Ski & Snow Magazine

our beautiful
backyard
Words by Janina Kuzma
Let's rewind to early 2020, when flying
internationally was a regular part of my
skiing life. I boarded a flight to the capital
of Indonesia, Jakarta, to meet with the
Indonesian Government, Minister of
Tourism, to propose a project to get funding
for a film project that was in the works to ski
the last remaining tropical glacier in West
Papua. I then flew back to Canada for a
couple of weeks to shoot some ski photos
before boarding a plane back home to NZ to
complete my Snow and Ice Training Course
(Part of the NZMGA ski guide pathway).
After ten days, I once again boarded a plane
back to my base in Canada to finish the
Northern Hemisphere winter.
During this time, I must say I was pretty
naive about COVID and thought nothing of
it. Though I do remember arriving back in
NZ for the SIG course, there was a separate
line through immigration for people arriving
from China due to COVID and thought that
coming home going through immigration
was taking longer than usual. Who would
have thought six weeks later, the whole
world would come to a standstill.
The lockdowns happened sooner in
Canada. RCR Ski Resorts closed on the
16th of March. The day before Sunday
the 15th, we had the most epic day skiing
powder, had made plans to meet up with
friends the following day, only to receive an
email just after midnight that the mountain
would shut for the next week. Receiving
this email was a massive shock as it was
without warning (the ski hill would shut for
the remainder of the season due to COVID).
Things moved fast in BC with COVID fears.
Schools closed down immediately, and bars
and restaurants closed down. Still naive
with the whole situation and not wanting
my season to come to an end so abruptly
left us with only the choice to ski tour. We
only got in one week of ski touring before
the BC government closed down National
Parks, and restrictions were put in place
Exploring terrain around Muller Hut - Monika Bischof
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