Before she bought the Bear’s Paw Bakery, the only thing Kim Stark had ever baked was a batch of chocolate chip cookies. But in 2002, when she and her then-partner decided they wanted to live in Jasper and own a business, never having baked from scratch before didn’t seem like a particularly big hurd...

The Western States Hockey League wants to come to Jasper National Park. Karen Palashniuk // Fleeting Reality Photography The U.S.-based league, which this year expanded into Canada with four franchises in its Western Provinces division, thinks Jasper and Junior A hockey could be a perfect match. “It...

Straight off the successful defending of his World 24 Hours Solo Championship in Scotland and three-peating a first place finish in Nepal , Jasper-born mountain biker Cory Wallace is pitting himself against another 24 hour challenge. On October 21, Wallace capped off an all-day-all-night sufferfest ...

For several years now, the mats at the Jasper Fitness Centre have been crimping…er, cramping…local bouldering buffs’ style. Bouldering, a form of rock climbing done on small rock formations—or in the case of an indoor gym, a wall of plastic holds—is performed without the use of ropes or harnesses. I...

Homegrown talent is having a big impact on high level hockey in the Yellowhead region. The Hinton Wildcats are the newest club in the Western States Hockey League (WSHL), a Tier Two Junior A league. With help from a couple of Jasper skaters and some coaching between the pipes, the team is off to a g...

A heartbreaking loss for the family of a man who died while running in Jasper National Park is also weighing heavily on the Jasper runner who was by his side when he passed. On June 16, 46-year-old ultra runner Steve Sadownik, of Fort St. John, B.C., died of a heart attack while running approximatel...

Margo Bereska and Ian Sheldon want to let the light in. The Jasper couple have opened the doors to their new studio, Heartspace , where Bereska, a clairvoyant medium and energy therapist, and Sheldon, an acclaimed artist and shamanic healer, want to help service their clients’ spiritual needs. “We g...

Randall Riddell is back behind The Bench. The husband, father of two, musician, sound engineer and bike mechanic can now add entrepreneur to his CV. He opened up The Bench Bike Shop on June 8 in the 606 Patricia space where Freewheel Cycle turned its final wrenches. Like the outpouring of support sh...

3,700 KILOMETRES DOWN, 3,000 TO GO FIRST TIME RACER PAST HALF WAY POINT AS SHE NEARS THE LEGENDARY NEWTON BIKE SHOP IN KANSAS _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________ From the very beginning of her planned 6,700 km bike adventure...

Jasper residents are teaming up to give plastic bags the boot from Jasper National Park. A growing group of locals, bothered by bags of the single-use variety, want to give retailers and their customers viable options when it comes to carrying their groceries and other goods. “I feel like Jasper sho...

The Municipality of Jasper wants the community’s input on cannabis. When cannabis becomes legal in Alberta later this summer, some decisions on how to regulate the drug’s use and sale will be left up to municipalities. To help inform recommendations to council,a cannabis working group is proposing t...

A $1.5 million geothermal energy demonstration project will soon be piped into the village of Valemount. Natural Resources Canada is funding the purchase of three 150kW modules which will turn the earth’s heat under the B.C. community into clean electricity. “The demonstration geothermal turbines wi...

While Parks Canada is questioning a long-term Jasperite’s need to live in this community, Stef Dolan’s family is questioning the rules which define eligible residency in a national park. Dolan, who’s called Jasper home for 33 years, has been looking for a work-around ever since Jasper National Park ...

Greg Van Tighem is getting back on the bike for charity. Jasper’s fat biking Fire Chief has skirted the skinny shoulders of Route 93, traversed the transport truck-heavy Highway 16, eaten dust on Texas thoroughfares and chewed icicles on an arctic ice road, all in the name of fundraising for the fig...

This hockey season has been a tumultuous swim for the Crisp Pil Beavers and as this paper goes to press, lodge members (Beavers fans, duh) are excitedly imagining a scenario wherein the team makes it back into the A Final to match up against the (dreaded) Brew Pub for the third time in four years. A...

Can the JFI BoneStars beat the Brew Pub Barley Kings? Finding out the answer to that question is the main reason this sports reporter decided to saunter down to the Jasper Hockey Arena at 10:30 p.m. on a Tuesday night in the middle of winter. Well that, and to jam to the sick beats that the 16-year-...

Jasper Municipal Council was weeding through proposed cannabis legislation February 27 and at least one potential retailer in Jasper was keen to learn how local regulations would roll out. Leanne Stanko has been formulating a business plan for cannabis retail in Jasper ever since Prime Minister Just...

Another Jasperite is feeling the sting of Parks Canada’s eligible residency requirements. Kyle Darroch grew up in Jasper, won a handful of prestigious awards and scholarships for his contributions to his community, obtained a degree in education and six years ago came back to his hometown with the h...

If Alberta’s beer industry was a batch of microbrew, in 2005, when the Jasper Brew Pub opened its doors, the batch’s barley would have had scarcely made it to the mill. Today, not only has the mash been converted, the yeast been added to the wort and the beer been filtered, carbonated and cellared, ...

In Jasper, we’re lucky to have several annual events which blend sport and community in a fun yet competitive fashion—think Totem’s storied Spring Run Off on Mother’s Day, the Freewheel Biathlon in October and the Astoria Hotel’s Root Romp. For the last few years, however, another event has been mak...