A little under a month ago (January 6th to be exact) I woke up at 5 am to eat a hearty breakfast, gear up and drive for an hour out to the launching point for a cat ski adventure. The company was Valhalla Powdercats and, as everyone I have talked to suggested, offers the best terrain out there. Everyone was jealous. What did I do to deserve a free day of cat skiing? I showed up to the staff christmas party after only 1 or 2 days of training and my name was called... There are people who have worked their whole lives at Red and have never won anything close to this. My friend, Christine, won a pair of sweat pants, and another friend won a child's puzzle... So how did I luck out?
On January 6th it didn't matter though. All that mattered was how was I going to cope with the most powder I've ever skied in. I have only really skied in bounds at resorts, sticking to groomers and the odd mogul run for most of my life and the past couple of years venturing into the black diamond territory and more challenging steeper terrain. How were the legs, mind, and body going to cope with true backcountry snow?
I was pretty nervous leading up to this day as I heard stories of contempt within the group for the slow one, there's always one slow one in a group of 12. Was it going to be me? Could I keep up? It is pretty easy to lose a ski if it comes off in the deep powder. I have seen it happen a couple of times in the rental shop, people losing one or two skis and having to rent a pair for the day.
But, after talking to Norm the day before and borrowing a pair of K2 Apache Outlaws, I was confident that morning. Lots of coffee, muffins, cereal, and with day break just around the horizon the 12 of us were off on a school bus out to meet the snow cat to take us off for the day into the Valhalla Range.
That day, we got in about 7 runs. Everyone was magical, started out with a nice gentle run called Kut Korners. And on it went, 30 min ride up to different points to launch down into the deep powder and perfectly placed trees. The extra width that the Outlaw skis provided helped very much to stay on top of the snow and make the perfect turns and launch off the softest cliffs. The cliffs and other various jumps attempted usually only occur for me after a couple of beers, but this day it was all about adrenaline. And somehow they were all landed, no face plants, well maybe one, I accidentally cut too close to a tree and ended up in a tree well but it was easy to get out of. With the dins on the bindings set super high, there was no way the skis could get lost in the snow. In the group of 12, all Red mountain staff who either won it at the christmas party or through their exceptional work, were of similar ability, no slow ones, no one super fast, everyone was there to have a great time and we did!
Smiles were had by all including my knees and legs. A unique and awesome experience. How can I cope with resort skiing and other peoples tracks now.... haha well I am going to have to because there is no way I will be able to do this again for free and at a minimum of $300 per day for cat skiing... it ain't going to happen soon.... Ah well, if it only happens once, then I'm happy it happened at all!
And at the end of the day, all anyone could do was lie down like a tired dog.
The only way to the top of the course is a 20 minute hike up with the sled on your shoulders. But it is well worth it for about a minute of fast, bumpy, wild action.
