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GOLDEN, BC – Like many do these days, I held off attending post secondary for a few years after graduation from high school. I didn’t want to rush into a degree or diploma program that meant nothing more than a paycheck somewhere down the line. I traveled around a bit and had some good times, no rush to jump into a career. I was also in no huge rush to end up in a university or college in a city or big town where I would be just another face in the crowd with teachers who wouldn’t know me from a hole in the wall.
By chance I ended up coming to Golden to visit a friend and check out the downhill mountain biking scene I’d heard so much about. The biking certainly did not disappoint, as the Mt. Seven downhill blew me away and the riders I met were super friendly. I started to like the town of Golden right away. I like laid-back small towns and I love living in the mountains. The town has character and feels more like a real town than other ski towns in Western Canada. But the surrounding area of Golden … is seriously unreal.
Right in the Rocky Mountain trench, the town is flanked on one side by the world famous Rocky Mountains and on the other by the Purcells, with Kicking Horse Mountain Resort right on your doorstep. The Kicking Horse River, which features world-class whitewater rafting, flows into town and merges with the Columbia River. The Columbia River valley is a bird and wildlife sanctuary and home to one of the largest protected wetland areas in North America.
It did not take me long to realize I was in a pretty special place.
 2006/7 ATBO Certificate students on a Swift Water Rescue Certification Course on the Kicking Horse River. Photo courtesy of College of the Rockies |
That first week I visited Golden I decided on a whim to check out the local college. I had heard something about an Adventure Tourism program. The college turned out to be a pretty small building situated on the banks of the Kicking Horse River. I walked in and was greeted by two friendly secretaries, Carol and Gloria, who directed me to the program coordinator at the time, Toran Savjord. He gave me the low down on the program and told me there was one spot left for the Adventure Tourism Business Operations (ATBO) Diploma program, which started in a week.
I was sold. A week later I was officially a resident of Golden and enrolled at the College of the Rockies. Looking back, it was the best decision I ever made, and now, four years later (sounds bad, I know, I’ll explain in a bit), I have just received my diploma.
It is a hard thing to put the experience of the ATBO diploma into words. It is a collective experience amongst the class but also means something different for everyone who takes part. Everyone who signs up comes from different places, backgrounds, and levels of experience. Some people enter with a solid handle on the outdoor components but little academic experience, some come with some academic background but little time in the mountains, on rivers, or on the ocean. Everyone has different levels of skill and different passions, but it was apparent to me right from the word go that everyone was up for anything and stoked to learn new things.
I will never forget from my first year class the two guys from Saskatchewan and Alberta who had never seen an ocean in person before. For our sea kayak trip we headed out to Clayoquot Sound on the west coast of Vancouver Island. As the vans rolled up to Long beach in Tofino the two of them just stared and smiled. The sun was shimmering off the Pacific right before their eyes and soon they were bolting down the beach and diving into the ocean for the first time. I can’t imagine a much better introduction to the ocean than an eight day sea kayak trip through the stunningly beautiful islands in Clayoquot Sound.
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