Lefton

 

 

A salute to the Vancouver mountains

   
 

By Matthew Visser

have travelled across this country

for the past three years and have

never gotten bored with seeing
new things and meeting new people.
In fact, sometimes I even go back to
places I have been before just to see
the same amazing places and people
I have made friendships with already.
But I never took for granted what I
have had back home living in PoCo
for 21 years and going back and forth
to Vancouver whenever I felt the need
to.

Whenever I would leave, either
by plane or car, I always had to leave
behind the mountains. And this is
always a sad point in my travels
because I know I am leaving behind
a part of my childhood, a part which
all residents of the Lower Mainland
wake up to in the morning and see
the giants which look over us night
and day. Waking up from my house,
I can look out the back sliding door
and see Burke Mountain and not too
far to the right lays the giant Golden
Ears Mountains which towers above
everything looking up at them. At this
time of the year, when the snow has
come to stay and covers everything in
higher elevation, I see The Ears and
am amazed with what I get to wake
up to every day.

Over the Christmas break I was
lucky enough to have some friends

12

 
   

who lived in the Vancouver area.

During this period I often rode the
sky train, which is a favourite past
time of mine. I know you must be
thinking I am nuts for riding the sky
train and actually enjoying it, but here
is One major reason I love it: the view.
I feel that Vancouverites and other
Lower Mainland residents take the
mountains and the view for granted.
People from all over the world travel
here to see and admire, and we never
truly take the time to appreciate

the mountains we have around us.
Sure, there are the hundreds of
snowboarders and skiers who take the
trip up to the mountain tops to enjoy
the splendours of disposable money
and the other sports which come with
winter. Luckily Mother Nature has
given the local mountains a nice layer
of the white stuff this season and the
snow covered mountains have a view
which is breath taking and majestic on
a level which would bring tears to any
prairie boy’s eye.

As | am sitting in my sky train
seat looking at the mountains, I want
to make the sky train stop and have
everyone in the train cease whatever
it is that they are doing, gaze out at
what they probably just interpret
as an everyday occurrence, and
admire something which should be
appreciated by everyone.

Mt. Baker lies within Washington
State not any further than an hour and

a half drive from my house in PoCo
and on a clear day it graces us with its
presence. When walking along The
Dyke on PoCo, where you can get a
view of all eastern mountain ranges,
this is where someone can get the best
view of the Valley Mountains. This
is what I get to see every day (well,
except on rainy days when the clouds
hover low) and I think of how lucky I
am to see these giants daily.

But as I travelled closer to
Vancouver I was able to see the
Lions and Grouse Mountain, and as
I got even closer I was able to see
Cypress Mountain. As I ventured
my eye sight a little further, I was
able to see mountains which I know
not the name of, but who hold snow
longer and grow higher and deeper
into the Coastal Mountain range.
These mountains hold in them an
adventurers’ dream of climbing and
discovering what they hold on top and

within. These mountains are the ones
which all extreme outdoors people
strive to conquer. Where outback
skiers and snowboarders try and make
names for themselves while gliding
down back country slopes and in-
between trees, over rocks and down
cliffs; the mere thought of it makes
me want to try and learn how to ski
and snowboard.

It is not until this Vancouver boy
left these mountains behind that I
was truly able to admire them and
not take them for granted. The people
of the Lower Mainland live in one
of the most beautifully landscaped
environments in the world. So the
next time you are on the sky train or
going for a drive somewhere, take
a moment to look around you and
where you live; because if you ever
have to leave them like I did, you
won’t know when you will be back to
look at them again.

 

 

 

 

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