The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, October 16, 1996 - BS TERRACE-STANDARD aC MR Sones : £ } € t DAVE TAYLOR KEENA ANGLER - ROB BROWN Fish out of water na recent trip to the Kispiox River I pulled onto the road leading to the fabled Potato Patch, as I always do when I visit the valley. The Patch is actually four runs: the Upper Upper, which lies at the foot of Bob Clay’s property; the Upper, a SPORTS 638-7283 Mountain gets thumbs up “Fifty-one feet of snow a year is more than enough to sustain such a (mythical) status, but the terrair rocks as well, You cart believe everything you hear or read about it” -Powder- THE MOUNTAIN sounds like a skicr’s paradise. Powder magazine de- scribes endless drifts of champagne powder, huge bowls, and 3000 feet of vertical, Is it Whistler\Blackcomb the premicre ski mag is talk- ing about? Or perhaps some trendy European getaway? Nope, they're — talking about something some lo- cals have known about for very productive piece of steelhead water, identi- many ye ars. . ' fiable by the island sitting in the middle of it; cm nes talking about the Middle which lies under the shade of giant cotton wood; and, after a short riffle that spills into the pocket where Karl Mauser killed his warld record steelhead, there is the Lower Patch. The Lower is a long sweeping mun with a high steep bank on river left. From the top of this bench, a hundred feet above the river, one can find out the height and clarity of the river at a glance, and often spot steelhead hovering over the stones in the expansive tail. This day, two Germans were standing in my favourite view- point. As I walked down the road looking for another vantage point, a familtar-looking figure came up the road. I stopped. He came closer, As he did, his name came to me. “You're...you’re.. ub...”? ‘Yes I am,’’ I assured him. Brown.” J extended a hand, ... It was David Lambroughion. I’d met him twa years ago on the Dean where, between photog- raphs and vigorous, amiable conversation he managed to slip a hot pink Girdle Bug into my glass of scotch with a deft sweep of his hand, David is a professional fisherman who spends most of the year zipping from fishing Shangri- La to fishing Shangri-La, recording his exploits on film for “Fishing Dreams’? the 16 month calendar, he sells to fund his angling peregrina- tions. Dave had brought a steelhead he put at 25 pounds to the beach that morning. “Tt didn’t fight that much,’’ he complained, “Pete Broomhall,”’ I said, ‘‘calls the Kispiox “T’m Rob Yup, our local ski hill, which most of us take for granted, is the subject of a feature article that describes it with such awe and wonder that you'd think we had heaven right on our door- step. And to skiers, we do. Shames gets about 51 feet of snow every year — more than any other ski hill in North America. The terrain is steep, the snow deep, and it’s all accessible by a chair- lift and a short hike. The mountain has always been a bit of a legend in ski circles. But since Powder has a circulation of 200,000 and an average readership of four people per copy, more than three quarters of a mil- lion people now know the stories are true —- somie- thing that pleases Shames’ manager, Tim Mellon. “That's awesome,'’ Mel- lon says of the article. ‘It’s definitely a big hit for the destination people.” Mellon concedes that the exposure probably won't He BACK COUNTRY skiing on Shames Mountain is some of the best anywhere, 7 That's Wendy Shymanek checking out the-hill's famous deep powder. {photo courtesy Wendy Shymanski and Rod Gee) ‘