“I like old people. I just don’t want to be one.”
He may joke that he’s as old as the mountain (he was born the same year Mount Norquay ski hill opened), but there are few as young at heart as Eddie Hunter.
RMO readers voted 89-year-old Hunter the best athlete in Banff through the 2015 Best of the Bow contest, taking the title from Olympic medallist Jan Hudec. When told about the honour, Hunter, in his signature style, chuckled and quipped a one-liner.
“If you live long enough, people say you must be good,” Hunter said.
Thanks to Sherpa Films, Hunter was thrust into the limelight again in 2014-15 when he was featured in the Sculpted in Time ski film, which featured the octogenarian, his daughter Mystee Maisonet and grandson Noah Maisonet, in a touching and beautiful tribute to the mountains.
Hunter’s metaphorical riffs over sublime images of snow, ski and light were the most memorable part of Sherpa Films’ three-part series, the camera contrasting mountain crags with Hunter’s weathered visage.
“It was excellent. We had ideal conditions at Norquay on a spring day,” Hunter said. “The sky was blue. It was a great day at Norquay.”
It’s not Hunter’s first starring role in an internationally acclaimed film. He appeared in the 1948 film Snow Capers which was nominated for an Oscar for best short, two-reel.
“I started when I was just a kid, and skied in a film by Universal. I did some comedy skiing and the film was nominated for an Academy Award and was shown around North America. This one, 70 years later, went around the world with the Banff Mountain Film Festival. It’s a similar type of thing,” Hunter said.
He doesn’t race much any more other than the season-ending staple, the Bozo Cup, but few are as active as Hunter. In summer, you can spot him cycling up Norquay Road or playing a round of golf at the Banff Springs, the source of many of his famous golf columns. He skis nearly every day at the hill, and last week he roller bladed in the Terry Fox Run, raising more than $1,400 in the process. His active lifestyle has nothing to do with accolades and measurable accomplishments, but with simple fun.
“I don’t set any goals. I have an old friend and he keeps track of his accomplishments, skiing 125 days a year. But I don’t do that. If you live here, you have to keep doing something,” Hunter said.
He’s passed on his love of sport to his children, and he’s awed by what his free-skiing grandson Noah is accomplishing in the sport. As he states in Sculpted in Time, the mountains have shaped him as well.
Born in 1926, Hunter has had a long relationship with Mount Norquay. It’s the most likely spot to see him carving turns on a winter’s day, and few know the hill as well as he does. The hill owners named a run after him, the hEaD HUNTER, and he published a book about the its heritage.
“I had a kids’ show in Calgary called the hEaD Hunter’s show, and that’s where it came from,” Hunter said. “The book (the Spirit of Norquay) is mostly comments from people. That’s kept the book alive.”
He considers himself one of the lucky ones, able to practice the sports he loves at his age. It’s a matter of perspective, Hunter says, and he has no intention of slowing down anytime soon.
“Pains keep coming and going. People ask me how I’m doing, how I’m feeling. I say I’m OK if I don’t look too closely. That’s the important part. Don’t look too closely.”
