News

Title: Carpe Diem, Forever Onwards!

Date: 21/05/2009

Some 200 + friends, family, and a who’s who of British Snowboarding, gathered together in Glasgow last Tuesday to pay their respects and say an emotional final fairwell to Keith McIntosh who sadly left our world in a tragic avalanche on the 5th May in Kaunertal.

Amongst the attendees were all of Keith’s original ‘McNab Junior Team’, all now a bit older and studying at Universities and all old enough to raise a glass to their original Snowboard guru, a nice touch, he would have been proud!

During the service we were all given a moment to think back and remember Keith as if playing a movie of our time spent with him. In my mind I saw him clearly standing next to me, looking around over his shoulder at the top of a big untouched powder field, a smile upon his face as we both looked on with excited anticipation at the amazing run waiting below our feet.


I spent one of my best days of the winter, strangely enough working for Keith on his Alpine Lines ‘Heli freeride week’ as a BC guide for his end of week Heli day (when the above shot was taken). The day was perfect, the snow amazing and we did the Glacier Midi des Grandes descent, one of my favourites that will from now on will hold very special memories for me.

This is how I’ll remember Keith, the sun shining down, a perfect run waiting, all the time in the world and a big smile upon his face!

A big thanks goes to out all those who gave their support over these past few difficult weeks and offered Mel and Arren their support both now and for the future!

It was agreed by the all Kommunity Coaching contingent present at the service, that we will start a ‘Keith McIntosh memorial Award’ to be presented to the most inspirational Camper (both on and off the snow) every year at the ‘Kommunity Summer Snowboard Camp’.

This year we will be running the Kommunity camp as usual in Les2Alpes from the 18th to the 25th of July but for 1 week only.

We have had many inquiries over the past few weeks and to those that haven’t heard back and are in need of their summer fix info and also those inquiring already about next seasons course dates I apologise for the delay, I’m sure you can appreciate that we have been otherwise engaged.

If there is one thing I know Keith would have definitely wanted, he’d have wanted us all to carry on and to make the most out of every moment. He’d have wanted us to carry on and to make each day a little better than the last and this is what we intend to do.

We’ll all be back in Chamonix early next week where we’ll have our own quiet memorial day up in the peaks for Keith. Just Mel, Arren and a bunch of his closest friends from the valley on a peak that we know meant a lot to him and a place we’ll always be able to return to whenever we feel the need to be near him.

This whole experience has definitely shown me how fragile our existence really is and how we need to live for every moment and this is what we intend to do.

Carpe Diem!

So, forever onward!

Over the next few weeks we’ll be following the run up to this years Kommunity Summer Camp.

I’ll be posting a few new articles that I’m working on.

A new day begins in Kamchatka.

An article on this years BC Voyager Heli trip to Kamchatka .

Trekking for fresh lines in the Lyngen Alps.

An article on this years BC Voyager expedition trip to the Lyngen Alps, Norway

'A day in the life of a Heli Guide in Kamchatka'

An article I’m finishing off that I started whilst in Kamchatka, ‘A day in the life of a Heli Guide’ giving an inside look at the ins and outs of Heli guiding in Kamchatka.

I also have a Video from the Norway trip to edit and some great raw footage of deep powder riding from this winters BC courses.

Dog sledding into the middle of Nowhere BC Voyager Greenland 08.

I’m already working on next years calendar of courses and Voyager trips, Iran is looking popular, Greenland too and I’m pretty keen to go back to Norway again. Quite a few have expressed interest in South America and of course we have our regular Voyager Heli trips to Russia and maybe a couple of new Heli destinations, so it could be a very busy winter

Lots to do as usual and my summer Guiding season isn’t far off and is already looking pretty full on.

Seize the day!

Neil.

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