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RIP Camp of Champions, 1989-2017

JOhnson COC

Sean Johnson, Camp of Champions, circa 1992. Photo: Dano Pendygrasse.

Today, in a heartfelt statement on campofchampions.com, Canadian snowboard godfather Ken Achenbach announced that Camp of Champions would be ceasing operations effective immediately.

“Every year, the final pitch of the Horstman T-Bar shrinks more and more making it harder and harder for Whistler Blackcomb to maintain,” Achenbach wrote. “The giant pile of snow connecting the glacier to the top of the lift and the glacier itself is melting. This has accelerated over the last 4 summers. To give you an idea of how much melting has happened the last few years, in 2015 alone the glacier lost 35 vertical feet of ice. Last year, the entrance to the entire glacier had to be moved 40 feet lower. Campers now load on the T-Bar 3 towers up the glacier from where we loaded in 1989…

“Simply put, it’s the effects of global warming. I wanted to give you an exceptional experience, and now I can’t. I haven’t slept in a week. After 28 years my dream is over. Honestly, I want to crawl under a rock. I feel like I have died. Camp is my life.

“As we can’t build the park I promised you, a park that would make your investment of time and money feel like it was well spent, I refuse to let you fly and drive from all over the world to ride a park that wouldn’t even be worth driving from Vancouver for. I have to do the right thing and take it in the teeth.”

And with that, COC has filed for bankruptcy. Those who had already paid for 2017 sessions will receive a full refund.

As a snowboarder hailing from coastal British Columbia, COC and the riding that went down there every summer shaped my perception of snowboarding as a whole. Although I was never able to attend camp as a youth, I did spend numerous days on the Horstman Glacier over the years, enjoying a world-class terrain park under the summer sun. It was a breeding ground for the best of Canadian snowboarders and beyond, and an invaluable asset to our snowboard community. A huge thank you to Ken and his whole crew for nearly 30 years of building snowboarding from the ground up. Your work was an essential part of making snowboarding what it is today.

RIP Camp of Champions, 1989-2017.

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