Last Day of Catskiing - tailguide special

We had a bluebird day, creamy powder with perfect stability for the last day of catskiing for this winter. After skiing Wildhorse Peak we traversed into this bowl to keep skiing. The rest of the group had a sweet line just to the right of the picture but this spine looked in condition for me. The last time I skied this line it was a little windswept and not altogether pleasant. Today it was much different.

Another run a different view

Skiing with the new helmet cam

Wildhorse season over

Another great winter season with lots of good people and great snow. We had fairly challenging avalanche conditions this year which meant for guiding a lot of careful terrain selection and client management. I am looking forward to next winter. This photo of me was taken by Osso of Sci Club Europa from Italy.

I love my job

I take skiers that love to ski to places that they love to ski. I see great big powder smiles all around me. The people that ski ( and ride ) at Wildhorse inspire me. I am thankful to have them in my life even for such a brief moment. I work with a team that know what they need to do and do it well. They too love what they do. We make the very best of what we have and are grateful for that. It is a beautiful world.

More turns at Wildhorse Catskiing

Lots of snow created great early season conditions at Wildhorse Catskiing. We have put in lots of days of great skiing for a lot of returning skiers and snowboarders. We miss having Sara taking photographs and tailguiding. For the alternative Ethan seems to be enjoying his time with Sara.

Skiing Baldy Cliffs

I'm not a big cliff hucker but I like to ski all kinds of terrain. I love the feeling of carving through soft cream cheese powder and hitting perfect rock pillows and the turns becoming effortless.

It is awesome to see some of our guests at Wildhorse hurling themselves off the cliffs and sometimes crashing spectacularly. I need to ski tomorrow and the next day, and the day after that. I'm chicken.

Skiing Wildhorse Peak

It has been an awesome winter. Lots of great skiing. The shallow snowpack this winter has made the steeps steeper and bumps and drops outstanding. I always find it interesting to search a little harder for fresh lines. Here we are dropping off Wildhorse Peak.

Skiing at Wildhorse Catskiing

The winter was a little late in coming and our first day of catskiing was New Years Day 2009. We had some awesome early season turns and then a short avalanche cycle where we closed down for two days. There were 6" glide cracks in the trees where avalanches had tried to initiate but lacked the momentum to continue. Every year is a little different. We are nearing the end of dry spell now and we finished skiing the steeper lines on Mustang Bowl, Mustang Face and Wildhorse Peak.

The Winter Blur

Wake up at 6, get hot drinks ready, get lunches ready, safety equipment. Breakfast and a coffee. Review. Check. Greet the days skiers. Paperwork. Radios. Check. Guide, TailGuide and Driver. 12 skiers - everyone accounted for. Drive 4km. Unload. Load Snowmobile. Snowmobile 30 minutes. Start SnowCat. Safety Talks. Load Cat. Unload. Ski Powder. Load. Ski Powder. Repeat 10 times. Load snowmobiles. Drive home. Go to Ymir Hotel. Drink Beer. Eat Dinner. Clean up. Check. Sleep. Repeat.

Great Winter.

Second Ascent for the Season

I walked up Wildhorse Peak once in December when road building preparing for the season just to get away from the sound of machinery. Chris, Gordon and I walked up yesterday to ski the south face. Beautiful knee deep powder through 2,400 vertical feet. Sunny skies and -12C. Only skied this one once before. We skied a few other lines and then came up to this point and skied back down to the valley bottom from where the photo was taken.

Winter is here

Sara and I skied at Whitewater on the groomers for Christmas Day. Skied three exploratory runs at Wildhorse and then the 29th and 30th of December in epic powder conditions. It was good to let the powder pour over the goggles and let the thoughts of snowcat maintenance, chainsawing, deisel tanks, clearing snow, shoveling snow, snowmobiles, invoices, credit cards, bank balances, safety equipment and a myriad of other thoughts slip into the past. Powder keeps ones thoughts simple, pure and present. Happy New Year.

Ready for winter

Most of September and October has been raining and snowing. Managed to fly out the toilet barrels from the Yurts and cleaned them out. Loads of fun that one. Otherwise been working on extending the snowcat trails higher and further. I've hiked into Qua Yurt a couple of times working on replacing the roof and adding a deck. It was a little touch and go getting a helicopter through the weather and getting a team of 5 together on standby to get the job done. Ready for winter. Here's a new map for the yurt and catskiing with some of the updates.