Support growing for those impacted by loss and trauma in mountains
Global News
Mountain Muskox is a support group for those who have suffered loss and trauma in the mountains.
Canmore is a place of stark contrasts, delivering solace and soaring success on one day and storms and defeat the next. It’s where life-long friendships are often forged in a frigid tent, a breathtaking vista, or huffing and puffing along unrelenting switchbacks.
They’re sensations Sarah Hueniken has felt it all through her years as an accomplished Canadian mountain guide and climber. But there’s one reality of living and working in the mountains that continues to grip on perhaps the tightest.
“The loss of a loved one is huge. It’s carried with you, your entire life, especially when it’s in the mountains in a place you also love,” said Hueniken. “It’s a hard contrast to sometimes bare.”
Nearly five years ago, her close friend Sonja Findlater died after being buried in an avalanche while ice climbing.
“It was on one of the camps I was running. She was with another guide. I saw the avalanche, and I ran to it and helped dig her out,” she said. “It was life changing for sure, filled with shame and grief and regret for years.
“Sometimes it feels like it was 100 years ago because those days were very, very long after she passed and other times it feels like just yesterday,” said Hueniken adding her life shifted 100 degrees after the avalanche.
She found support and healing among others who also experienced loss and trauma in the mountains. And she helped form Mountain Muskox, a support group for those who have suffered loss and trauma in the mountains.
“It helped me so much on my journey, just being around other people that understood that process and those emotions. I really wanted to make sure that other people who had near misses in the mountains or losses had a place to go.,” said Hueniken, who serves as executive director of Mountain Muskox.
