In the latest issue of ML Coast Mountains, the monsters are ready to rumble. Final entry: Pemberton. Words :: Lisa Richardson.
The Sea to Sky Royal Rumble enters the last round! And no, there are no actual giant monster Kaiju lurking in south Coast Mountains anymore.
Itβs all just a visual technique weβre using to set up our weirdest Coast Mountains issue yetβthe idea is to let each of the three mountain towns in the Sea to Sky region battle it out so the world can finally know which is the best.
At the end you can vote on the winner. In the meantime, let the rumble continue with Lisa Richardsonβs Pemberton entry! βFeet Banks
Wayne Andrew, LΓlΜwat horseman and a legendary rodeo rider in his prime, told me recently how Pemberton got its name. A story his grandfather told him. Passed on from his grandfather. The first white people paddled into the valley in birchbark canoes. Pale with scurvy. βWe used cedar dugout, not birchbark, canoesβso it was shocking on lots of levels,β Andrew shared.Β
βWhat is this place?β the newcomers asked. ββPuwΓ‘mtenβ,β replied the LΓlΜwat, meaning βthe canoe log where the canoes beach, where people would pull up and berth their canoes.β (βPuwΓ‘mβ is the sound the canoes make when they beach on the log and βtenβ is the tool used.) βOh, that sounds like the name of the surveyor general,β they said. And so they called the place Pemberton, after a mustachioed dude in Fort Victoriaβthe boss of the boss of the boss, the biggest honcho in the Hudsonβs Bay Company.Β
The sΓ‘ma7 (pronounced βshama,β meaning βwhite folkβ) were low on food and unwell, so the LΓlΜwat welcomed them, shared dried meat and berries. Later, after a rockslide came down to where theyβd set up camp, the newcomers moved further upstream, up the valley, closer to what is now settled as Pemberton. In UcwalmΓcwts, the language of the LΓlΜwat, the word for Pemberton, nkΓΊkwmΓ‘, means βnorth.βΒ
The LΓlΜwat were spread all through the valley and hillsides, Andrew told me, but a smallpox epidemic decimated so much of the population it made it easier for the RCMP and Indian Agents to round them all up and move them onto a reserve.Β
Pemberton has its share of nicknames, depending on the era you landedβSpud Valley, Pemberhole, Pemberbush, Pemberdiseβbut October 2023 was the first time I heard βPuwΓ‘mten.βΒ
People tend to start the story of a place the moment they first arrive there themselves. As if nothing of real significance happened before you. Thus, my version of Pemberton starts around 2001, even though the Lilβwat have oral histories of connection with this land for 11,000 years and archeological sites dating back at least 5,500 years.Β
In 2001, my partner and I were arguing endlessly about where we should live. Whistler was too expensive, so the Squamish vs Pemberton debate was fierce. His requirements hinged on being able to do everything he lovesβrecreation-wiseβout his back door, and at a world-class level. I scoffed at the audacity of such an expectation from life. But he was right. As a slew of pro athletes and lifestylers who landed in waves can attest.Β
Twenty years after Pemberton won our coin toss, the Village has doubled in size and is on track to reach 5,000 souls sometime within the next ten minutes. (Itβs closer to 8,000 if you include the surrounding areas, and Iβve started to sound like the crusty locals who once greeted me with an, βI donβt recognise half the people around here anymore.β)Β
In my two decades, Iβve also learned a little more about the forces that shaped the place before I βdiscoveredβ it.Β
A volcanic eruption and biblical-level flooding 2,400 years ago left behind an incredible growing medium that now supports thousands of pounds of potatoes, incredibly potent garlic and the sweetest carrots and greens. Once the growing season begins, weekly harvest boxes from five different community-supported agriculture (CSA) growers roll out in blue bins to feed (and perplex) people up and down the Sea to Sky. (What do I do with a kohlrabi?)Β
The geology has other beneficiariesβmountain bikers, sledders, trail runners, skiers, anyone who likes going straight up, straight down, very fast, with speed.Β
Ray Mason, aka Pemby Iceman, has been sledding the region since he drove into the Pemberton Valley from the Hurley and his jaw dropped. Heβd been skiing Whistler since it first openedβhis dad was a part owner in the Mount Whistler Lodgeβbut here he found land with enough quiet space for horses, a private runway for his plane and a few groomed cross-country trails out his back door. He bought 60 acres in 1991, raised a family, ran a sled-guiding business for 15 years and still hasnβt tired of the landscape or βexploring the endless backcountry that only a few people get to see. I was mainly a skier, but once you get a sledβ¦β He has shared beta and loaned his toboggan to a host of pro skiers and riders questing for their own first descents, including godfathering the late Dave Treadwayβs 2013 mission to ski Mount Monmouthβthe only peak apart from Mount Garibaldi above 10,000 feet in the Coast Range. (Check out the short film Letβs Go Get Small, which documents the adventure.)Β
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Home to a solid concentration of female mountain guides and super-fast ultrarunning moms, Pemberton boasts the hardiest souls. In this land, weather is not abstract, and rivers have mood swings that keep everyone on their toes. Itβs an intimate experience of heat, mosquitoes, wildfire haze, floods, collapsing mountains and debris flows as a warming climate and receding glaciers melt the permafrost holding a lot of rock together. (When I worked at the Squamish-Lillooet Regional District, our emergency services manager told me that a crack in Mount Currie had suddenly appeared, making it the fourth existential threat in the Pemberton valley. Heβs since moved away.)
As an ecosystem unicorn where the Coast meets the Interior, we also have wilder residentsβgrizzly and black bears, great blue herons, western screech owls, red-listed sharp-tailed snakes and a unique species of salmon, the Birkenhead chinook.Β
Diehard ski and snowboard pros are still eking out a life in the mountainsβIan McIntosh, Joe Lax, Dave Basterrechea, JD Hare, Delaney Zayacβmixing up some combination of growing food, making things, banging nails and continuing to explore, while the next generation are making their own wavesβTrinity Ellis on the World Cup luge tracks, her sweetheart Lucas Cruz on a mountain bike, cyclocross champ Ethan Wood, second-generation ski star Logan Pehota. But theyβve been the lucky ones.
Every time another family moves away in search of more affordable climes, or a retiring farmer sells to wealthy buyers and speculators who are thrilled to discover land at $35,000 an acre, I wonder just how hardy the next generation will have to be to grow their futures here. Are we just the last in a long line of βdiscoverersβ who wreck what we found? Are we too far gone to listen to the wisdom that kept the LΓlΜwat flourishing here for thousands of years? KβΓΊlβtsamβ, take only what you need. Itβs not a novel idea. My yoga teacher pointed me to 3,000-year-old texts from the cultures of the Indus Valley that teach the same thing: ahimsa, do no harm, and brahmacharya, non-excess.
You can find the medicine still. Out on the land. Or in amongst the crowds. Go stand at the Remembrance Day parade, the Signal Hill pit cook, or a PORCA enduro race with volunteers in costume. Or at BMX night when the gate drops for the toddlers on run bikes, the Childrenβs Centreβs annual Christmas Bazaar, or the Lilβwat Rodeoβand youβll see. Youβll see who and what is worth fighting for. Each other. And this land. Which has shaped us more than weβll ever truly know.
Community Nourishment
Stay Wild Natural Health
Known for ages as Spud Valley, it goes without saying that one of Pembertonβs most beloved foods is a potato. βHelmerβs fingerling potatoes should win,β says Leah Gillies, owner of Stay Wild Natural Health Food Store & Juice Bar. βThey are insaneβbuttery and delicious. I pretty much donβt eat potatoes those few months of the year when Helmerβs are sold out.β
Equally popular, however, are Leahβs Stay Wild peanut butter cups, a healthy(er) alternative to everyoneβs favourite childhood snack. βI found a recipe online and we just tinkered with it,β she says. βWe made it healthierβitβs vegan, itβs gluten-free, we donβt add refined sugar. It hits a lot of the boxes. They were an early hit when we opened in 2016 and, if I look at the numbers, weβve sold 11,000 of them since then. We sold 40 this week, and those are two-packs.β
Beyond the delicious wares inside, Stay Wild is also notable for Leahβs commitment to providing her employees with a living wage. Sheβs part of a national program designed to provide workers with an hourly wage that meets their basic expenses and helps them move beyond basic poverty and help them participate in social, civic and cultural aspects of life. Currently, for the Sea to Sky region, the living wage is calculated at $25.68 per hour (minimum wage is $18 per hour).Β
βMy husband saw a βLiving Wageβ sticker on a food truck in Tofino,β Leah says, βAnd I looked into it right away. I was always embarrassed to hire people at minimum wage anyhow. This is not an affordable part of the world.β
After a year in the Living Wage program, Leah says she thinks her employees feel happy and respected. βI take a hit on the bottom lineβI didnβt feel it was fair to just raise prices and transfer that over to our customers. This is a small town, everyone is everyoneβs neighbour. I think customers like coming here knowing how we treat our employees. Day-to-day, everyone seems happy to be here. I donβt see any drawbacks to it, and Iβve never had so many resumes.βΒ
She also gives them a staff discount on groceries and anything else in the store (even peanut butter cups).Β
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Blown Spot
Joffre Lakes
βNice, but busy.β βTripadvisor
Thatβs Tripadivsorβs top review of the 545 entries for Joffre Lakes Provincial Park. (For context, Squamishβs Stawamus Chief Park has just 337, despite being less than an hour from Metropolitan Vancouver.)
Β On Instagram, there are more than 95,500 posts tagged #joffrelakes. Whistlerβs Pique Newsmagazine reports the park βaccommodates up to about 200,000 visitors per year, with 1,053 day-use passes available every day.β While the BC Parks website adds, βBring your own toilet paper.β And dogs are prohibited.
Β But actually, it used to be worse before the LΓlΜwat and NβQuatqua Nations began working with BC Parks to monitor, manage and limit the number of people heading into Joffre. Instigated in 2019, the Joffre Lakes Park Visitor Use Management Strategy expanded parking and created safer access so tourists could stop meandering around a blind-corner highway.Β
βIβve seen everything up there,β says local resident Seija Halonen, whoβs been hiking Joffre for more than 20 years, sometimes three times a week. βPerfumed fancy girls with stereos on their shoulders and shivering dudes in trench coats and dress shoes. Iβve seen people literally poop on the trail. I donβt go much anymore, unless I leave at 4 a.m.β
In September of 2023, the LΓlΜwat and NβQuatqua Nations even closed the park to the general public to prioritize access for Nation members and to host a harvest celebration (though they did reopen it to tourism for the Labour Day weekend).
The popularity is understandableβthe park features a stunning trio of supersaturated blue alpine lakes with highway access to a high-elevation starting point with a manicured trail that provides big-alpine vistas with much less elevation gain than a sea-level hike. Best to go early in the warm months, or get out the snowshoes and go now (note the upper campground is closed in the winter due to avalanche risk).
Toughest Gang
The Dead Prime Ministers
Using the adjective βtoughβ for Pemberton is redundant, but the greatest gang to come from the valley is known for humour rather than grit. The Dead Prime Ministers (DPM) formed in the late 1990s, a teenaged skate and snowboard posse named after the popular Hughes Brothers bank heist film Dead Presidents. This was, obviously, the Canadian version.
βThat was back in the times when it was cool to make your own gang,β explains DPM godfather Ben Davies. βIt was really just a bunch of buddies snowboarding and telling jokes and having fun, but this is when gangster rap was colliding into Pembertonβs regular hesher/rocker/construction worker vibe.β
Comprised of Ben and his brother Justin Davies, John Coleman, Caine Heintzman and Leigh Grant (with youngster Richy Hartl jumping in a few years later), the Dead Prime Ministers definitely kept it rural. They also produced a number of published snowboard photos, but their true legacy was spreading Pembertonβs unique sense of humour and practical jokes into the ballooning snow/skate scene in Whistler.
βI think when you are broke it makes you funny,β Ben explains. βYou need something to fill the time. Plus, a lot of us were working with older people and soaking in maybe more adult humour than kids in the other communities. And the Natives in Mount Currie were a huge influence on everyoneβs life. Their sense of humour on the Rez is so awesome and different. Very deadpan and patient. It added to the bouquet of humour in the high school.
βThere were no real gangs,β Ben continues. βBut there were crews you would ride with. Except the ski kids from Whistler that had way nicer carsβ¦ The skiers were too soft to even be considered a crew.β
Random Measurements
The Acre
As mountain towns (aka towns surrounded by mountains), space is at a premium in all the Sea to Sky communities. But Pemberton has the most space, and therefore is the town where larger chunks of land must be measured in acres. But what the heck is an acre anyhow?
βAn acre is 43,560 square feet,β explains Kitt Redhead, a Prairie-girl-turned-ski-guide who made the move up to Pemberton in 2019 to get back to the land. βTraditionally, land was measured with 66-foot chains and an acre was ten square chains. With farming, thereβs also a βsection,β which is 640 acres. Or a βquarterβ is 160 acres. Thatβs how people measure in the Prairiesβby sectionsβbut out here we use acres because the land is less open; itβs a tight mountain valley.β
Kitt and her family run Za Ropa Ranch, raising sheep and hay for their horses as well as Ε arplaninac dogs (βthe greatest working farm dogs in the world,β Kitt says). βAn acre in a perfect square would be 208.7 feet on each side, but I think the advantage of the acre is its versatility,β she says. βIt could be 66 feet by 660 feet, or any other square dimensions that add up to 43,560. An acre can fit into all the weird spaces of nature more easily than, say, a square kilometre.β
My Scariest Moment
Oh Crapβ¦with Brad Knowles
A born-and-raised Pemberton fella, Brad Knowles is best known as βThe Pemberton Fish Finder,β guiding anglers from around the world into the lakes, rivers and streams he grew up with. But it was a day off, fishing with his then-girlfriend Taya on Duffey Lake, when Brad looked true fear in the eye.
βIt was a beauty day and we had the boat out on Duffey Lakeβcatching fish, enjoying the viewsβuntil I realized I needed to take a crap. This is back when there was still an old cabin at the end of the lake, and I knew there was an outhouse there so we motored over and I headed up the trail.
βIt was a decent outhouse, a bit hippie-ish with a half-moon shape cut in the door and a couple stars. Iβm doing my business and suddenly I hear this crunch outside and deep, heavy breathing and all I see through the moon-shaped hole is golden hair going by. A huge grizzly passed within two feet of the door. And that moon is shoulder-height, at least if youβre standing up straight.
Iβm doing my business and suddenly I hear this crunch outside and deep, heavy breathing and all I see through the moon-shaped hole is golden hair going by.
βRight away I was worried about my girlfriend, who is like 50 feet away and I donβt know if sheβs on the boat or on the dock or where she is. So I shout out as loud as I can, βHey Tay, be careful, thereβs a huge grizzly up here!β Then I just sit there listening.
βNo kidding, not 10 or 15 seconds later here comes Tay up the trail, saying, βI got the toilet paper, Babe.β She had heard me but she hadnβt heard meβshe thought I was calling for toilet paper! So I pull her into the shitter with me. We waited, then just made a mad dash for the boat. Fastest Iβve ever run in my life I bet. Getting attacked by wolves up by Meager Creek was a scary day, too, but I think that day on the Duffey was the only time Iβve literally had the crap scared out of me.β
Ben Davies from the DPM says: βOne of my scariest moments in the old Pemby Secondary was walking past the bathroom when Brad Knowles was in there taking a dump, so I feel for that grizzβ¦ β
Perfect Day
Tatumβs Home on the RangeΒ
Tatum Monod is a professional big mountain skier, an ace fly fisher, a hunter and a lover of baking pies. Sheβs called Pemberton home since 2015, but as an Alberta girl born into a family of guides and national team skiers, Tatumβs first love was riding horses. As she grew up and began skiing full-time, filming video parts and shredding larger and larger mountains, a move to Pemberton checked all the boxes.Β
βIβve always had this thing,β Tatum says, βIβm drawn to it. Where farming and freeskiing meet. Pemberton has this relaxed, cow-town aesthetic but also some of the most incredible backcountry on earth.β
And despite the increase in mountain folk and Whistler expats moving in, Tatum says Pemby still delivers the mountain adventure and down-home vibes that lured her in the first place. βThereβs so much terrain right at our fingertips, you can explore for the rest of your life. But itβs still sleepy sleep-ville, too. I try to have a dinner party every other week and I am the only one who shows up.β
It snowed a foot, whatβs the plan? I know a place thatβs close where we get this beautiful long vista of all the farmland and Mount Currie with all the great skiing you could ever dream of. But first, I love hitting Alβs shop for oil and partsβgrabbing whatever we need for the day. Arrive at the spot just before 8 a.m., maybe 7:30 to be safe. Unload the sled and take in that early morning excitement when you know everyone. Usually someoneβs truck gets stuck so thatβs always fun.
βThen everyoneβs machine fires up and the energy escalates for the climb up into all this terrain that I still canβt believe is in our backyard. Depending on the day and the snow, we may stay in the trees and check the stability later for a possible punch into the alpine. Thatβs the beauty of Pemby though, it doesnβt have to be extreme. You can do fun road laps, noboard laps, or tour up high if you want. Itβs all accessible, but also I love doing hippy turns in the trees here all day long.Β
βAs the day winds down Iβll probably try to get my sled stuck somewhere, because sledding is so fun. Then watch the sun set over the valley, reminiscing about the day with my friends and neighbours before trying to take shortcuts down the road without hitting trees. Itβs a tailgate party at the parking lot while we wait for all the crews to get down safely, then a short drive and youβre home in time to go to bed earlyβ¦βCause weβre gonna poke out to Bralorne tomorrow for more of the same.
βFeet Banks
Climate
Apocalypse Often
More than a couple Hollywood films have chosen Pemberton as the backdrop for their end-of-days stories (The Last Winter, Sheltered, The X-Files movie) but the truth is not much stranger than fictionβPemby is used to natural disasters.
On paper, the autumn floods of 2003 were the largest on record. After an already wet week and a half, October 15Β to 20 saw enough rainfall to force Pemberton measurement gauges offline, essentially drowning them out midway through the storm. Rainfall estimates those days were as high as 20 mm/h. But it was another huge deluge of water in 1984 that stands as the communityβs worst disaster for property damage. With nationwide newscasts reporting on the event, then-mayor Shirley Henry was able to go to the provincial government to fund further investment in diking. (Originally, river-straightening and diking began after a large flood in 1941.)Β
Floodsβthe ones caused by rain and snowmeltβare only half the story of impending doom. The other lurking catastrophic event is QαΊelqαΊelΓΊsten/Mount Meager. In 2010, a βlarge catastrophic debris avalancheβ brought an estimated 45 million cubic metres of mountain down to block Meager Creek, wash out bridges and roads and erase access to some of the most accessible hot springs in the Sea to Sky. (Somehow, theyβre still pretty busy, though.) It was one of the largest landslides in Canadian history and made a seismic impression as far away as Alaska and Washington State.
The QαΊelqαΊelΓΊsten/Mount Meager massif remains capable of producing a range of major volcanic hazards including what some experts call βhighly explosive eruptions.β In a worst-case scenario, violent debris-flow βlaharsβ could flow all the way to the end of Pemberton Meadows and ash could fill the sky as far away as Williams Lake. But even without an eruption, the threat of another huge landslide due in part to climate change and glacier retreat creates another, perhaps more pressing, hazard.
βIn view of the history of landslides on the massif, including the 2010 landslide, future collapses are certain,β explains a paper from no fewer than 11 top scientists, including Dr. Glyn Williams-Jones, professor and chair at the Department of Earth Sciences at Simon Fraser University and the co-director of the Centre for Natural Hazards Research. The paper continues: βOf the 27 slopes with signs of instability that we identified, nine slopes have been recently deglaciated and eight are at elevations where permafrost degradation is likely to be happening. Glacier retreat and permafrost thaw could destabilize these slopes. Meltwater from snow and ice can infiltrate slopes and increase pore water pressures, conditioning them for catastrophic collapse, as happened at Mt. Meager in 2010.β
βGlacier retreat and permafrost thaw could destabilize these slopes.β
If another massive landslide (or volcanic debris) came down and blocked the Lillooet River, water could potentially build into a giant lake. Should that blockage suddenly dislodge (as it did in 2010), all that water would come rushing into the Pemberton Valley and wreak all kinds of havoc. No bueno either way.
The last major environmental threat to Pemberton is the same as pretty much any other community in the province: wildfire. In his 2023 book Fire Weather, author John Valliant explains how decades of increasingly warmer and drier summers are creating βfire stormsβ unlike anything Canadians have experienced before. βDonβt think of this as the hottest summer in the last 100 years,β Valliant said during a reading at the Whistler Writers Festival. βThink of it as the coolest in the next hundred.β Welcome to the βPyroceneβ era.
But donβt worry, Pemberton, Squamish has all those doomsday scenarios and more to contend with. You might want to build a wall.
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