he’s sat on a lot of committees working through the logistics. Why is he so involved? Well, to my good fortune, I had hitched a ride home from the new Mayor of the City of Revelstoke, David Raven.

He’s fallen solidly on the ‘pro-development’ side, he told me, but for the town to flourish “there has to be a balance.” Revelstoke’s growth has been based on the railroad and then on forestry, which are both dependent on the economy since they’re resource based. About fifteen years ago, the push for growth through tourism started - the city knows that it needs the tourism and development in order to succeed, but it doesn’t want to become one of those hyper-commercial resort locales where so much of the population is transient and locals watch the core values of their town fall away.

What’s most important, said Raven, is that people moving into Revelstoke give back to the community. It’s the campsite rule - always leave something in as good or better condition than when you arrive. Get involved with committees or social organizations, be generous with time, money and friendship, and help to keep the feeling of community alive in the city. The reason why so many of us have moved here is because it’s not like Whistler - it’s relaxed, friendly and not over-commercialized. Even if new residents aren’t in it for the long haul, we need to nurture what’s good about Revelstoke so that the entire vibe doesn’t change. We can’t just take advantage of it without giving anything in return.

It wasn’t a long conversation, but it gave me a lot to mull over - essentially, we’re guests here right now. We’ve got to earn the trust of locals and let them know we care about Revy too. Raven was a bit guarded during our chat - I’d be guarded too if I felt like what’s great about my town could get changed by a bunch of rowdy punks.

Looking down at the Columbia River on a snowy day in December.

One of the first things we did when we moved into our house was build a ski rack to hold [most of] our gear. Holds 10 pairs - from left to right, numbers 3, 4, 5 and 6 are mine. The Mantras are my day-to-day skis, but the Atomic Heli Daddies are an awesome super-light touring rig. Simon just picked up the Movement Gladiators this fall, and loves them so far (apart from the mildly-foolish football player pic on the topsheet).

Our badass homemade ski rack