The Snowboarder's Journal - frequency 17.2
A HOLE IN THE GROUND: Building Snowboard Culture in the Northwest Territories
Words: Ben Shanks Kindlon 2019-10-21 18:53:45
Yellowknife, the capital city of Canada’s Northwest Territories, sits roughly 250 miles south of the Arctic Circle. With a population of about 20,000 folks, Yellowknife isn’t just the province’s capital city, it’s the Northwest Territories’ only city. It’s also home to the expansively flat province’s only lift-serviced snowboard park: Bristol Pit. With a peak elevation of just 80 feet and winter temps consistently in the minus 20s Fahrenheit, the pit isn’t exactly a major destination. But through countless hours of demanding work, local volunteers are utilizing the pit to fuel an emerging snowboard scene nearly 1,000 miles from the next closest ski lift.
For years, Yellowknife’s Bristol Pit sat fenced off and relatively unused. In the 1990s the once-active gravel pit was deemed a disruptive burden to the residential dwellings popping up around it, forcing a halt to its commercial operations. Sledders and shredders alike would ignore “No Trespassing” signs and hop the surrounding fence to slide the pit before it was eventually opened for the public’s enjoyment in the early 2000s. Snowboarders started setting up jumps and makeshift jibs on the hill. In 2008 the pit was used for the Arctic Winter Games, and territorial trials for the games took place there for several years. Without a lift, riders were shuttled to the top by snowmobiles or hiked. Then, in 2014, the Matthews family decided to take things a bit further.
“I’ve got to give the credit to my dad, who had the idea of creating a little snowboard park at Bristol pit,” says Andrew Matthews, Yellowknife’s hometown snowboard hero. Andrew spent his childhood years building jumps at the pit and in backyards around Yellowknife before leaving the city for mountains and later pursuing a career as a pro rider, competing internationally in World Cups and FIS championships. After seeing the impact snowboarding had on his son, Andrew’s father, Steve, made it his mission to provide the kids in Yellowknife with a proper place to ride. “He had to go through a whole bunch of red tape and regulations because he put in the very first official lift in the Northwest Territories,” Andrew says.
The following year, the Northwest Territories Snowboard Association won $75,000 via Yellowknife’s “Super Bingo,” an annual event that allots funds to local organizations benefitting the community. “We were able to get a bunch of equipment like rental snowboards, a grooming machine, a snowmobile, a new clubhouse,” Andrew says. “We got legit boxes and rails made and shipped up. Overnight we went from this hole in the ground to having a whole little facility there.”
Andrew used his experience to jump-start instructional programs at Bristol Pit, and in 2016 and the NWT Snowboard Association launched the nonprofit Ragged Riders program. By 2017 it was a formal club, seeing dozens of riders visit the hill weekly, and more than 60 turned up for the 2018 World Snow Day celebration—many of whom were first time snowboarders.
“It was super-rewarding being able to give back to the community in such a real way, such an amazing way for things to come full circle,” Andrew says. “I moved to BC, so I passed the torch on. All the people on the board now are putting in tons of hours volunteering, essentially running a mini-business, and they’re not even getting paid for it.”
Ragged Riders’ board members handle everything from manually reallocating snow with scoop-shovels all winter long to facilitating three group lessons per week, maintaining the terrain park and putting on events like the fledgling Flannel N’ Ride Banked Slalom and Sendy Wednesdays jump sessions.
“We’re legit building a culture here,” says Max Rousseau, president of Ragged Riders. “We’re never gonna have cliffs, we’re never gonna have big steep lines, but we’ll pump out some park rats one of these days. That’s the goal. We’ve gotta use what we’ve got. It’s all for the kids. Well, and us big kids too.”
Photo Caption: Joel Dragon-Smith. Photo: Kevin Klingbeil
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