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B C B U S I N E S S . C A
S E P T E M B E R
2 0 24 A d a m B l a s b e r g
QUALITY TIME
from the moment they arrived
in Lukla—"the most dangerous
airport in the world," accord-
ing to Chiang—there was only
one thought on her mind: keep
moving forward.
"The hardest thing was
enduring the cold... and you
need to have that endurance
because it's a 12-day hike," Chi-
ang says. The sisters arrived to
sunny skies before the weather
turned. Then, a lack of food
and running water started to
become an issue.
"The guide we were with
carried a small box," she says.
"On day five or six, as we were
getting lower on fruits and
vege tables, he would bring out
an orange, or a piece of fruit,
and he'd cut it up for us. It
was just something we would
savour and enjoy so much."
Locals use yaks and
donkeys to haul essentials
up the mountain. They also
use yak dung to heat stoves
along the way. "It tells you
how resourceful the Nepalese
people are," Chiang says. "That
was a big learning as well—the
resilience of people and the
lack of resources. It gave me so
much gratitude as I was going
through the actual climb."
Growing up in Squamish,
Chiang fell in love with the out-
doors. She remembers hiking
up the Stawamus Chief at six
years old, and after her family
moved to Chemainus, she took
up rock climbing in university.
What she didn't love was being
one of the only Chinese fami-
lies in the community.
"There was that part of
it, you know, the racism, but
"It was just so cold. So
cold the whole time."
That's how Celia Chiang,
the new owner of North
Vancouver's Woods Spirit Co.,
remembers her hike to Mt.
Everest base camp in 2020.
The trip was a bucket list item
Chiang was ticking off with her
sister, Stephanie Shieh, and
THE
CLIMB
Woods Spirit Co.
distillery's new owner,
Celia Chiang, talks
about forging her
own path forward
by Rushmila Rahman
W E E K E N D W A R R I O R
The Woods Spirit Co.
is a distillery in North
Vancouver that crafts
Italian-inspired spirits
using a vacuum-dis-
tillation method that
helps preserve natural
flavours. Woods is
known for its amari
and gin, and since
Celia Chiang stepped
in as the new owner in
2023, the distillery has
also released a new
arancello blood orange
liqueur.
"We're [also] want-
ing to start a whisky
program," Chiang adds.
"We're putting liquid
into barrels... and I
think we've got the
drive to be able to cre-
ate a really awesome
program."
WARRIOR SPOTLIGHT
there was also the part where
even my family, like my grand-
mother and my father, were
not supportive in any of the
things I wanted to achieve,"
Chiang says. "I don't know, I
guess they didn't think I would
amount to much."
She was shamed for being
a woman; told that she was
"useless" if she couldn't carry
on the family name. And she
spent a lifetime trying to un-
learn that.
"Even now as a 49-year-
old," she says, "being able to
challenge those norms makes
me feel that much more
accomplished. I'm always up
for a challenge because I'm go-
ing to prove you wrong."
