Cat Skiing Vacation North of Whistler

J Dogg — Mon, 01 Jan 2007 00:00:00 -0500

Rating

Is there such thing as too much snow? Unlikely, but we went to find out, and oh what a weekend it was. With a big juicy storm in the forecast, the Doglotion/VentureWeb crew packed our bags and headed up to visit our friends at Backcountry Snowcats, an awesome new(ish) cat skiing and riding operation just north of Whistler up on the Hurley Pass towards Bralorne. Owners Reg & Kathy Milne put blood, sweat, and tears into securing the tenure for the area, and these past 2 winters it's been paying off... in snow and good times.

With 15,000 acres all to themselves, and a retarded amount of new snow, things were looking good for us. Really good.

The weekend ruled before we even got to the lodge! Meeting at the base of the Hurley Pass road we were given a quiver of snowmobiles to bomb up the road in over a foot of fresh, at night. 3rd time riding a sled and mad faceshots were there for the taking anytime you drifted off the track.

Then out of nowhere came the lights from the Hurley Mountain lodge, where our warm beds and dinner venue were waiting.

With a ridiculous amount of new snow already out there and more overnight, it wasn't hard to wake anyone up in the morning. After a good feed we did the usual avalanche beacon practice, then hopped in the cat and went 'plowing'. You know it's going to be a deep weekend of skiing when the snowcat itself is getting faceshots...

With a high avi danger and deep roads to be plowed, we faired pretty good on day one, bagging some awesome runs through the burnt badlands trees and mid mountain gulleys.

But then came day two! Better stability, sun peeking out of the clouds and Kath's hard morning work of pre-plowing the roads before breakfast all paid off. Talk about good service.

We covered a bunch of different zones, every run better than the last, with glades, pillows, gulleys, chutes, small bowls, you name it. Oh and pow. Lots of it. No sign of a hardpack base no matter how deep you sunk... bringing true meaning to 'bottomless' pow.

With about 13,000 feet of vert for the day we wrapped it up before dark, super stoked on how much shredding we got on one of the shortest days of the year. With permagrins on everyone faces, we packed up to head for home, with amazing hospitality, good grub, and ridiculous ski memories all drifting through our heads.

The only consoling thought as the trip ended and we sledded back down to Pemberton, was of course... it's only going to be better when we come back in the spring. We'll be back, again, and again, until the snow dries up around the world and ski games on Ninetendo Wii is all we're left with. Until then, we, and you, should be making an annual pilgrimage to Backcountry Snowcats.

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Cat Skiing Vacation North of Whistler