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)

‘<a vast acreage of the continent’s deepest powder, sweetest open bowl lines, and killer trees...””

~Pawder-

cial,’’ he says. ‘It's more important in the long mn than the short term.”

And who could blameé them? Powder claims that only about two dozen people frequent Shames’ beautiful back country. That means a jot of open space and a Jot of virgin powder to play with.

But purists needn’t worry. Mellon says that there aren't any plans for expansion in the near future. And the lack on-mountain accommoda- tion and Shames’ distance

just ying to get everything ready to open the mountain for the winter. He says everything will be pretty tauch business as usual for his first season as manager, so he can get a feel for the place.

One of the things Mellon hopes ta have set up this year is a snowboard pazk.

‘what may be the

He says it’s an important part of the growing sport

“We've been getting lots of input from local board- en,’’ he says, “Right now, we're looking at having a half or a quarter pipe and | some table tops.’

Mellon emphasizes that’ the park will be a safe and— controlled environment, in an area that is easily acccs- sible,

Of course, none of that

the home of the world’s largest and laziest steel- bring thousands of skiers lo Mellon also says that there from a major population finest natural lift- matters unless the snow head.” | then ventured a theory about water his mountain, but he says a are some skiers who would centre mean that it’s unlike- served ftree-skiing in flies, Luckily, at Shames depth, temperature and their effect on fish bes few extra people is better rather the secret no getout, ly we’ll have hordes of Jap- i all of Canada...” that’s rarely a problem.

haviour than none. “Some like it just the way anese and American tourists -Powder- Mellon says he’s shooting

After we'd parted I realized David would probably be staying at Bob Clay’s, I tumed the car around, caught up to him and offered him a ride, which he accepted gladly. When we got to Bob's he insisted on paying me with two Elk Hair Skaters and the 1997 edition of ‘Fishing Dreams’’.

When I got home that nightI flipped thorough the calendar. Above January, David stands in a New Zealand river whose water is as green and clean as water can be. Over February, a beam- ing fishing guide holds up a magnificent specimen of a rainbow trout taken from the Tongariro River. The fisher has bent the tail of the fish downward, which immobilizes fish, but doesn't do them any good,

This tableau, with its stereotypical catch and release pose came back to mind the next day when I received a copy of the Totem Topics, the official organ of the Totem Fly fishers. Coin- cidentally, it contained an excerpt from The At- lantic Salmon Journal titled ‘‘A Litle Fresh Air Never Hurt Anyone — Except a Fish’’.

In it, scientist and angler Bruce Tufts con- ducted laboratory tests to determine the amount of stress inGicted upon a fish when it is haisted from the water for a photo op, or to extract a hook, Tufts’ findings are not encouraging for devotees of catch and release.

Vigorous exercise produces lactic acid in muscle. This acid diffuses into the blood as measurable lactate and acidic protons. Thus, it is possible to get a clear picture of the mag- nitude and length of the disturbance in a fish after it has endured strenuous exercise. Tufts’ experiments compared this disturbance in rain- bow trout, which had been exercised to exhaus- tion, with that of another group of rainbow that were hoisted from the water for 60 seconds after the same period of exercise.

Tufts discovered that the fish exposed to the air experienced devastating stress: 72 per cent died with 12 hours after they were retumed to the water. More importantly, just one minute of alr exposure doubled the physiological dis- turbance of the exercise.

Even those anglers who do not release fish are forced to do so sooner or later since current regulations create a situation where release is unavoidable. Tufts’ conclusions argue strongly that we should release fish without taking them fom the water.

‘They're getting the word out, and awareness is cru-

itis,”’ he says. “They don’t want things to change.’”

descending on our fair town, Right aow, Mellon is busy

Fast times for hal

MORE THAN 150 runners from around the northwest turned out for the 16th an- nual Skeena Valley Half Marathon on October 6th.

Athletes had the choice of running either 5 k, 10 k, or the half marathon — a grucling 21 k.

“We had a great group this year,’? says Sherrie Hamer.

Hamer was one of the organizers of the event and

the first woman to cross the line. She finished her run in a mere 1:39:08, That was a lite more than 20 minutes afer the overall winner, Richard Harrison of Smithers, claimed victory at

1:39:08,

The awesome attendance

_came somewhat as a sur-

prise to organizers, especial- ly when the weather looked

pretty nasty. “We made up 125 T-

shirts,’’ Hamer says. *‘And we ran out well before everyone registered.”

The cool, misty weather actually made for good run- ning conditions and some fast times. Six runners fin- ished the 5 k in under 20 minutes, and several runners commented that the Mat course was relatively easy, and that they could have ran even faster,

The race began and ended

for an opening date of No- vember 27th,

marathon

at the Northwest Com- munity College, and the course wound along the bench — a thread of runners weaving through — the patchwork of Fall colours. The first runner to cross the finish line at 5 k was 30- year-old James Smids of Smithers. Smids battled it out stride-forstride with Bernd Gunderjahn of Rupert and Perry Grinenberg of Telkwa for most of the race.

The three runners finished within 10 seconds of each other. Smids finished at 16:38, with Gunderjahn only three seconds back, and Grunenberg finishing at 16:48,

The first local io finish the 5S k was 42-year-old Gord Buxton, who was fourth overall, and fist in his age group at 17:58.

The first woman to meet the 5 k mark was Beck Shumaker at 20:35, Ter- race’s 32-year-old woman of steel, Cheryl Steele — finished at 21:17. She was followed by Kathleen Dykeman at 23:12 and Jack- ic Minaker at 23:17,

Marilyn Earl was the first woman in the Over 40 ape group to finish, at 26:20.

Tn the 10 k race, it was 27- year-old Chris Stenhof of Smithers winning at an im-; pressive 37:15, followed by an equally impressive 39:05 time by 16-year-old Trevor Day. The first local to finish was Mike Reid, fourth over- all at 42:27 and first in the Over 40 group.

The first woman to finish the 10 k was Vicky Boivin of Prince Rupert, at 48:00. Gall Sheasby of Terrace crossed at 50:38, finishing third = ooverall, The first woman in the Over 40 group to finish was Ter- race’s Chery! Brown — at 52:50, ,