The Magic of the Mountains
The mountains have always been my greatest source of creativity. It was while living in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains, in Boulder, Colorado, in 2009, that I found the courage to leave a well-paid job as a project manager in the technology sector to launch a career as a freelance travel and adventure writer. I would go on to write hundreds of stories about mountain sports and culture, for more than 50 different publishers. When I moved to Nelson, Whitewater Ski Resort’s hometown, in 2017, my writing career went into hyperdrive. In two years, I would become the North American Travel Journalist Association’s Travel Writer of the Year, receive the Keith Bellows Award for Excellence in Travel Journalism, and win the Banff Award for Mountain Literature.
This winter, when Whitewater invited me to be their inaugural Writer-in-Residence, I didn’t have to think twice: “Yes, please!” I saw it as an opportunity to maximize my time in the mountains, and to generate heartfelt writing that extolled my local resort and enriched our community. What I didn’t realize was how much the increased time in the alpine would stoke my imagination. This was the point in my career when I began to think more expansively—with the full support of Whitewater’s marketing team behind me, what else could I offer?
Nelson Lit was born January 2, 2020. I had just come off a week-long hut trip in the Valhalla ranges over Christmas, and was skiing stronger than I ever had in my life. After the New Year, the energy was especially high at Whitewater. So much snow was coming down that I had to switch to my G3 Seekr, at 110 underfoot, for the front side! After a satisfying morning skiing Whitewater, I kicked back on the couch, pulled out my laptop, and started to build a website that conveyed my idea for Nelson Lit. I envisioned soliciting my favorite writers to come to Nelson to give book talks. I pictured audiences of 100 people or more, gathered in celebration of mountain literature. I imagined Nelson becoming known as an adventure-writing hub. “Nelson Lit brings prominent mountain literature writers to Nelson, British Columbia to illuminate our small-but-vibrant community with book talks,” I typed.
When I presented my idea to Bex at Whitewater she was thrilled. “Yes, do it!” That was all I needed. I already had my first author in mind. Sharon Wood, the first woman from North America to summit Everest, lives in Canmore and, in the fall of 2019, launched a memoir about the 1986 expedition called Rising. Oh, and Sharon just so happens to love Nelson. Her husband Garrett Brown, a hydrogeologist and avid backcountry skier, lived here for ten years, from 2004 to 2014. She and Garrett maintained dual residences, one in Nelson and one in Canmore, for the last five of those years. Sharon has been to Nelson more times than she can count. “I love the vibe,” she told me.
We scheduled her book talk for February 20th, to coincide with the next time she’d be in Nelson, for a hut trip at Valhalla Mountain Lodge, coincidentally (or synergistically!) the same lodge I was at over Christmas. I made a flyer for the book talk, Bex posted it at Whitewater, I posted it around town. The good folks at Nelson’s Elephant Mountain Literary Festival volunteered to work the door, and Otter Books agreed to have a table at the book talk to sell copies of Rising. Today I’m watching the online ticket sales pour in. I booked a space at the Prestige that seats 150, and now I’m thinking I should have gone bigger. It occurred to me that the magic of the mountains isn’t only in their challenge, or their call to adventure. The magic also lies in the mountains’ ability to connect us, to link friendships as naturally as ridgelines link peaks; and from there to create a seemingly endless range of opportunities that spans even further than the eye can see.
Written by Jayme Moye, Whitewater Writer-in-Residence 2019/20 Cover photo by Bex Dawkes Portrait photo by Ryan Flett