Mountain Culture Group

11/07/2025

⚡The 4th season of the Headwaters Podcast drops in 2 weeks. ⚡

In the meantime, brush up on some of our previous episodes such as “Living Alternatively,” which aired in our 2nd season.

In it, we go for a run with Nelson local Lowther who got into the fringe sport of ultrarunning only five years ago. She’s now a pro athlete, sponsored by Arc'teryx, and she competes amongst the world’s best on 50-100km courses around the world, like the UTCT 100 in Cape Town where this video was shot. She ran the 100-km course through mountainous terrain and across beaches in only 12 hours and 4 minutes earning her the top female spot and 7th overall.

Learn more about what inspires Jazmine to run so far by listening to Episode 14 wherever you get your podcasts or at https://headwaterspodcast.com/episode/episode-14-living-alternatively/

The Headwaters is brought to you by Columbia Basin Trust and hosted by our own Mitchell Scott.

05/07/2025

Did you know Canada's deepest cave is located near Fernie, BC?

In preparation of the launch of our 4th season of The Headwaters Podcast later this month, dive in to the "Unexpected Underground" episode from 2024 when Pew interviewed Katie Graham about her decade-long exploration of Bisaro Anima, a 683-metre-deep cave that's 6.4 kilometres long.

🎧 Listen in wherever you get your podcasts or at https://headwaterspodcast.com/episode/episode-26-unexpected-underground/

The Headwaters is brought to you by Columbia Basin Trust and hosted by our own Mitchell Scott.

📷 Pew
Map courtesy of Kootenay Mountain Culture Magazine.

04/07/2025

Our 4th season launches later this month! In the meantime, brush up on all our past episodes such as “Groovy Music” in which we have a good jam with Paul Hinrichs the executive director of the Kaslo Jazz Etc. Festival, which is happening in a month’s time.

In the interview, Paul talks about what it takes to be a successful musician in the Kootenays. “We’re in a small rural area,” he says, “But luckily we’re in a very supportive area.”

For more about the music in the Columbia Basin, listen to the “Groovy Music” episode of The Headwaters wherever you get your podcasts or at https://headwaterspodcast.com/episode/episode-17-groovy-music/

The Headwaters is made possible by Columbia Basin Trust and hosted by Mitchell Scott of Mountain Culture Group.

04/07/2025

In our "Changing Landscapes" episode, we visit a specially designed enclosure in Nakusp where mountain caribou are reared in the hopes their dwindling numbers can be saved.

Mountain caribou herds in the Columbia Basin have been negatively impacted by human development but conservationists are celebrating a recent announcement by BC Timber Sales.

In an email to Wildsight, BCTS committed to no new development in core caribou habitat (that is, habitat that's been identified as essential to a herd's survival) in the Revelstoke-Shuswap area. Wildsight Conservation Specialist Eddie Petryshen says this win will help safeguard the future of the Columbia North caribou herd: “BC Timber Sales controls important caribou habitat within their tenures in the Revelstoke-Shuswap. This is a significant move and it sets a precedent for other licensees to stop logging core habitat in the Revelstoke-Shuswap.”
ㅤ
It remains to be seen whether other timber companies with tenure in the region, such as Louisiana Pacific, Downie Timber, Stella Jones, Revelstoke Community Forest Corporation, Interfor and Gilbert Smith, will follow suit.

For more about the mountain caribou, listen to episode #18 wherever you get your podcasts or at https://headwaterspodcast.com/episode/episode-18-changing-landscapes/

The Headwaters is brought to you by Columbia Basin Trust and hosted by Mitchell Scott of Mountain Culture Group.

----

26/06/2025

💥 Season 4 of The Headwaters will be dropping July 24. 💥

We’re working on 10 new episodes about everything from rocks and rodents to epics and entrepreneurs.

🎧 Listen to our recent Bonus Episode to brush up on the psat three seasons, or better yet, listen to them all wherever you get your podcasts or at https://headwaterspodcast.com/

The Headwaters is brought to you by Columbia Basin Trust and hosted by our very own Mitchell Scott.

—

20/06/2025

Here we have the “Star” and “The Strength” of the Headwaters Podcast, at least according to the Tarot cards. And a moustache comb.

Meet host Mitchell Scott and sound engineer Graham Tracey in the room where the magic happens.

And as Mitchell mentions in this clip, the 4th season of The Headwaters podcast lands July 24.

For more information about moustache combs, contact Graham directly.

The Headwaters is brought to you by Columbia Basin Trust.

17/06/2025

RED Mountain Bike Park opens this weekend. We had a little sneak peak a couple of weeks ago and have to say, the dirt is prime, the jumps are perfect and the berms are deep!

See you there!

"Which came first — the legendary rider or the legendary trail?" This iconic question launches the second and final chapter of our "Standing on the Shoulders...

13/06/2025

Ashley O’Neil, the founder of , took her fire-fighting products to the University of Calgary to have them tested. This was the result. Looks pretty fireproof to us!

Ashley is Ktunaxa Nation and a resident of the East Kootenay region who has two decades of firefighting and wildfire experience. In 2020 she launched her own business making female-specific personal protective equipment for firefighters that is biodegradable. She also coordinates training programs on BC reservations, teaches and certifies new firefighters, and is bringing back cultural burning practices in the Kootenays.

➡️ Ashley is featured in The Headwaters podcast episode “Knowing Fire” and you can find that wherever you get your podcasts or at https://headwaterspodcast.com/episode/episode-24-knowing-fire/

The Headwaters is brought to you by Columbia Basin Trust and is hosted by our own Mitchell Scott.

11/06/2025

Now. And then.

After the discovery of galena ore in Sandon by Eli Carpenter and Jack Seaton in 1891, prospectors flocked from around North America to stake their claims.

By 1895 Sandon was a thriving town and the terminus of 2 railways. Three years later it was incorporated as a city and boasted 5,000 residents and a booming economy. Then, silver prices started declining and by 1920 there were fewer than 1,000 residents left.

In 1955 Carpenter Creek flooded, destroying most of the remaining buildings. There are only a few left today, including the original City Hall from 1900 and the Powerhouse. There is also a fleet of trolley buses, and a handful of residents, two of whom we spoke with for our Ghost Towns episode.

➡️ Listen wherever you get your podcasts or at https://headwaterspodcast.com/episode/episode-23-ghost-towns/

The Headwaters is brought to you by Columbia Basin Trust and hosted by Mitchell Scott of Mountain Culture Group

05/06/2025

We've just learned Fernie musician Nell Smith has been nominated for "Pop Star of the Year" posthumously by the Western Canadian Music Awards.

In the latest episode of the Headwaters Podcast, we touch on Nell's incredible rise to fame and tragic end: in what was one of our saddest moments in 2024, we learned she died in a car accident in October. She was only 17.

Nell was a music prodigy best known for her collaboration with superstar band The Flaming Lips and we interviewed her for our "Young Dreamers" episode in 2022.

Her debut solo album, "Anxious" was released two months ago and its sales will benefit a memorial fund supporting young, emerging artists. We've just purchased our copy.

Rest in blissful peace, Nell.

04/06/2025

Did you know there's a Cold War bunker underneath the Nelson Museum?

The secret fallout shelter known as the "Diefenbunker," was built in the 1960s to protect officials during a nuclear attack. It was one of over 50 bunkers constructed across Canada.

Thankfully there was never a need to use Nelson’s bunker and very few people knew about it until recently. Now it's part of the exhibits at the museum and tours are offered Saturdays at 11am and Wednesdays at 1pm during the summer.

More can be learned about this bunker in the Bonus Episode of the Headwaters Podcast, out now: https://headwaterspodcast.com/episodes/

The Headwaters is brought to you by Columbia Basin Trust and hosted by our very own Mitchell Scott.

---

30/05/2025

Fruitvale native Alli Schroder was featured in the Headwaters Podcast Bonus Episode recently, which highlights some of our favourite stories from the past 3 seasons.

Alli has been having a profound impact on the Canadian baseball scene and British Columbia’s wildfire scene in recent years. 🔥

In our “Young Dreamers Part 2” episode, we caught up with her in Castlegar, where she trains, and asked her about what it’s like to be one of the best female baseball players in the country in between bouts of saving it from burning down.

➡ The Headwaters Bonus episode, and all our past seasons, can be listened to wherever you get your podcasts or here: https://headwaterspodcast.com/episodes/

The Headwaters is brought to you by Columbia Basin Trust and hosted by Mitchell Scott.

Destination Castlegar BC