Champagne Aishihik elder Susan VanBibber has died at the age of 99, after a long life spent out on the land.

She is survived by her husband of 65 years, trapper and outfitter Alex VanBibber, their nine children, and a loving family of grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

She was born Susan Dickson on Christmas Day, 1911, to a family that lived life outdoors, family friend Kelly Hougen told the Star.

"I met her as a young woman,” he said this morning. "She was a strong, robust bush woman: She was a competent trapper, competent guide and a competent horsewoman.”

Hougen's wife, Heather, is one of VanBibber's granddaughters. He worked with her husband and has been close friends with the couple all his adult life, he said.

The great outdoors had a pull on VanBibber, one that was shared among her 12 siblings, said Hougen.

Many went on to become trappers, outfitters and mushers. Later Dickson generations continue this work today.

Hougen said he got to know VanBibber best when he began working and hunting with her husband.

She wasn't a woman to stay behind and keep home fires burning, said Hougen.

VanBibber was often out in the bush running her end of the family business.

From 1948 to 1968, the VanBibbers ran an outfitting business in their territory in southwestern Yukon. She was very involved, and ran her part of the outfit, guiding parties on horseback.

Indeed, she was most at home when she was out on the land, Hougen recalled. She continued to learn from and love the land as long as she was physically able.

While many may spend their retirement years living a life of leisure, VanBibber kept answering the call of the outdoors. She surprised many by continuing to trap, hunt and work horses well into her eighties.

In her later years, she was forced to slow down physically, said Hougen.

"She spent a lot of time with her grandchildren and great-grandchildren,” he said. "She made each one feel very special.”

He said she found great comfort in spending her last decades passing on her skills and knowledge of the land, and was known as "Grandma Susie” to many.

She spent the last months of her life at Copper Ridge Place where, despite the "excellent care she received, she fought it. She didn't want to be there,” said Hougen.

"I think she knew that if she ever ended up there, she wouldn't leave.”

For a women whose life was spent on the frontier, there was a certain surrender in entering a nursing home.

She enjoyed a trip home to Champagne over Christmas, and had family visit her in Whitehorse regularly. Her stay at Copper Ridge was to be decidedly short.

"She digressed quickly from there ... not in a way that we thought she would pass so fast,” said Hougen.

On Monday morning, VanBibber woke up and ate breakfast as usual, he said. That afternoon, she took a turn for the worse, and her family was called. She passed away at 4 p.m., surrounded by her family.

Indeed, it has been a difficult winter for Alex and his family. Two of his daughters have died recently as well.

Hougen said he is concerned for his friend Alex, and planned to be by his side today.

"In fact, I'm heading out to check the trapline with him this morning,” he said. "How about that: a 95-year-old heading out on a Skidoo?”

Alex, the nonagenarian, is a respected trapper and outdoors man across the Yukon.

He was named to the Order of Canada in 1992 and the Yukon Fish and Game Association Sportsman of the Year Award in 1995.

As well, he won the Canadian Wildlife Federation Roland Michener Award in 1996 for his continued work with young people, passing on his knowledge about responsible trapping and respecting the land.

Today across the Yukon, friends and family of Susan VanBibber have begun amassing the anecdotes, highlights and stories of her long, full life, as they prepare to celebrate her this weekend.

Funeral services for the late matriarch will be held at 2 p.m. Saturday at Champagne in the community hall.

At the late VanBibber's request, there will be no potlatch. A dinner will follow the service, and the family says all are welcome.

There are many beliefs shared among those who call the outdoors their home as to what the northern lights signify.

Some say it is the spirits dancing, the ancestors of the land illuminating the sky, asking their descendants to remember and celebrate them.

Coincidence or not, each night since VanBibber's passing, there have been spectacular northern lights noted across the southern Yukon, dancing across the night sky.