CORNWALL — This past winter, an intergenerational group of Mohawk Mountain skiers took their hard-earned East Coast skills to the towering peaks of interior British Columbia for a ski trip that went beyond just pursuing the steep and deep.
“As fun as the skiing was, the lift rides and even just going home and cooking dinner together and talking was a pretty cool part of it,” said 24-year-old Cornwall native Dean Saccardi of the nearly 20-day voyage. “To have that age range of people who had grown up in Cornwall, went to [Cornwall Consolidated School], and had all their stories about the school, about the ski program, about the community … it definitely made the trip.”
Jim Terrall, who runs a building company in Cornwall, grew up skiing at Mohawk about 50 years before Saccardi got his start through the after-school CCS ski program, which lets students out at noon on Fridays to go skiing during a stretch of the winter. Terrall grew up going to Mohawk the same way, and estimated that the group on the trip spanned 1960-2017 of the CCS ski program.
“My winters were spent at Mohawk” said Terrall, “as were my kids’ winters.”
He said Mohawk Mountain and the CCS ski program have had an outsized impact on building a unique love for downhill snow sports in the town: “A lot of Cornwall kids are skiers because of the program,” which continues to this day — minus the included season pass of years past.
After graduating from Colorado College, Terrall moved to Jackson Hole, Wyoming, with the intention of working a ski season or two, and ended up staying for 15 years.
Terrall’s son Keaton, who also joined the trip, is now a student at Montana State University in Bozeman and is as passionate about skiing as his father.
While a veteran of Western skiing, the elder Terrall said part of the fun of the trip was introducing Saccardi and his brother-in-law Garrick Dinneen, who had never skied outside of the Northeast, to bigger and steeper terrain.
Saccardi said the difference was immediately apparent. At the group’s first stop at Schweitzer Mountain in northern Idaho, “you could barely see the tips of your skis, it was so foggy,” Saccardi recalled. Even then, though, “you quickly appreciate how steep it is.”
Saccardi said that despite the initial adjustments, he and Dinneen were able to keep up well with the seasoned and skilled group. “It’s a testament to Mohawk Mountain and that program … Despite it being a little mountain, it does prepare you with the basics and everything you need to know.”
Josh Tyson, from the CCS class of 1981, who now runs a Cornwall excavating company, said that watching Saccardi and Dinneen get to experience Western skiing was a highlight of the trip for him.
“They became such better skiers in like a day,” he said. “Just the exposure to really steep and mogully trees — it’s not eastern skiing, you know, and they just figured it out right away and were great.”
Tyson’s son Ian joined too and the final member of the cohort was Andy Peterson, who grew up skiing with Terrall at Mohawk in the 1960s and now lives in Colorado, but still spends a few months in Cornwall every summer. As a group of seven, the skiers resort-hopped across southern British Columbia on an itinerary that would make even the most seasoned skier rage in jealousy.
Flying round trip to Missoula, Montana, the group hopped in a few cars and first stopped at Schweitzer in Idaho for a day of foggy skiing, before bouncing to Red Mountain just across the border, where they spent three full days, including the sole powder day of the trip — which was a blast, Tyson said. After that, the crew visited Whitewater, Kimberly, Panorama, and finally, famed powder-mecca Revelstoke, which was unfortunately mostly powder-free during their stay.
Their visit, which spanned the final week of February and first week of March, was uncharacteristically warm for the Canadian mountains.
“We skied in all types of weather, from dense fog to 18 inches of fresh snow to spring skiing,” said Tyson. Despite the variable conditions, “I didn’t hear one complaint the whole time,” said Terrall, reflecting fondly on the group’s positive attitude.
The Terralls and Peterson capped off the trip with a few days of heli-skiing in the mountains surrounding Revelstoke, where “you never cross another ski track” — including your own — said the elder Terrall.
Plans for another trip are already in the works for next year. The group is thinking a return to B.C. is in order, but with an emphasis on mountains they missed this round — Fernie, Kicking Horse, and maybe some more Revelstoke for good measure.
The community feeling remains, however, as those who still call Cornwall home settle back into Northwest Corner life.
Tyson said that since both he and Terrall are in the contracting business, they often run into each other on job sites alongside Dinneen, who is an electrician in town. Ian works for his father’s company, and Saccardi works for Terrall, further tightening the bond.
In his free time, Saccardi stays busy by serving on Cornwall’s Board of Education, a position he picked up after graduating high school and has held for nearly four years.
When asked about how he decided to take up a town service role at such a young age, he was quick to attribute it to Cornwall’s intrinsic community benevolence: “I think the town itself sort of has that culture.”
