MOUNTAIN LIFE - Blue Mountains | Winter 2019

82 ML BLUE WINTER 2019 Today is our last day and Enn has created this final mission as a showcase to what is possible with exploration and good old-fashioned elbow grease. Lots and lots of elbow grease. We drove an hour north of Enn’s place where the snow only got deeper. Then we hopped on, or got towed behind sleds, ten kilometres up a logging road to this place. A mountain that Enn requested us not to name (as if normal people would ever put in this much work to ski). Standing atop the couloir this feels like an expedition; we started the mission before first light and we’ll be lucky to get back to the highway before dark. We abandoned the 1984 Ski-Doo Cheyenne about eight kilometres in when she died. We haven’t figured out how we’re getting out of here yet, but as our co-guide Alan Fici likes to say, “function in disaster, finish in style.” But those details don’t matter; this run is the culmination of an entire week’s worth of skiing. Dropping into the couloir is sketchy at best, as we bounce over our zig-zagging uptrack, but as soon as we’re past the uptrack, we find what we’ve come for: unadulterated pow that’s as forgiving as a frothy bubble bath. It’s pure bliss. We bounce down the slope linking one turn with the next and laughing at the perfection of it all. After I finish my run I look up to see Enn dropping in. At 65, the guy is a freaking workhorse. And seeing him come down in the waist-deep powder, linking one beautiful telemark turn after another, I get chills of inspiration. This is it; this is what Enn lives for. His turns, the snow, this day are all laced with perfection. And if I can ski half as well at his age, I’ll consider this a life well-lived. There’s no way around it, the drive to Sault Ste. Marie is an epic one. But with friends like Enn, a guy who will find you the deepest possible turns in the province, it’s worth every minute of white-knuckle driving up the Trans-Canada Highway. It’s a drive I will be making again. ASAP. DIY bellevuevalleylodge.ca, searchmont.com, algomacountry.com The enigmatic Enn Poldmaa.