Thwack-thwacking rotors break the silence of British Columbia’s Selkirk Mountains. The red and white Bell 212 banks steeply and descends to CMH’s remote Adamants Lodge above steeply forested slopes. Moments later, like the ‘dragonfly’ atop New York’s Pan Am building in Joni Mitchell’s song, it settles on the lodge helipad.

Crouching beneath slowing rotor blades, we disembark and head for supper. Later, in the lodge’s timber-panelled dining room, we’ll swap impressions from this afternoon’s hike high above the braided Goldstream River. It’s 10 September 2001.

When the world changes forever

Next morning, at breakfast in the TV and radio-free lodge, talk of the day’s helicopter ‘lifts’ and hikes is curtly pre-empted. With pancakes, bacon and coffee left untouched, we listen in stunned silence as our lodge manager solemnly announces the attack on the twin towers of New York’s World Trade Center.

We’re grounded until further notice, as is everything else in North American airspace. Instead, accompanied by our deepest thoughts, we walk, subdued and contemplative, along nearby Norman Wood Creek to picnic.

Later in the week we fly again to hike at altitude among some of British Columbia’s remotest landscapes: Unicorn meadows beneath Austerity Glacier; up Windy Creek to the majestic Waldorf Towers; and the stunning 2089m-high Pyrite Ridge traverse.

It’s a true experience of a lifetime, made heartrendingly unforgettable by the mountains’ magnificence and the tragedy that unfolded under New York’s cerulean skies on the day we now call 9/11.

Savour the past and look forward to the future

The world – and travel – changed forever that Tuesday. Nearly 20 years later, under silent, similarly-blue May skies barely scarred by contrails, another world-shaking event has changed our lives.
In 2001, as now, we pondered the impact of unfolding events on travel. The world lost its innocence and changed. Yet, recalling subsequent decades, I can now savour amazing trips: sojourns in Japan; return trips to Canada; South American wanderings; and happy times in Shetland and Switzerland.

The takeaway? Change happens, but now’s a time to relish holiday memories and plan future adventures. How and where we go may be different in future – and might even benefit the environment too. But the world will still be here in one, five or 20 years.

And just as two post-9/11 decades brought new travel experiences, so can those ahead – whether it’s heli-hiking the Selkirks or staycationing in the UK to enjoy our own world-class attractions.