I'm really late on this report. I got behind with the road trip and Iron Blosam festivities. It seemed to me that lift served reports would have more value on a timely basis. That's not to say Mustang was anything but epic this year, though it was somewhat different from my previous 2 trips. Those trips had the typical "settled powder" of cat skiing but with long, often steep runs and a lot of vertical due to fairly clear (though extremely cold last year) weather. This year it dumped 33 inches the 2 days before I arrived, 6 more for the second day and 8 more for the third.
Feb. 23 was rather like the first day at White Grizzly last year, perhaps too much snow. They needed to be conservative about snow stability, and the new snow was somewhat "upside down," so that it was easy to submarine your skis and hard to bring them up to the surface unless it was quite steep. My Head Jimis were not quite up to this, as I immediately recognized on the first run similar to what I experienced in Niseko 2 years ago. I asked our guide Bruno if I could get some fatter skis. Most of the demos were taken, but the owner Nick was out of town so they brought me his Volkl Katanas after the second run. They were 143cm at the tip vs. the Jimis 130cm and 183cm vs. the Jimis 180cm. This was just enough to keep me afloat.
The group was more mixed this year. Larry owns Stag's Hollow winery in the Okanagan, barters his wine for cat skiing time and was there with his high school son Tyler. There was a group of 8 from Maryland, 4 of whom had skied a couple of weeks at Mike Wiegele. The others were decent skiers but not in great shape. We didn't have to wait that long for them, but I was amazed by the number of runs they sat out at $950/day. We did have a couple of lost ski incidents, and Tyler was taking lots of big airs into the deep powder and once lost a demo ski that was never recovered (presumably it will show up this summer). Our guide was Bruno, who challenged our group a lot last year. He quickly sized up this group and mixed up runs, alternating more and less challenging for those who were sitting out. I thought this was the trademark of a great guide, adapting quickly to the dynamic of different groups. After transceiver drills we skied 10,300 vertical on the first day. I took very few pics due to weather/visibility. My 1992 North Face suit gave way along my right arm part way through the day.
Duct tape was not up to the task of keeping the rip closed.
I can still hear the =D> =D> =D> from the fashion police for its demise.
Feb. 24 the snow settled some again similar to White Grizzly last year and it was hero powder all day long. With any kind of speed you could blow snow over your head and I quickly learned to wipe snow off my hat as well as jacket before loading the cat after each run. It was still overcast so pics are not that great, but there's enough so you can get the idea.
Showtime's long fall line with scattered trees was the highlight of the day.
12,700 vertical today.
Feb. 25 conditions were closer to the second day than the first, but less consistent. I had 4 crashes, and fortunately the 2 with ski ejections kept the skis close to me. One of these was here, where the snow in the trees was light and over my head, so I got my speed up and emerged into the open into denser snow and blew up.
I was one of 4 people who fell in this area.
But overall it was another great day, including some refills on Showtime.
Last run both days was White Boy, some steep drops just above the lodge.
We skied 11,700 vertical today. Last year cat skiing 3 different places I analyzed what drives the vertical skied, and the most important factor is length of the runs. On my previous visits most runs were 1,800 to 2,000+ while this time 1,200 to 1,400 was typical. This was mainly due to weather not allowing us to get any higher than about 6,700 feet. This is of course the same weather that produced over-the-head powder, not an unreasonable tradeoff.
Farewell to Mustang from lodge dog Stella.
In January 2012 I told Mustang I wanted to return but to change my dates. They said as a single person I'd have no problem; call them in March and work it out. This year demand is up. They said if you didn't leave a deposit for next year on your departure day, there is a waiting list and you might not get in next year when you want. So I'm now locked into 3rd weekend of February at Mustang for the forseeable future.
Feb. 23 was rather like the first day at White Grizzly last year, perhaps too much snow. They needed to be conservative about snow stability, and the new snow was somewhat "upside down," so that it was easy to submarine your skis and hard to bring them up to the surface unless it was quite steep. My Head Jimis were not quite up to this, as I immediately recognized on the first run similar to what I experienced in Niseko 2 years ago. I asked our guide Bruno if I could get some fatter skis. Most of the demos were taken, but the owner Nick was out of town so they brought me his Volkl Katanas after the second run. They were 143cm at the tip vs. the Jimis 130cm and 183cm vs. the Jimis 180cm. This was just enough to keep me afloat.
The group was more mixed this year. Larry owns Stag's Hollow winery in the Okanagan, barters his wine for cat skiing time and was there with his high school son Tyler. There was a group of 8 from Maryland, 4 of whom had skied a couple of weeks at Mike Wiegele. The others were decent skiers but not in great shape. We didn't have to wait that long for them, but I was amazed by the number of runs they sat out at $950/day. We did have a couple of lost ski incidents, and Tyler was taking lots of big airs into the deep powder and once lost a demo ski that was never recovered (presumably it will show up this summer). Our guide was Bruno, who challenged our group a lot last year. He quickly sized up this group and mixed up runs, alternating more and less challenging for those who were sitting out. I thought this was the trademark of a great guide, adapting quickly to the dynamic of different groups. After transceiver drills we skied 10,300 vertical on the first day. I took very few pics due to weather/visibility. My 1992 North Face suit gave way along my right arm part way through the day.
Duct tape was not up to the task of keeping the rip closed.
I can still hear the =D> =D> =D> from the fashion police for its demise.
Feb. 24 the snow settled some again similar to White Grizzly last year and it was hero powder all day long. With any kind of speed you could blow snow over your head and I quickly learned to wipe snow off my hat as well as jacket before loading the cat after each run. It was still overcast so pics are not that great, but there's enough so you can get the idea.
Showtime's long fall line with scattered trees was the highlight of the day.
12,700 vertical today.
Feb. 25 conditions were closer to the second day than the first, but less consistent. I had 4 crashes, and fortunately the 2 with ski ejections kept the skis close to me. One of these was here, where the snow in the trees was light and over my head, so I got my speed up and emerged into the open into denser snow and blew up.
I was one of 4 people who fell in this area.
But overall it was another great day, including some refills on Showtime.
Last run both days was White Boy, some steep drops just above the lodge.
We skied 11,700 vertical today. Last year cat skiing 3 different places I analyzed what drives the vertical skied, and the most important factor is length of the runs. On my previous visits most runs were 1,800 to 2,000+ while this time 1,200 to 1,400 was typical. This was mainly due to weather not allowing us to get any higher than about 6,700 feet. This is of course the same weather that produced over-the-head powder, not an unreasonable tradeoff.
Farewell to Mustang from lodge dog Stella.
In January 2012 I told Mustang I wanted to return but to change my dates. They said as a single person I'd have no problem; call them in March and work it out. This year demand is up. They said if you didn't leave a deposit for next year on your departure day, there is a waiting list and you might not get in next year when you want. So I'm now locked into 3rd weekend of February at Mustang for the forseeable future.
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