If instead of Barbie, Greta Gerwig had had to spend 2022 remaking Hot Dog… the Movie, after living and working a couple of seasons in a ski town, Weak Layers might be the result. Luckily for us, mountain culture has its own Greta Gerwig and her name is Katie Burrell. Our very own ‘action sports’…
Category: mountain culture
Spotlighting Alex van Zyl and the culture-shaping superpowers of landscape architects and design of place
I’ve worked before with the wonderful Tom Barratt of Tom Barratt Landscape Architecture – he’s a long-time Pique reader and he often has a sense of something that might be a story of interest to me. (This piece on his work in the Chilcotins, which required the long-time road biker to take some mountain bike…
Tom Prochazka – How to Build a Global Mountain Bike Community
Tom Pro is a genuine legend in Whistler, and the global bike community, so it was a treat to profile him for Interstellar Mountain Culture magazine, because honestly, I wish I could sometimes say to the next generation of mountain culture and resort leaders: be more like Pro. Here’s the profile: Tom Prochazka speaks several…
Not Alone
Arc’teryx invited me to connect with their athlete, Sarah Hueniken, and filmmaker Heather Mosher, to write a piece about their film, Not Alone. Gripped magazine called it “one of the most important climbing films ever made. Mosher has done an exquisite thing with Not Alone, one that I hope everyone gets a chance to see….
Beyond Treeline – nominated for a Canadian National Magazine Award for Art Direction
I have just received a copy of Dr Suzanne Simard’s much-anticipated book, Finding the Mother Tree: Discovering the Wisdom of the Forest. She was deep into the writing of the book when I had the chance to speak with her in 2019, about her work, and the way it had been incorporated into Jordan Manley’s…
Piece by Piece: Finding Outer Peace with Mountain Guides Julia Niles and Christine Feleki
The path to inner, or outer, peace, isn’t one-sized fits all, as I learned in some illuminating conversations with mountain guides Julia Niles and Christine Feleki, for this post for Arc’teryx. Photos By: Robin O’Neill Julia Niles has never been one to shirk from struggle – you don’t pursue a career in mountain guiding unless type…
Garlic Planting as Prayer
The fall garlic planting mission has always been accompanied by a prayer, of sorts. An atheistic kind, largely faithless: “Okay then, do your thing.” I’d brush my hands clean of the moist black soil and feel again the improbability of all this growing business – stick clove in soil, anticipate its budding five or six…
What Women Want
When I learned that a lot of women’s outdoor and sports apparel was built first for men, than adapted ie applying the “pink it and shrink it” design brief, I suddenly understood that it wasn’t me. It wasn’t that there was something wrong with my body. It wasn’t that I would be a better biker/skier/climber/runner…
Who are you when you’re free to be yourself?
“What about you?” asked the other parent, on the sidelines at karate, having just shared how much she loves sewing. “What is your hobby?” My inside-voice did a quick stocktaking: that week, I’d been watching mini-documentaries of forest gardens and permaculture success stories. I was still stuck on the idea of the Divine Feminine rising…
Seija Halonen: the art of radical self-expression
Feet Banks has an incredible radar for incredible people. Whenever he has asked me to profile someone for Mountain Life, I come away stoked for the encounter. Seija Halonen was no exception. The Untamed Issue is out now. Seija Halonen strikes you quickly as one of those rare people who has no skeletons in her…
Lisa Richardson Bylines 