Jacob Lagercrantz, IT Manager, spends a lot of time with computers while he’s at Quest, but he’s also got a really cool hobby that not too many people know about.

You’ve been at Quest for a while, Jacob!

I’ve been here since May 2011. I recently moved into the role of IT Manager, and we’re a small team of three people that make sure all IT systems are up and running — from email to websites and Wi-Fi and much more. The recurring joke is, if it blinks or beeps, it’s probably IT’s responsibility!

What’s one of the biggest changes you’ve seen at Quest over the years?

The campus is definitely busier than it used to be, which is nice to see. When I first started, it was easy to know everyone I worked with, and I even got to know a lot of the students. That’s not as easy anymore, but of course it’s a positive thing that we are growing!

And what do you enjoy most about your job?

Figuring out creative IT solutions with the limited budget of a non-profit institution. Also, being able to recover a student’s lost documents when they come to IT in tears because their hard drive crashed, and they believe they’ve lost all their work. Helping them is always a good feeling!

I bet! When you’re not at work, what are you up to?

Like many people in Squamish, you’ll find me out in the mountains, either on skis, on a mountain bike or hiking with my dogs, Jake (not named after me) and Sara. I’m also a bit of an amateur photographer, so you’ll see me dragging my camera with me everywhere I go.

So, you’re a bit of a thrill-seeking mountain adventurer.

Perhaps less thrill-seeking and more adventure-seeking, at least these days because I don’t heal up as quickly anymore! Being in the mountains is why I moved to this part of Canada, so I try to get out there as much as possible. There are so many outdoor activity options in Squamish that you really can’t do them all with the time you have.

My favourites are sliding on skis, rolling down a mountain on a bike, and rappelling down a rope in one of our local water-filled canyons, as I have recently taken up canyoning. In the winter, I’m pretty much out backcountry skiing every weekend. Even after years of this, I feel like I’m only scratching the surface. I recently spent a week on the glacier below Mt. Elaho, climbing and skiing for a film project called Sound Water that recently premiered at the Vancouver International Mountain Film Festival.

Aside from adventuring and saving our computers, do you have any other hobbies?

I’m a bit of a tinkerer and hobby engineer. I like to fix and repair things that are often otherwise discarded, such as electronics, vehicles, machines. I have a workshop at home where I weld, solder, sand, glue, make metal objects on my lathe and generally build cool (to me, at least) things. I like the challenge of making things work that aren’t meant to work, usually at little to no cost.

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