Living in Vancouver, we’re fortunate enough to have spectacular mountain terrain right at our doorsteps. When the winter snow starts to fall, there are many different ways to enjoy this terrain, two of the most popular being backcountry and downhill skiing — rarely, do athletes have experience in both, though. While there is certainly a considerable skills crossover, each discipline requires some unique knowledge.
The UBC Varsity Outdoor Club (VOC) and UBC Ski and Board might just have the fix for that with their new mentorship program, open to their club members.
Participants will have the opportunity to learn from experienced backcountry and downhill skiers and riders, picking up some of the important skills they need to be safe and successful in either realm.
The program, which is currently accepting applications to the VOC through October 29, will allow participants a fair amount of flexibility when it comes to deciding exactly how the teaching will work. VOC trip coordinator Heather Hughes-Adams and UBC Ski and Board co-president Axel Runner are hoping the program will draw in anywhere from 10 to 20 participants, each of whom will be paired with another participant based on the skills they want to learn.
Backcountry travelers will be paired with downhill skiers and riders, and each partner will have an opportunity to teach the skills they are familiar with and learn the skills that they aren’t. Together, they will go out into the backcountry or to local ski areas to teach and learn, and the program requires that each participant spend at least two days as a mentor and two days as a mentee.
Outside of those requirements, participants are given ample leeway when it comes to coordinating the details of each outing with their partner.
The idea for the program came from Hughes-Adams. Through her experience with the club, she noticed that the skills of VOC members seemed to be developing in a lopsided way.
“There’s a lot of people with the VOC that started skiing by ski touring, so they’ve never really skied on-resort before, or they had very limited experience skiing on-resort,” she said. “[They] have a lot of experience in the backcountry, but not a lot of downhill style.”
For Hughes-Adams, that skills gap was no small detail. “[Not] having that downhill style is not only a safety concern, but it limits your possibilities,” she said.
Wanting to provide an opportunity for VOC members to improve their downhill abilities, Hughes-Adams approached Runner about the possibility of a partnership. Seeing a complementary skills imbalance amongst some Ski and Board members, Runner agreed that the program idea would make for good pairings between his clubs members and the VOC.
“I know a lot of people who are good skiers [but] they don’t know how to use their backcountry equipment properly,” said Runner.
Given that this is the first year of existence for the program, it represents a trial run for the partnered mentorship idea, and both Hughes-Adams and Runner expressed hope that the program is successful and can continue in following winters.
“I’d love to see it carry on to next year,” she said.