The chopper landed in town today.
For those of you who do not know me, I recently relocated to a small ski town (Kimberley) in the East Kootenay region of British Columbia. My wife and I did the 6 month RV trip in an old Airstream motorhome and then sold our house in the big city and moved here. Bought a smaller house built in 1934 overlooking the town baseball diamonds and with a spectacular view of the Purcell Mountains.
This past Saturday we were curling (yes, curling) in a bonspiel at our local curling rink. Curling is a great sport to play but also a great social sport to meet like minded people. After the last rock was thrown and a couple of social drinks were consumed we headed home around 5 pm. As we drove through town and then stopped at the one traffic signal in town, we first heard and then felt and then saw a huge medi-vac helicopter circling very low over the town. We then passed about half a dozen search and rescue vehicles from the various small towns in the area. Towns with name such as Cranbrook, Golden and Fernie.
An ominous feeling started to come over us, like when you round a corner on the highway and come upon an accident scene. You know it is not going to be good for somebody. By the time we got home to our place we watched the chopper land for maybe 2 minutes and then lift off again, cargo contained in the side basket.
Adrenalin sports junkies move to these mountain towns to pursue their passions. Sports such as backcountry skiing, ice climbing, downhill mountain biking and off piste (out of bounds) skiing are the main draws. These people work at the ski hill during the winter and at the golf courses in the summer. Every dollar goes toward chasing that adrenalin rush. I am not talking just kids. I mean adults who are between 40 and 60 years old who have been doing this a long time. These people kind of decided early on that the career path, the money machine was not for them and have managed to eke out a life doing what they are passionate about. In most cases they remain single and childless as they are smart enough to realize that when kids come along, the game changes.
After all my years in the big city, traveling all over North America chasing the almighty buck, the chopper sounds really made me step back and reflect. I felt like Radar in M*A*S*H. When I lived in the city I used to read about these kind of people getting swept away in an avalanche and think “natural selection”. They knew the risks involved and sometimes you have to pay the piper to play the game. Now living out here I am feeling the same tug to get out into the backcountry and give it a go. Almost everyone does it, or has done it. Almost everyone has “skins” for their skis that they attach to go uphill in the back country and then ski the powder on the way down.
The chopper landed in town today. We do not have any trauma facilities at the small government health clinic. Airlifted out was the body of a 50 year old man who has lived in town for a long time. He was an experienced back country single guy. Just stepped on a snow cornice that gave way and fell 700 meters to his final resting spot. The whole town has a mourning vibe to it tempered with well, it could have happened to anyone here.
I guess the point of this reflective blog is to say get out there and grab it. Develop lasting, fun relationships with people you like both in business and in your personal life. Make those relationships long term. That is kind of our unspoken philosophy here at Campground Manager Software@/ BookYourSite™. Yes we could have probably had more customers however we have chosen to build slowly and build for the long term. We try to only do business with people we like! Works better for both ends of the relationship. The journey is indeed a short one. Enjoy the ride.
