Merry Christmas Everyone! Hope you enjoy the holidays and, above all, wish you a Healthy and Happy New Year!
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| December Edition of Ski Canada mag |
If you can't get out on the snow this Christmas, then reading Ski Canada magazine will definitely cheer you up. Also, the retrospective over 50 years will spark magical mountain memories of your own and the photos will definitely make you chuckle!
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| Ski Canada goes back in time |
It's made me think of the assignments I have had for this iconic magazine that, as the market leader in Canada, has managed to survive and to thrive during digitalization, the decline of the print industry and, more recently, the pandemic.
First there was The British Invasion, an article about the Banff SkiBig 3 area in Alberta - an appropriate assignment since I'm a Brit myself and had moved over to Canada in 1999 in order to ski more and bring the kids up in the mountains. The next ten years were spent skiing from my Canmore base at Sunshine, Mt Norquay and Lake Louise every weekend and holiday from November through May. During that decade I worked for the Calgary Sun as writer for their Snowscene section for three years and freelanced for the Calgary Herald, Globe & Mail, and many other publications, writing hundreds of stories about skiing, ski tourism, and general travel.
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| The British Invasion 2014 |
The funny part about this Ski Canada mag assignment was that I had sent in the pitch a few years before while still living in Alberta and heard nothing back until one day in summer 2013 I was sunbathing by my swimming pool in South Carolina and I got a call from the Ski Canada editor, Iain MacMillan. I almost leapt out of my bikini when I heard who it was. After talking skiing, incongruously in the plus 30 temp, I had a deadline of just a week to research and write the article. Putting down the phone, I danced in delight for a while and then started work using almost all of the 168 hours to the deadline. You can read the results here: https://skicanadamag.com/british-invasion/
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| Alchemy of Ride - article in Ski Canada magazine in Fall 2018 issue As a firm advocate of Lynne Harrison's art - especially emblazoned head-to-toe on a ski suit - I was delighted to be able to write about her ski wear for Ski Canada. Having discovered Lynne was showcasing her new ski brand, Alchemy of Ride, in her Canmore studio the previous Boxing Day, I had been pitching the article to all the top ski mags for months. I only went in to her studio shop to buy birthday cards and I came out with a full ski suit and a determination to get her gear on the mountain map. Since then, wherever I ski I have people come up to me and ask where I got my ski suit - and, at Sun Peaks where I am currently living for the winter, I cannot ski without dozens of people greeting me. Wearing AOR is a calling card, an invitation to socialize - you will make many new friends in the liftline, on the slopes and in the après ski bar. |
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| Article about Epic Pass and Ikon Pass in 2019 Buyer's Guide edition of Ski Canada Mag |
Because of my double life skiing both the US and Canada - and my insane persistence in sending in pitches to Iain MacMillan - I finally got another plum assignment for Ski Canada mag: writing about the perplexing pass permutations of both Epic and Ikon. This might also have taken me 168 hours to finesse since the situation was changing on a weekly basis with the titans of the North American ski industry vying to outdo each other with better deals.
My next assignment for Ski Canada mag was to write a Short Turn about Kicking Horse and Purcell Heliskiing for the 2020 Buyers Guide issue. Just a shortie, but a coup to get another article in what is to me the pinnacle of ski journalism in Canada.
I was, of course, all this time still skiing in Canada regularly (as well as the US where I was based), writing freelance for a wide range of magazines, newspaper ski sections, websites and my own ski blog.
Kicking Horse was always on my ski safari schedule when I would combine skiing at the SkiBig 3 resorts in Alberta with a trek around British Columbia, also visiting Sun Peaks, Silver Star, Big White, Whistler, Revelstoke, Kimberley, Fernie, and Panorama.
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| Most recent article in current December 2021 issue (I hope!) |
Pitching Iain MacMillan from Portugal (where I now live for two-thirds of the year) this summer, I was desperate to get back to Sun Peaks after a COVID absence the previous season. And just as desperate to get another story in Ski Canada mag!! I got both my wishes - for which I am eternally grateful - and I believe this article entitled The Expat Diaries is in the current issue. Trouble is I haven't been able to lay my hand on a copy so I haven't seen whether it made the cut!! I also have a Short Turn piece about home swaps in ski resorts going in the February issue.
Here's a video from December 15, skiing first tracks on fresh pow on Grand Return at Sun Peaks:
I already have my next big assignment for Ski Canada magazine for publication next season but I'm keeping that one under my helmet for a while!
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| Merry Christmas from my winter home, Sun Peaks Resort |
You can find more of my ski journalism here: https://louisehudson.contently.com/ and find out about my published books here: https://www.amazon.com/Louise-Hudson/e/B00IFDPW20
