Twenty one years after snowboarding legend and Nelson resident Craig Kelly perished in an avalanche, a book launch and backcountry awareness fundraising event is being held later this month.
The book, entitled The Darkest White: A Mountain Legend and the Avalanche that Took Him, was written by award-winning biographer Eric Blehm and released earlier this year.
“Craig was snowboarding’s first true professional and four-time world champion,” says Blehm. “He stood at the top of the podium more times than anybody who’d ridden a snowboard during the 1980s and into the ’90s as the sport burst to life and rapid global influence.”
In the winter of 2003, Kelly and six others died while touring in the Selkirk Mountains.
Despite his global rankings, Blehm says the world’s first snowboarding superstar “followed his heart.”
“He turned his back on business deals, high-dollar sponsorship contracts and the prize money associated with competition, and returned to the backcountry that had first drawn him to his calling.”
Blehm, a New York Times bestselling author, retells the story of Kelly’s life and lasting legacy, exploring the icon’s origins and his prowess.
The Craig Kelly Fundraiser Event, slated for Friday, Nov. 29 from 7 to 10 p.m. at the Nelson Legion, will also promote an upcoming avalanche training course.
The Risk Maturity Collective program was founded by local snow safety veteran John Bufffery and professional snowboarder Pat Moore.
Buffery is the co-founder and original lead guide of Baldface Lodge, a safety consultant for major films and senior avalanche advisor for B.C. Highways.
Buffery says there is no author better suited to tell the snowboard star’s story than Blehm, a former editor-in-chief of Transworld Snowboarding magazine.
“He’s captured the nuances of the culture,” says Buffery, “the snow science, the mountains, the avalanche, but most importantly — Craig.”
