_(Sister)

There will be many stories I may tell over time. Martin and I were close. He was my skiing partner, my climbing partner. We explored the mountains together skiing and hiking. So many things he quietly taught me. We are similar in nature, we didn’t need to talk much, there was just an easy understanding of what was felt, what was needed to be done at the time, and where we were going.

One memory was when Jon Bonjovi’s song ” Shot to the Heart ” came out. It may be my memory that I felt he picked on me especially, maybe he did it to the others as much but he would bring his fist down on top of my head and say excitedly ” Shot to the Head! ” One time he did it hard enough to make me see stars. There was no malice nor intent to hurt, it was just a bent he was on at that time. We all looked up to him so much, he was so talented and skilled and capable in everything he did that I actually thought it was pretty special that he picked on me. ….ahh, brotherly love.

He taught me how to spit.

He taught me to expend as little energy as possible when in the backcountry so as to conserve my energy in case I really needed it, conserve in the way I moved, the way I set up camp, pick a route …

We were so similar that I became a woodworker too. It was Dad who encouraged me to do woodworking but it was because he saw how similar Martin and I were. I didn’t even question it, it just made sense. I worked on a couple of carpentry jobs with Martin around Vancouver. It was easy following his lead, everything made sense in how he did it. And he was good.