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What do the winds bring?

After surviving calamity in British Columbia’s Coast Mountains, a few skiers return to COVID-19.

Just when you think you know what you’re doing, something unseen comes ripping around the corner with such unrelenting force that all you can do is dig yourself into the earth and hope there is room for mercy beneath the open and endless expanse of the midnight sky.

The Tantalus Range unfolds before us, our eyes squinting into the rising sun. Through the window, wisps of crystal dust twirl across the shaded slopes below, only to be gobbled up by the rotor wash as we touch down on a snowy shoulder below Mount Dione’s west face. The pilot’s thumb goes up, the doors open, and we pile out. Kye Petersen ducks low around the nose of the machine while Nick Russell pops the tail compartment; duffels and tents, totes full of food, fuel, stoves, skis and boots all pile up while our crunched bodies move to the frenzied tempo of a NASCAR pit crew working nine feet below the 35-foot long blades.

Once we’re clear the pilot throttles up to 390 RPM, the air pressure around us increases, the noise escalates and the one-ton machine pulls away from the slope. The air remains agitated for a few seconds, but then the slow breeze returns, bringing with it the silent clarity that only exists above tree line. A cloud of shimmers swirl across the contours of the snow, drawing wild looping characters, and I want to just sit there and watch. Leo Hoorn, Blake Jorgenson, Logan Pehota, Matty Richard and Rob Massie—all local skiers from the Whistler-Pemberton corridor—are already moving the first two loads of gear down to a flat spot on the shoulder. I turn to join them as a gust of air scrawls something at my feet. I shoulder a bag.

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