I felt like I was called up from the minor leagues when Mike Hans "Hansee" asked me if I could make the trip to British Columbia to be the chef during an upcoming trip to Terrace. With only about 14 days to prepare, and some last minute wrangling to get my shifts covered at the Crested Butte Fire Department, I was ready to go! Leaving on the last day of the ski season in Crested Butte, my friends were puzzled until I told them about the opportunity that was given to me. Some helpful advice from former Terrace chef Jeff Graceffa (owner of the Secret Stash in CB, the best pizza house this side of the Mississippi) gave me the impression it would be a lot of work and the challenge called out to me like an ice cream truck that catches the ear of a fat kid on a hot summer day.

Arriving in Terrace, I was reminded of Gunnison – a small town just downstream from my home in Crested Butte. Our guide Yvan shuttled me around to the different grocery stores and was a wealth of information on my first day there. After loading up the van with food and supplies we headed up to the lodge to get set up. The lodge was really nice with a ping-pong table, bar, comfy couches, and of course a jumbo TV. I’d heard tales about lengthy downtime on trips like this due to weather, so I also had my Sony PS3 in tow to keep everyone entertained.

I rushed to get dinner ready and a table set up for snacks and drinks. It was about 8pm when Scott Gaffney, Mattias Fredriksson, Henrik Windstedt, and Fred Arne Wergeland showed up. Everyone aside from Scott had traveled from Sweden, so these guys were exhausted from the 23 hour flight they had endured! Cody Townsend drove all the way from Squaw and arrived later in the night… I could tell by the look on his face he was beat!

We had great weather the first couple of days and the guys set off and killed it while the blue skies held out. After about day three though, the clouds and coastal weather settled in and we started the downtime phase of the trip. The PS3 was put to good use and Call Of Duty was the game of choice. We went to a little coffee shop in town and that was our window to the outside world via the coveted wireless internet connection. With Mark Abma out due to another blown knee, we still needed one more skier and figuring out who that would be was still a bit of a mystery. Finally we heard that Rory Bushfield was coming up from Whistler to join us for the remainder of the trip. I forgot that Rory had spent time in Crested Butte and when he heard that I cooked at the Gas Cafe he was STOKED. We make this breakfast sandwich at the Gasser called the Burley, which just so happens to be Bushy’s favorite sandwich in the whole world. So every morning Bushy scarfed down two of these before proceeding to scare the whole town by jumping from a couple of local bridges. The first bridge was about a 90 ft. drop and he didn’t just jump, he threw a double backflip and nailed it. I thought to myself "Holy s#!t that was huge!” But it was just another day in the life for Bushy, so I bit my tongue and we carried on.

I had amassed a huge collection of boxes from buying food and I thought if we stacked them up and lit them on fire, maybe Bushy – being the stuntman that he is – would be down to jump through them. So with a little help from our trusty friend lighter fluid, we set the boxes on fire and Bushy built a short in-run and stomped a 180 through the tower of flaming cardboard. We also found this lawnmower that Harley owned which had been converted into a mobile fireplace by a friend of his. Bushy and Henrik built a jump and they were jumping over the flaming contraption on wheels while Scott and Fred filmed. Gaffney had this brilliant idea for me to get into an old Barney Rubble costume and pose underneath them while trying to whack them with a tree branch as they jumped overhead… I looked like something out of a bad Geico commercial and it was from then on that I was known as the "caveman”. Bushy was laughing so hard it was hard for him to keep standing at times. I guess when you have downtime the only thing to do is get creative and just try to make the best of what you have.

This being my first trip with Matchstick I was nervous and wanted to make a good impression on the crew. I have known the guys over at MSP for years and I was honored to be a part in this filming process. I’ll admit that I don't really watch a lot of ski or snowboard films, and when the boys host their annual screenings in Crested Butte I’m usually on the road. That being said, I’m definitely looking forward to seeing the new movie this year and reliving the great memories from BC.

The whole crew was extremely nice and polite and just generally a great group of people. It was great making new friends. Hopefully I’ll get the opportunity to do it all over again next year – until then, be good to each other out there and live everyday like it’s your last!

Much Love, Kevin "Caveman" Welch



Check out the full photo gallery from Terrace BC HERE