Kimberly Chambers was a force.

She brought out the toughness in people, says her sister, Jennifer.

She brought out the cowboy in them.

On a recent moose hunt, for example, she wouldn’t let her boyfriend pack a sleeping bag, insisting instead that they use a tarp at night.

It was during this hunt, near Squirrel Creek, that Kimberly, 28, fell from a horse over the Discovery Day weekend.

She succumbed to her injuries, including head trauma, on Monday.

Her funeral will take place in Champagne on Saturday.

Kimberly, who was born in Haines, Alaska, moved to the area in 2009 to help care for her great grandmother, Sue Van Bibber – the same woman Jennifer credits with instilling in Kimberly a love of traditional hunting.

When Kimberly and Jennifer were kids, Van Bibber would take them (as part of a group of 17 grandkids) out on moose hunts. They rode horses and slept under spruce trees, wrapped in horse blankets.

Jennifer says Kimberly instinctively took to it.

“It was such a natural fit for her,” says Jennifer. “It was so naturally her life. It was so easy for her.”

As Kimberly became older, she learned to trap from her great grandfather, Alex Van Bibber, an avid outdoorsman the National Post once called “probably the toughest man in Canada.”

“They really were two peas in a pod,” says Jennifer of the pair.

Kimberly had great respect for the rules of hunting.

She cherished the Yukon, and the land, and wanted to see things done right.

She encouraged hunting to be done in a way that protected the environment.

Everything about her lifestyle bore that out, says Jennifer.

She worked as a firefighter.

An accomplished outdoorswoman who felt strongly about the land, she was hired to co-manage fish and wildlife for the Champagne and Aishihik First Nations.

At 21, she started training feral horses, and made a point to be out in the mountains with her horses, sometimes wrangling for five weeks straight.

She always chose to ride horseback on a hunt because she didn’t like ATVs ripping up the bush, destroying trails.

“There is story after story of how hard-working she was, and how all the other men would be tired during a hunt or out on the fire, and she was still pushing at it. That’s the kind of woman she was,” says Jennifer.

“She was impressive and incredibly strong.”

Impressive is a word Jennifer uses more than once to describe her sister, though she’s quick to point out it’s not one Kimberly ever would have used to describe herself.

She believed in herself, but she never bragged about herself. That wasn’t part of who she was.

Who she was was honest, open, and spontaneous. She made everyone feel good when she was around, says Jennifer. She walked into a room, and she brought the sun.

Kimberly’s funeral will take place at the Champagne Community Hall at 2 p.m. tomorrow.

There will also be a memorial at 4 p.m. in Haines, Alaska, next Tuesday at the American Legion.

By Amy Kenny Star Reporter