|
Dear SME Friend,
This winter Selkirk Mountain Experience (SME) is celebrating its twentieth ski-season. During all these years SME guided 52000 skier/days in the pristine
alpine and the champagne powder at Durrand Glacier and around the world. Further this coming year will be my thirtieth year working as a guide in summer and
winter. During all these years I have guided 5600 days of ski-mountaineering and 2000 days of summer mountaineering and climbing. This includes the pioneering of
8 major ski-traverses in the high alpine and over 130 first ascents in the Alps and the Canadian Selkirk Mountains. This adds up to 50,000,000 vertical feet (up
& down) of guiding guests on ski-mountaineering trips. But these are only numbers. What is for me far more meaningful is that every day when I can stand on
a peak with a guest or enjoy lunch at the bottom of a powder filled tree run it is again and again the best day in my life. It is these experiences and adventures
that create a rich life of a mountain guide filled with the many guests who over time become friends.
When I started SME, twenty years ago, I was truly scared. It was a huge financial commitment - could I fill this chalet? Would ski-tourers appreciate the quality
of the terrain and the lodge? It was an even bigger personal commitment - would I be content to do most of my guiding in the same area of eighty square kilometers,
shaped by 25 outstanding peaks, 14 large glaciers and deep valleys with forested side slopes?
Over the years I learned lots about the many sides of the Durrand Glacier area and about myself. Exploring unlimited terrain and learning about the many
characteristics and challenges of the area. I feel as though, in these 20 years, the Durrand Glacier area has become part of who I am. Each year I need the
Durrand Glacier area more, each year it grows closer to my heart. The Durrand Glacier area gives me energy and enthusiasm. I continue to explore the unlimited
secrets left to be discovered, and I continue to enjoy sharing this mountain paradise with my guests. Guests often ask me for how much longer I can guide at the
level I enjoy doing it: "I have plans to be that old Swiss Guide up there, still ripping up all these great tours and telling good stories, the only change might
be that the tours will become shorter and the stories longer."
SME started with a very small budget and a small hut, placed on a scenic knoll above tree-line near the Durrand Glacier. In 1988 I built a second hut, the Mt.
Moloch Chalet, placed on a rock out-cropping amidst the most impressive alpine bowl surrounded by huge side-slopes, striking peaks, granite faces and the many
wild glaciers. Over the years both huts received additions and refinements and have been transformed into high quality mountain chalets with private rooms,
electricity and plumbing. They allow us to offer the highest standard of hut-based and hut-to-hut skiing.
My dedication towards the search for higher goals is not limited to guiding only. Technology is as interesting to me. The large and complex water-system, the
hydro-electric system powering the Durrand Glacier Chalet and the radio and satellite communication systems, all of these are continually improved as the
technology becomes available. Avalanche and snow-safety is our most important program to support all winter-guiding. Our comprehensive avalanche and snow study
program and the electronic weather station at Durrand Glacier have to exceed any expected standards. Further, observing and recording the behavior of the various
slopes, changes of glacial crevasses and the flow of glaciers always has been a large focus of my presence at Durrand Glacier. It always has been and always will
be my personal interest and ambition to explore new and better ways to understand the complex phenomena of avalanche and snow-safety. All this is not just a must,
more than that it is absolutely interesting work. It is an interesting and challenging trail leading into infinity, there is no end and no absolute answer. We
can only work hard to understand the maximum possible. That is called working with and accepting the wild elements of nature.
Over the many years in the past, SME was committed to strong and enthusiastic skiers who can ski over 5500 vertical feet per day. In recognition of our loyal
guests who are now 20 years older than when they started skiing with us and those guests who would like to enjoy the mountains at a more relaxed pace we are now
offering, in addition to the more endurance ski-touring weeks, some exclusive weeks with a more leisurely pace where guests ski a minimum of 4000 vertical feet
but a maximum of 5000 vertical feet. I am looking forward to this new and more "user friendly" program. This program we named Relaxed Pace SME Ski-Weeks. The
old standard program which exceeds 5500 vertical feet per day we named Classic SME Ski-Weeks.
With this letter I would like to express my sincere thank you to our staff for the loyal energy and quality work they always dedicate to SME. This mostly
addresses Paula our office manager and client coordinator, Kim and Ayako our gourmet kitchen chefs and Rochus and David our excellent lead guides. Our biggest
thank you, though, goes to all the guests who have skied, climbed and hiked with us over the past twenty years. A large number of them have well over 15
weeks with us and many of them exceeded well over 20 weeks. When I look at such numbers I feel honoured by the loyalty and friendship of all these guests. A
large supporter of SME for many is also Marmot for life. Their support towards SME has over many years helped us in many different ways.
My biggest pride, though, is the love for the mountains that has become part of our children's (Charlotte and Florina) lives. While cleaning up files in my
computer I found a file called "Paragraph #3 by Charlotte (11 years old at the time)". I think it sums up what we all feel about ski touring at the Durrand
Glacier:
"My ski to Woolsey peak is full of adventure. The sight is so beautiful the mountains, trees and shiny snow all around us. Great big tall peaks full of snow,
glistening like pixies dancing in the wind. The snow is falling off the trees like angels coming to greet us. The loud sounds of avalanches, across the valley,
are like bears roaring to be let out of their cage. Soft wind is bristling through my hair. Beautiful smells of fresh air, breathing it as if it is a single rose.
The tall trees smell like fresh honey. Rich tastes of hot chocolate on the summit with biscuits and sandwiches." Charlotte
I am looking forward to be together with you in the high mountains, for many years to come. Maybe in the West Alp's Haute Route or the 4000 meter ski-peaks of
Zermatt and Chamonix, but for sure at Durrand Glacier in the heart of the Northern Selkirk Mountains.
Yours truly
Ruedi Beglinger
U.I.A.G.M. / A.C.M.G. Mountain Guide
Head Guide SME
| 
