Well I don't know if cat skiing is what it's all about, but certainly skiing in the high alpine in the BC Rockies and Selkirks is.
Day 1: a one ride lift ticket at Kicking Horse, and a little touring up there before catching the flight to Chatter, which is running an hour early due to an impending storm. The chopper can't fly all the way due to the weather, so it lands near enormous piles of avy debris, and we take a half hour cat ride to get to the lodge.
Day 2: The snow at Chatter is classic "Cascade Glonch". At the bottom of one of our runs it's even raining. Everywhere else (as high as we can get), it's thick mank. It snowed 40cm overnight and is dumping heavily and even the steep treed runs are sliding. Andrew (our guide) says they might "call it" - but we manage to find safe terrain and ski a full day.
Day 3-5: Ah, there we go. The snow dries out overnight, and everything above the rain line (300 ft above the lodge) is dry powder again. It's hard to believe that actually happens, since it never happens in the Cascades. But seeing is believing. The weather clears and we are treated to three fantastic mostly blue-bird days.
Day 6: Back from Chatter, 5 of us stay at the terrible Rogers Pass Best Western, and tour up to Saphire Col on an absolutely gorgeous day. Who says it has to be all steeps? I kind of like these 3000ft rolling runs down glaciers with amazing views. Tons of folks out on this Wednesday.
Day 7: 3 of us left now - we aim for the Forever Young couloir, but the winds have kicked up and there are big streamers coming off the ridgelines. Yesterday's powder is now a mixed bag of powder and windcrust. Wednesday's tracks are gone. Forever Young has almost continuous wind drift filling it. We settle for another long glacier run from near Youngs Peak, with a couple of nice steep sluffy pitches.
Day 8: the drive back to soggy foggy puget sound.
Now I need to find out how I can move to the BC interior and support myself (only half-joking...)
