All images: Zoya Lynch
It’s not very often a guiding operation goes up for sale, but when it does, it’s a hot commodity sought by many. Lucky for ski photographer Zoya Lynch and her partner and backcountry guide, Isaac Kämink, they had a personal advantage when founder Mike Bromberg decided to put his Revelstoke-based operation, Revelstoke Backcountry Guides, on the proverbial market.
“We were definitely like, ‘Is he for real?'” Lynch expresses to me over the phone about Bromberg proposing the offer to buy his operation to Lynch and Kämink. “He ended up sending over a pretty legit sales package, it was a PDF, and it was pretty professional. He’s been in Colorado the whole time, so we’ve just been having these long phone calls the three of us, just to understand his overall vision and if it’s a good fit, does the business make money, is it a good buy, that whole thing. He’s already a friend of ours, so it’s been super collaborative,” says Lynch.
Revelstoke Backcountry Guides is an 8,000-acre, foot-powered tenure just outside the town of Revelstoke. The tenure allows for helicopters to fly solely for dropping off in the mornings and picking up at the end of the day, but besides that, the operation is strictly about ski touring. Founded and operated by Bromberg in 2016, the operation focuses on small-group guided skiing and that spans from just outside the resort boundaries of Revelstoke Mountain to Rogers Pass and beyond in the Selkirk mountains that can only be accessed by a helicopter. The beauty about having that much terrain to work with is that no matter the conditions and the weather any given day, there is always a place to go to enjoy Revelstoke’s famed Canadian cold smoke.
“You can basically wake up in Revy, go have a coffee at one of the amazing cafes, then get a heli-drop with Revelstoke Backcountry Guides, ski epic terrain and snow all day and then be back in town in the afternoon,” says Lynch.
For Lynch and Kämink, this opportunity has been a long time coming for the dynamic couple, who also recently had their first child. Lynch comes from a backcountry lodge family, having grown up in the Amiskwi Lodge that her parents owned and operated and her husband is currently the operations manager of Golden Alpine Holidays. The knowledge and experience that Lynch and Kämink carry with them made them Bromberg’s first choice in taking over the business.
“Mike has so much integrity, he wouldn’t sell to just anyone,” says Lynch. “He wanted it to be locals, he wanted it to be people who are boots on the ground, not just some investors or big company.”
Because handing over an operation of this size comes with its own set of steep learning curves, Revelstoke Backcountry Guides will remain a collaborative effort between Bromberg, Lynch and Kämink for this ski season. Bromberg will continue leading as a guide while showing Lynch the operational ropes and Kämink finishes out his sold-out season with his other operation to set the couple up for a smooth and successful season next year. Aside from Bromberg stepping away for personal reasons, the other guiding staff will remain the same and continually build as Kämink ushers in a new wave of clients. Revelstoke Backcountry Guides is not fully booked out for the 2025 season just yet, so there’s still time to snag your spot and get a taste for what Lynch and Kämink just couldn’t say no to.
