Tell me about your first contact with skiing. When did you guys started to ski together?
Philippe Charest
I think that I started skiing when I was around the age of four. Skiing is a family thing for me, my parents would drive eight hours every weekend to allow us to ski. I remember that my mom would bring chicken sandwiches and mini bags of chips for lunch, we would eat that on our camping chairs, sun in the face.
Gabriel Lamar
I learned to ski at a resort nearby my home when I was three years old. Every winter, we would rent à cabin near Phil’s for a week to ski together. We ended up buying our own cabin right next to them and became ski neighbours. We’ve been skiing together since we were kids, he’s my partner in addition to being my cousin.
What were you doing before coming here, in British Columbia?
Phil
I was on Guru’s marketing team while finishing my studies at the university. When I finished my BAC, I decided to leave Quebec to explore Canada, I wanted to get out of my comfort zone.
Gab
I also finished my BAC in mechanical engineering recently. My plan was to take one year off and travel the world. I had the time to see Nepal and a good part of Asia before I was repatriated to Canada because of everything happening right now. I had no other choice than do a 180 and move on to another plan. That is when Phil and I had the idea to venture off West in a RV to go find
What did you improve on your RV and how much time did you spend on it?
Gab
We invested a lot of time in this project since the van was not in perfect shape when we bought it. We renovated the whole interior, isolated the walls and we had to send it to a mechanical for some repairs. It took five months to get the RV in the shape it is today. We have learned a lot while working on John. Thanks to my dad who was there to help us and teach us, it would have been impossible without him! Thanks Michel.
Why did you decide to come and settle down in Revelstoke?
Gab
At first, our plan was to be nomadic and always on the move. We wanted to ski as many resorts and mountains as possible in one season. With Covid, it was a better idea to stay in one place and minimise our travels. We decided to settle here, we are now locals! A lot of people say that Revelstoke is the Western Sutton and we have skied all our lives in Sutton, they convinced us!
What is your ski routine?
Phil
We will usually ski three days at the resort and three days on a mountain somewhere with our touring equipment, depending on the snow forecast. If there is a lot of snow, we will choose the resort and make as many laps as we can to enjoy fresh powder. If there is less snow, we will drive a bit to find some. We allow ourselves one day per week to recharge our batteries.
Why did you decide to start backcountry skiing?
Gab
Touring skiing is a fun gang activity where you can also exercise and enjoy the reward after. It allows us to discover a lot of places that would be inaccessible with a chair lift. There are a lot of good vibe
What does a typical day in the life of two winter Vanlifers look like?
Gab
We tend to wake up early, around seven in the morning. Our classic breakfast is a great breakfast sandwich! On resort days when the forecast is good, we sleep in the parking lot to be the first in line and on touring days, we get up around five to be as early as possible on the road to our challenge of the day. Otherwise we play ping pong and chess.
Phil
At night, we take time to relax, we turn up the heater and we cook a good meal. For what is left of the night, we often watch series that we downloaded beforehand or we read. We have a lot of books in the RV, our own small library. A fun thing about winter vanlife is that we can follow the sunlight and get to bed pretty early. We never felt as rested as we are right now even though we ski six days a week.
Before we left, a friend who had done the exact same trip looked me in the eyes dead serious and told me ‘’You will see, you are gonna be miserable and you are going to freeze all winter long.’’ So Gab and I naturally mentally prepared ourselves for the worst season of our lives. Turns out that we are not cold at all, we eat well and ski everyday, what more could we ask for?
What advice would you give to people who would like to begin backcountry skiing?
Phil
My humble advice would be to not take this lightly, Sometimes you end up in places that can be dangerous and it is very important to know what you are doing. You have to make informed decisions depending on the forecast, avalanche risks, people who are with you and the location that you are exploring. We took safety courses in avalanche terrain and we want to push it further to collect the more tools and knowledge possible so that we are always in control. We do not hesitate to ask experienced people when we have questions, communication is key in sports like this one
What inconveniences have you encountered during your trip because of Covid-19 and what measures do you take to stay safe?
Gab
It was really important to us to respect rules wherever we were going. We knew that British Columbia was closed to non essential travellers and our intentions were to come and settle down here. So we did our quarantine on the road and we finished it here, our camper is almost self-sufficient. We wear our masks, we sanitize and we practice social distancing, it is the minimum we can do.
What are your short, medium and long term plans?
Phil
Our main goal would be to finish the ski season with at least 40 ski days behind us. After that, we will see what our budget allows us to do and if we stay together. We might end up finding seasonal jobs to bring some money to extend the trip. For the long term, we gave ourselves until September before going back to Quebec. In the meantime, I guess that we will explore the rest of Canada depending on what is happening with Covid.
Gab
The rest is really undetermined, we would probably like to return to Quebec and find a job, who knows, maybe continue traveling. We are open to whatever comes our way, we are opening doors for our future. We are free as the air and can't wait to see what the future holds.