Christina Lustenberger’s Fine Line: From Ski Racer to Mountaineer

Christina Lustenberger wakes up early. Whether she’s spending the day guiding backcountry ski clients, skiing for the cameras, grabbing fresh tracks at nearby Revelstoke Mountain Resort, or quietly climbing and skiing one of the many wilderness peaks on her wish list, things always start the same way: She wakes by 5:30 a.m., stokes the fire, makes coffee in a stovetop espresso pot, then settles in to study the snow and weather.

“She’s very focused,” says Bruno Long, a top mountain sports photographer and frequent ski companion. “She has a big skill set, and she spends a lot of time prepping and having stuff dialled so that when it’s time to go, she’s ready.”

Readiness, in fact, is essential to Lustenberger’s art—the art of tracing a fine line between risk and reward. And while many of us love soaring down snow-covered slopes amid majestic mountain wilds, Lustenberger—a born-and-bred British Columbian—is fuelled by that passion to a rare degree. “I just really love to ski,” she says with a laugh.

It’s an understatement. In the 11 years since she retired from the Canadian national ski team, the former giant slalom ace has transformed herself step by meticulous step into a highly skilled backcountry ski guide and big mountain pro. Now, at 35, the former World Cup and Olympic racer turned ski mountaineer stands not just at the top of super-steep mountain faces and knee-knocking couloirs but at a tipping point in her career.

But ski racing, and the intense focus and discipline it demands, soon took over. By age 11, she was winning so many races (often beating boys and older girls in the process) that she was tapped to represent Canada at a competition in Europe. At 21, she was ranked 30^th in the world in giant slalom, laying down course times fractions of a second off the fastest racers in the world, and with the promise of her potential yet to be fulfilled. In 2006, she competed in the Olympic Winter Games in Torino, Italy.

But the knee injuries kept coming. Between the ages of 16 and 24, Lustenberger had four reconstructive surgeries on her left knee, and one on her right. “It was heartbreaking,” she says.

Soon she started tapping her other ski dreams, the ones inspired less by giant slalom gates and more by the mountains of BC themselves. At home in the off season, she and some friends began adventuring in the snowy wilds of Jumbo Glacier. “The moment I started backcountry skiing, it relieved this pressure: OK, now I know what I’m going to do when I’m done ski racing.” Becoming a wilderness ski guide quietly became her new goal.

Après-ski, though? Not so much. More like a high five in the parking lot before going home to dry out her gear, get warm, refuel, stretch, and plan the next day’s adventure. “Usually I’m pretty flattened in the evenings,” she says. “I’m skiing every day and I need that time to recover.”

Thanks to both that singular focus on getting out there day after day to tackle bold ski objectives and her beautifully fluid yet hard-charging ski style, Lustenberger’s pro skiing career soon began jostling for time with her guiding. The new balance allowed her, in 2016, to step away from mechanized ski guiding (meaning heli-skiing and cat-skiing) to focus on guiding human-powered ski touring (when skiers use special climbing skins under their skis to walk up the mountains they plan to descend) at Golden Alpine Holidays, Whitecap Alpine, and near Revelstoke.

“I think self-propelled skiing is one of the most rewarding ways of moving through the mountains,” she says. “A lot of people refer to it as being an artist with a blank canvas. You draw this beautiful track through the mountains, and ascend with the group that you’re guiding, or your friends. You’re moving in a quiet, peaceful atmosphere. The only thing you hear is laughter coming from conversations, or your heavy breathing. By the time you get to the top you feel so much joy and pride.”

As much as Lustenberger loves the ascent, the line back down is what gets her out of bed before dawn six days a week. When she skis with clients, she focuses on picking descents appropriate for their ability level, “opening this playground for them,” utilizing the best of her skill set to provide an experience of freedom, wonderment, and thrills no matter the clients’ expertise. But when she’s skiing for the cameras, it’s a different story altogether.

These days, Lustenberger is at another turning point in her career, with global opportunities arising in partnership with her sponsors to participate in far-flung expeditions as a ski mountaineer. Up next: A big adventure in the Himalayas with a team from The North Face—followed by another rich winter right here at home.

She’s equally excited about both. Her mother recently pulled out the Mountains of Tibet, the book that ignited her dreams early on. In one sense, it’s hard to believe a childhood dream inspired by a picture book is coming to life—but with so much dedication and passion, with her early-to-bed and early-to-rise philosophy, with the landscape of BC thrumming through her soul, it also makes perfect sense. Her wish list still holds countless summits, challenges, and routes to ski here at home—in fact, the list keeps growing—but there’s plenty of time. “Here in BC, the peaks go on and on forever. Just as you think you’re seen it all, you turn another corner and there’s another lifetime of mountains to explore.”

Video header: Leo Hoorn

Photo header: Leo Hoorn