Cat Skiing Conditions in Canada, Feb. 18-2

[Tony Crocker]

It will be a while to get through pictures, so I think it’s worthwhile to have an overview thread of the current timeframe. Another problem is that Island Lake’s WiFi works on my phone but not my tablet where my pictures are.

My ski days at Chatter Creek were Feb. 18-20. They said it had snowed 4 inches every day for the past week. On Feb. 18 it was overcast and 7F all day. The next two days were bluebird, high 7F but first run was +2F Feb.19 and -4F Feb. 20. These temps would be problematic riding lifts but not in a heated snowcat.

So the snow quality at Chatter was A+. That also included no wind effect in the alpine which comprised 90% of our skiing.

Saturday was cold in the morning but warmed up in the afternoon and was sunny all day. This was Tseeb’s first day at Mustang. I invite his comments. Sunday was warmer, in the 20’a all day but overcast.

Today Monday was similarly warm but overcast at Island Lake. Fortunately it snowed 6 inches of dense snow overnight, not unlike the day Tseeb and I skied at Sierra-at-Tahoe 12 days ago. But since it’s cat skiing I never hit the subsurface on my DPS Wailer 112s. So far so good!

 

[EMSC]

Saturday was cold in the morning but warmed up in the afternoon and was sunny all day. This was Tseeb’s first day at Mustang. I invite his comments. Sunday was warmer, in the 20’a all day but overcast.

I got text messages on Sunday afternoon that were very positive. 1-2 feet of untracked powder being skied and heavy snowfall occurring at the end of that day. I think Tseeb and my two friends were all headed toward the Revy area last night/ski today (ironic as those were separately planned).

I'll see if I get any info from Skeena as well. My Brother just Heli'd into Skeena late yesterday afternoon.

 

[Tony Crocker]

Today Tuesday was sunny and warmed to about 30F. The treed runs on Mt.Baldy and Mt. Fernie have sunny exposures so we hit some of those again this morning because they will be bad tomorrow and until it next snows, which is expected Friday. The snow was of course heavier in the morning sun, but with the clear weather we also got some open terrain runs that were not available Monday, a worthwhile trade off. So overall two quality ski days. Tomorrow I think our guides will have more of a challenge in forecast warm but overcast weather.

 

[Tony Crocker]

Island Lake guides are good at planning ahead. As I suspected the south facing trees were crusted. There was wind in the alpine. We got one run fairly high before they said wind loading was a concern. But they had saved the north facing trees below the Lizard Range alpine, so most of our skiing was there. Many runs were short ~700 vertical but snow was good and we still managed 13K vertical.

Wind is a problem today and tomorrow. Tseeb said wind shut down Kicking Horse’s upper lifts this afternoon, something I’ve never seen on 13 ski days in 22 different seasons there. Tomorrow Tseeb is at Panorama and I’m at Fernie.