Lisa Korthals was known for inspiring others, and now, even two years after her passing, continues to do so.
During the inaugural edition of the Raven Backcountry Festival in Pemberton on Feb. 7 and 8, organizers collected roughly $16,000 for the bursary, which helps women aspiring to start their mechanized, ski-guiding careers. The total amount raised was announced on March 28, the two-year anniversary of Korthals' death in an avalanche while guiding near Pemberton.
Vlad Lamoureux of the Canadian Ski Guide Association (CSGA), who organized the GoFundMe for the bursary starting in 2018, said the festival's decision to support the cause says volumes about the type of person Korthals was.
"It really highlights the effect that Lisa had on people's lives. For those people to do all that work to get the Raven Backcountry Festival up and moving, and follow through with it, and then they decide to donate the money to the fund, it's just a testament to how important Lisa was in people's lives," he said.
Lamoureux said the donation goes a long way to help the fund reach its $50,000 goal. As of April 3, the GoFundMe had raised $21,671 on its own.
"It's going to ensure the viability of this bursary for a long time," he said. "We don't want it to be a flash in the pan. We don't want it to be three years, four years and then done."
Lamoureux explained the selection committee looks for applicants embodying Korthals' "adventurous mountain spirit," as well as someone who supports others in the outdoors. The first recipient, announced in 2019, was Jessica Roy of Nelson's Baldface Lodge. Applications for this past season were due on April 1.
"We're hoping to find somebody annually, but we don't want to willy-nilly toss it. We want to make sure somebody is worthy and not just worthy, but is going to continue their career as a ski guide through the CSGA," he said.
Lamoureux added that, on the flip side, if two worthy candidates applied and there was money to support both, multiple bursaries would be awarded.
Lamoureux said that he and his fellow ski guides notice Korthals' absence constantly.
"It seems like it's been longer [than two years]. We miss her every day," he said. "She's still in the forefront of our minds."
Co-organizer and Tourism Pemberton director Andy Meeker was thrilled with the festival's success, noting the festival raised more money for the bursary than it anticipated.
The kick-off welcome social with presenters Kye Petersen, Tatum Monod, Wayne Flann, Eric Pehota, Blake Jorgenson, Heather Geluk and Daryl Treadway sold all 110 tickets, while the second night's après had just a handful of tickets remaining. Half of the 16 backcountry clinics offered, meanwhile, also filled up.
"Our goal was to sell out and we pretty much hit all of our expectation marks for not 100-per-cent knowing what we were going to be at the end of the day," said Meeker, a pilot with Blackcomb Helicopters. "We were very pleasantly surprised and happy with the turnout that we did have for the inaugural year."
Meeker said the festival tried to appeal to as many outdoor enthusiasts as possible as it offered backcountry skiing, splitboarding, ski touring, crevasse rescue, snowmobile skills, and skiing by both helicopter or sled to a variety of ability levels. As well, four sessions were offered specifically for women: intro to backcountry skiing; a heli-assisted backcountry day; and beginner or intermediate snowmobile skills.
"We wanted to make sure that we were offering a wide variety of options and a larger audience to take part, not just having generic backcountry or advanced backcountry. We wanted to branch out and do some things that maybe hadn't been done before," he said. "The ones we picked out that were more skill- and gender-specific definitely had the largest numbers."
Meeker said the bulk of clients came from the Sea to Sky corridor with numbers filled out from Vancouver and the Fraser Valley.
What differentiated the Raven Backcountry Festival from others on offer, he added, was the keen focus on supporting as many local businesses and the opportunity to focus on the Pemberton area.
"It's a great platform that we've found as a local tourist-based operation to motivate people and show people what is going on out there," said Meeker, adding that plans are in the works to bring the festival back in 2021. "There's nothing too big or too small that people can't achieve when there's something important steering the ship."
