It starts with my best friend Kees.
Fresh exists because of him. This is the story behind it — what it owes him, his partner Claire, and a hut in the Coast Mountains that proves what community can build.
Kees Brenninkmeyer, somewhere in the Coast Mountains.
Kees had this incredible gift for bringing people together in the outdoors.
From the time we were kids until we were in our twenties, he'd organize adventures and somehow everyone who went would leave friends not just with him, but with each other. The circle kept widening.
He showed me that community doesn't just happen.
It happens when someone creates the space for it.
January 4, 2007
Kees and his girlfriend Claire were killed in a backcountry skiing accident on the Wapta Traverse, in the Canadian Rockies.
They were 25 and 27.
Kees and Claire. Mountains, glaciers, ropes, snow, and a lot of smiling.
Russet Lake, BC
Years later, a community built him a hut.
Their families and a community of mountain enthusiasts came together to build a memorial backcountry hut in their honor. It sits at Russet Lake outside Whistler, BC, was completed in 2019, and is open to anyone who wants a taste of the sweet life Kees savored and shared.
If you can get there, you should.
What stuck with me
What struck me watching it come together was how it was built. Volunteers, families, friends, strangers who loved the mountains.
The same way Kees brought people together in life.
That spirit of people showing up to create something meaningful together is what Fresh is about.
Someone's heading out.
Bring your village.
Fresh is built for the Kees-types — and for anyone who'd love an invitation from one.