Cat O’ Fine Trails Not As Pricey As Heli-Skiing, Snow-Cat Trips Deliver The Same Powdery Terrain

The snow before us was knee deep and untouched. The stark rocks behind us looked like something from the moon. And the trees below meshed into a tangle that was truly wild and wooly.

This was virgin terrain … no lifts, no crowds, no tracks. But it wasn’t heli-skiing. We were riding snow cats into the outback.

Cat skiing is only now truly coming into its own. Decades of heliskiing paved the way. But not everyone, including us, has the time, energy or money for a week-long heli-lodge trip or wants to spend $400 on a single day’s flying.

So we headed for Revelstoke, a remote and rustic townlet in the middle of interior British Columbia. We drove (seven hours from Spokane) because that’s the only way you can logically get here. There’s no commercial air service, no reasonable bus service, no passenger train service.

“Hey,” a local said when we grumbled about this, “what the heck do you think the word ‘remote’ means, anyway?”

Clyde Newsome has run Cat Powder Skiing since 1984, starting with 93 skier days and working up to last season’s 3,700. Four-fifths of his business is repeat. The clients are mostly males in their 30s and 40s, with a large contingent (10 per cent) from Spokane.

His skiers stay in the Cat Powder Lodge, newly renovated to the tune of $300,000 and complete with an indoor hot tub and pet banana tree.

The snowcats are same kind of machine used by ski resorts to groom runs. Each is basically a box on tank treads with modifications for creature comfort: a back bench seat and eight reclining bus seats, plus shelves and baskets to hold gear and water bottles. Each can carry 13 passengers plus the guide.

Clyde’s three cats roam 17,000 acres of British Columbia’s northern Selkirk Mountains with 250 named runs, mostly between 6,000 and 8,000 feet.

Each morning, we’d bus out from the lodge to the cat base, pile into the snow cats and trundle up the mountain with a break midway for a Pieps (avalanche transceiver) drill.

The second night of our five-day stay, it rained all night in town. But high on the mountain, it dumped.

After a 90-minute trip, the snow cat nosed above the trees and through the clouds into brilliant sunshine.

Across the valley, the Monashee Mountains were outlined in white and the clouds parted to reveal the braided Columbia River glistening below.

Around us, the fresh powder was more than knee-deep.

We cut through the stuff, carving figure eights and whooping all the way down. The feel of deep, fresh powder is like nothing else - soft, yet resistant. You ski in slow motion, gliding as if through some surreal dream.

“As good as sex,” one guy said as we plowed to a stop. “No,”” countered another. “Better. This, you can do over and over.”

And then we hit the trees.

Trees have always been so scary. “Don’t look at the trees, look at the spaces between them,” people always say. Invariably, the people who say this are very good skiers.

But thick snow has a way of softening the impact of trees, quite literally. And it slows you to a crawl, giving you plenty of time to consider your options among those between-tree spaces.

Suddenly, the woods became a giant skateboard park, filled with mounds and dips. We swooped. We careened off embankments like so many projectiles in a pinball machine. We had a blast.

Each run averaged 1,300 feet, usually starting on rolling knolls above the treeline and inevitably ending in the woods, where we’d intersect with the cat. Then we’d climb aboard for a 20-minute ride back up.

We yo-yoed like this all day, taking a frantically brief break for lunch (who wanted to waste time eating) and eventually racking up seven runs.

Then came the final trip down, Cat Powder Skiing’s signature run to and through Mount Mackenzie ski resort. We started at 7,700 feet, dropping off a ridge while jagged peaks of the Monashee Mountains rose in our faces.

We floated over knoll after knoll, descending in 1,000-foot drops. The feather fluff became heavy cream, then slush.

But it was a kinder, gentler slush - more like greased corn. We skimmed over the stuff, swerving around low mounds and small trees.

Finally, we reached the top of the ski resort. It was wide, groomed, soft and forgiving. The final run had been a 6,000-foot drop … the perfect end to a day of powder.

MEMO: See related story under the headline: There are big differences between cat- and heli-skiing

This sidebar appeared with the story: IF YOU GO Cat Powder Skiing Inc. offers two-, three- and five-day packages from late November through late March. Thanks to the favorable exchange for U.S. dollars, packages run from just over $500 (US) for a two-day, low-season trip to about $1,450 for a five-day, high-season trip. Packages include lodging, meals and guided skiing via snow cat. For more information, contact Cat Powder Skiing Inc., Box 1479, Revelstoke, British Columbia, V0E 2S0, Canada, toll free (800) 991-4455. Other snow-cat operations include: The Big Mountain Ski and Summer Resort, Box 1400, Whitefish MT 59937; (800) 858-4157; Web site bigmmtn.com/resort Peak Adventures, P.O. Box 50, Cataldo, ID 83810; (208) 682-3200; Wed site www.nidlink.com/snowcat Retallack Lodge, P.O. Box 147, New Denver, British Columbia V0G 1S0; (800) 330-1433. Mount Bailey Snowcat Skiing, Diamond Lake Resort, Diamond Lake, OR 97731; (800) 733-7593; mountbailey.com Great Northern Snow-Cat Skiing, Box 14, Site 13 R.R. 4, Calgary, Alberta T2M 4L4, Canada; (403) 287-2267; greatnorthernsnowcat.com Island Lake Mountain Tours, Cedar Valley Rd., Fernie, British Columbia V0B 1M1, Canada; (604) 423-3700; mountianzone.com Lemon Creek Snowcat Skiing, Box 68, Slocan, British Columbia V0G 2C0, Canada; (604) 355-2403. Selkirk Wilderness Ltd., Meadow Creek, British Columbia V0G 1N0, Canada; (800) 799-3449; selkirkwilderness.com Sno Much Fun Catskiing, 63 Wattsville Rd., Cranbrook, British Columbia V1C 2A1, Canada; (250) 426-5503; advnet.com/adv/snomuchfun.html