The brother of a 27-year-old skier, who died after getting caught in an avalanche in Banff National Park Sunday, said his brother will be remembered for his passion for the sport.
“(He was) very passionate about skiing,” Brian Sexsmith said of his brother Trevor in an interview with Global News Monday night. “He was always talking about the next trip, the line that he was interested in or he was always researching…a lot of time looking at the weather reports and figuring out ideal times.”
Trevor died after getting caught in an avalanche on Mount Victoria, just west of Lake Louise. He had been out with another skier who survived the slide and his body was recovered Monday.
READ MORE: Skier from Golden killed in avalanche near Lake Louise
“Those mountains are dangerous no matter what,” Brian said.
“It doesn’t matter the conditions… people I’m sure have died on the safest of safe days and people have also gotten away with skiing incredible lines on the most dangerous days, so sometimes, it’s just a little bit luck of the draw but obviously skill and knowledge takes you a long way.”
Brian said him and Trevor were raised in Toronto but the family later moved north to Coldwater, Ont. because of their love of the outdoors. He said his brother and him, as well as their mother, were all level-one ski instructors.
“Passion for skiing was in all of us but it was a little bit more in Trevor to want to go out west,” Brian said. “He learned how to ski at a very young age, probably five years old or so.”
Brian said his brother moved to Golden B.C., where the Kicking Horse ski resort is located, shortly after graduating from a mechanical engineering technology program in college. He said despite suffering serious injuries before, his brother’s commitment to the sport never wavered.
“The first year he went out there…he actually has a spill down some rocks and stuff like that,” Brian said. “(He) shattered a kneecap, broken leg, broken wrist I think, rib injuries – all of that brought him back here to Ontario to recover.”
Brian said once his brother was well-enough to head back out west, he joined him on a 38-hour drive without stopping to spend two memorable weeks skiing in some of western Canada’s most well known ski areas.
Brian said Trevor worked for CP Rail in Golden but skiing was his passion and his knowledge of the sport was well-known.
“Just based on the fact that a lot of very well-known skiers seemed to befriend him and seemed to be inspired by him and see him as a peer, I would say he was very experienced.”
Trevor Sexsmith documented many of his alpine adventures in a blog called PerpetualSki.
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