Essay: January 17
From Blue Ridge Country 1998
AND THAT’S THE NEWS FROM . . .
When I interviewed the Barrow family 10 years ago, for the first issue of Blue Ridge Country Magazine, the family of five was happily ensconced in Banner Elk. Matriarch and patriarch April and Greg were guiding their fledgling business — and their teenage and almost-teenage children — through what could have been the rocky shoals of life.
Apparently not.
The Barrows had picked up stakes in the early 1980s to move to the Western North Carolina mountains to launch Edge of the World Outfitters [EOTW], an outdoor guide service introducing the uninitiated into the joys of whitewater canoeing and rafting, rock climbing, and rappelling.
The Barrows enjoyed those sports and more. They’d begun a tradition of “moving out West” — to Crested Butte, CO, or Banff — for the month of March, so the kids could snowboard and downhill ski and Greg and April could indulge a passion for telemark cross country. They planned to continue doing that until daughter Kelly, then a15-year-old freshman, graduated from high school.
But when I called EOTW for the 10th anniversary follow up, I found the March tradition continues, though the Barrow children have long since fledged. Greg and April were in Crested Butte — not to return until the end of April, EOTW’s cheerful general manager Will Mauney told me.
And the Barrow children? “Scattered to the four winds,” he said.
Kelly? “Home schooling in Asheville.”
Luke, who at 13 had just enjoyed his first taste of the silver screen as a “featured extra” in The Winter People back in 1988. “Working for a film producer in Chapel Hill.”
Jake? At 21, a college student in Bozeman, Montana.
EOTW still does all the same guided trips, stays open year-round, has a wintertime staff of 20, a summer staff of 14, Mauney said. But it’s become “the largest snowboard shop in the East, in terms of snowboard volume. There may be chains that handle more snowboards than we do, but we’re the largest single shop.”
“I suppose April and Greg are skiing,” I said.
“Don’t even say skiing,” Mauney cautioned. “It’s all snowboarding now.”