• • Staring out a charter plane’s window at British Columbia’s Coast Mountains was equally reflective and surreal. Whistler was merely the gateway to these gnarled, snow-caked peaks stacking from saltwater all the way north to Alaska. Moving north, they commanded awe with powerful coastal glaciers and icefields of unimaginable scale. Even the access was rugged, with few signs of humanity for hundreds of miles at a stretch, save for a logging camp, a fly-in fishing lodge or a rare depopulating resource town.

  • The entire 2,500-resident valley of Bella Coola runs up-stream from saltwater to the margins of Tweedsmuir Provincial Park, one of the largest in British Columbia, preserving more than 2.2 million acres of wilderness. This corridor was the historical route taken by Alexander Mackenzie, the first European to complete an overland journey to the Pacific Ocean. He arrived not to emptiness, but to a thriving Nuxalk Nation living off the land, rivers and ocean in 10 distinct valley villages. Today that indigenous influence is still ever present in the region. The Nuxalk Reserve makes up one half of present day Bella Coola. Many of the town’s street signs still read in traditional Nuxalk and, thanks to a 2018 reconciliation agreement signed by the Canadian government, the Nation is one of 14 now receiving federal investment to increase its commercial fishing operation and preserve its local economy.

  • Pro skiers took notice, and Bella Coola’s consequential terrain became synonymous with the explosion of the freeski era in the 2000s. Yet hundreds of untapped lines still await. “As far as rugged alpine terrain [goes] there is nothing like it,” says Sean “Woody” Tribe, a lead guide at BCHS who estimates he puts in 25 or so new runs a season. “Then you add to that, nothing has ever been done and you can be the first person to ski there—all that exploration—you can’t go wrong. It’s a totally different place than the rest of mountains in North America. You just don’t get vertical relief like that many places in the world, Patagonia, Chamonix, the Himalayas, Alaska—it’s a rare place.”

  • WE LUCKED INTO PLAN Z. A last-second cancelation opened up four more days at the end of our trip, and the potential of a historic storm and a sliver of bluebird in the five-day forecast. It was incentive that took investment: flights to switch, families to convince and father-daughter ski trips to kick down the road. But ROI looked promising for Tuesday—an alignment of precipitation, stability and visibility that comes maybe once a decade to Bella Coola.

  • Peterson eyed a shoulder. Minutes later, she dropped in with aesthetic perfection, the sun setting in the west behind, glistening saltwater of South Bentinck Arm far below. The crystals rose and suspended themselves, lingering in the air, floating through space and time.

    In a perfect world, we would have lapped this zone forever, or at least until the mountains went quiet for the season. But all dreams, and heli budgets, come to an end. We snaked down toward the valley on this last bottomless wave, our patience fully refunded as we chased each other’s lines into the silence below.

  • Captions

    Nuxalk carvings are renowned worldwide for their artistry, and the valley hosts galleries featuring the work of local master carvers. Linguistically and culturally distinct from the neighboring Tlingit, Haida and Coast Salish nations, the Nuxalk are now working to repatriate many of their lost cultural treasures.

    Photo: Grant Gunderson

    Stop is stop in any language, but also a sign of the next 18 months to come, as the valley and the Nation would soon close to tourism during the COVID-19 pandemic. A “before times” view from the Nuxalk Reserve, which sits adjacent to the Bella Coola townsite.

    Photo: Grant Gunderson

  • Captions

    Sam Cohen on his last day in paradise and finally floating. He’s several feet deep, but high above the reach of the South Bentinck Arm in the Boat Zone, named for the early aughts heli explorations of the MV Ocean Explorer, a 110-foot ship serving as Bella Coola’s floating heli-base.

    Photo: Grant Gunderson

    Sam Cohen, unleashing 10 days of nervous waiting energy with a turn and burn on MSP, a legendary ski-filming venue named for the crew that logged historic lines with Seth Morrison, Shane McConkey and Hugo Harrison in the Bella Coola tenures during the early days of the operation.

    Photo: Grant Gunderson

  
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• • Staring out a charter plane’s window at British Columbia’s Coast Mountains was equally reflective and surreal. Whistler was merely the gateway to these gnarled, snow-caked peaks stacking from saltwater all the way north to Alaska. Moving north, they commanded awe with powerful coastal glaciers and icefields of unimaginable scale. Even the access was rugged, with few signs of humanity for hundreds of miles at a stretch, save for a logging camp, a fly-in fishing lodge or a rare depopulating resource town.

  • The entire 2,500-resident valley of Bella Coola runs up-stream from saltwater to the margins of Tweedsmuir Provincial Park, one of the largest in British Columbia, preserving more than 2.2 million acres of wilderness. This corridor was the historical route taken by Alexander Mackenzie, the first European to complete an overland journey to the Pacific Ocean. He arrived not to emptiness, but to a thriving Nuxalk Nation living off the land, rivers and ocean in 10 distinct valley villages. Today that indigenous influence is still ever present in the region. The Nuxalk Reserve makes up one half of present day Bella Coola. Many of the town’s street signs still read in traditional Nuxalk and, thanks to a 2018 reconciliation agreement signed by the Canadian government, the Nation is one of 14 now receiving federal investment to increase its commercial fishing operation and preserve its local economy.

  • Pro skiers took notice, and Bella Coola’s consequential terrain became synonymous with the explosion of the freeski era in the 2000s. Yet hundreds of untapped lines still await. “As far as rugged alpine terrain [goes] there is nothing like it,” says Sean “Woody” Tribe, a lead guide at BCHS who estimates he puts in 25 or so new runs a season. “Then you add to that, nothing has ever been done and you can be the first person to ski there—all that exploration—you can’t go wrong. It’s a totally different place than the rest of mountains in North America. You just don’t get vertical relief like that many places in the world, Patagonia, Chamonix, the Himalayas, Alaska—it’s a rare place.”

  • WE LUCKED INTO PLAN Z. A last-second cancelation opened up four more days at the end of our trip, and the potential of a historic storm and a sliver of bluebird in the five-day forecast. It was incentive that took investment: flights to switch, families to convince and father-daughter ski trips to kick down the road. But ROI looked promising for Tuesday—an alignment of precipitation, stability and visibility that comes maybe once a decade to Bella Coola.

  • Peterson eyed a shoulder. Minutes later, she dropped in with aesthetic perfection, the sun setting in the west behind, glistening saltwater of South Bentinck Arm far below. The crystals rose and suspended themselves, lingering in the air, floating through space and time.

    In a perfect world, we would have lapped this zone forever, or at least until the mountains went quiet for the season. But all dreams, and heli budgets, come to an end. We snaked down toward the valley on this last bottomless wave, our patience fully refunded as we chased each other’s lines into the silence below.

  • Captions

    Nuxalk carvings are renowned worldwide for their artistry, and the valley hosts galleries featuring the work of local master carvers. Linguistically and culturally distinct from the neighboring Tlingit, Haida and Coast Salish nations, the Nuxalk are now working to repatriate many of their lost cultural treasures.

    Photo: Grant Gunderson

    Stop is stop in any language, but also a sign of the next 18 months to come, as the valley and the Nation would soon close to tourism during the COVID-19 pandemic. A “before times” view from the Nuxalk Reserve, which sits adjacent to the Bella Coola townsite.

    Photo: Grant Gunderson

  • Captions

    Sam Cohen on his last day in paradise and finally floating. He’s several feet deep, but high above the reach of the South Bentinck Arm in the Boat Zone, named for the early aughts heli explorations of the MV Ocean Explorer, a 110-foot ship serving as Bella Coola’s floating heli-base.

    Photo: Grant Gunderson

    Sam Cohen, unleashing 10 days of nervous waiting energy with a turn and burn on MSP, a legendary ski-filming venue named for the crew that logged historic lines with Seth Morrison, Shane McConkey and Hugo Harrison in the Bella Coola tenures during the early days of the operation.

    Photo: Grant Gunderson

  
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