We arrived at Mustang on Feb. 16 with high expectations. It had snowed most of the day at Revelstoke and the outgoing skiers at Mustang had blower powder. We were surprised to get e-mail notification at noon that we could get in by heli, but we arrived at 3PM and were told 10 minutes later that wind had come up at the lodge and we would have to take the bus and snowcat instead.
The wind turned out to be quite severe in terms of affecting the snow. Above treeline on Saturday it was very much upside down, with dense snow on top of the lighter snow. If your skis got much under the surface it was hard to bring them back up. Once you got deep enough into the trees the snow was excellent powder. And there's a mile-wide south face of subalpine that must have been leeward to the wind, so we skied 4 runs there in the excellent snow of Super Bon Bon. Temps were in the 10-15F range, the last day before a severe cold spell was predicted. It snowed moderately all day with bad visibility if you were much above the trees, so I took no pictures.
I've experienced the upside down snow before, and usually it settles and mixes out overnight. But since it was due to wind it persisted into the second day. Sunday was clear as predicted but it was also around 0F all day. I wore extra clothing layers but my feet were getting cold after two runs. I put on neoprene boot gloves and they served me well for the next week. They are an effective low tech solution to cold feet, and I am personally skeptical of battery powered heat devices because we all know that battery life in subzero weather is not good.
On that same long south facing ridge is one of Mustang's favored long pitches, Showtime. It had some snow stability questions but they bombed the skier's right side of it Saturday and let us on that the next day a few times. Flyover at lower left on our first run there:
Flyover dropping in on the next run:
Tseeb in the middle of Showtime:
Lower down:
We did a couple of the steep "Roman runs" on the opposite NW facing side of that ridge. Janna dropping into the narrow chute entry to Hail Caesar:
Late in the day we skied Colosseum trees and at the pickup point got a good view of the entire length of Hail Caesar.
Next we headed into the alpine, where we discovered the upside down snow persisted up there. Kiwi Cruise is a mellow run that proved to be too flat to ski in the thick powder so we skied a cat road to its pickup. We then took a couple of runs in the Truffula trees near the northern boundary of Mustang's tenure. The top of these runs were wind affected but the steeper middle section was the deepest face shot powder of the trip.
After that I was somewhat surprised to see the cat drive up to Mustang's highest drop point a bit over 8,000 feet. The views were great. Looking east down Fifth Dimension:
This run under ideal conditions is skiable 6,000 feet to the valley floor but that's rare.
Looking SE down Love Me Longtimes, which goes on for 3,500 vertical:
I had 2 great runs here in 2010 and a more challenging one in 2015.
At left here is the backside of Cloud 9.
In 2015 we bootpacked partway up the ridge and traversed to the other side to maximize the alpine skiing as there was a rain crust just below tree line.
We are going to ski west here into Eldorado.
Unfortunately this year was the opposite of 2015 as it was the alpine that had the difficult snow. Eldorado was very slabby from the wind and we bailed to the cat road about 2/3 of the way down.
Here's the Sunday dinner menu.
It was multiple slightly smaller courses to go with the optional Okanagan wine pairing.
Monday it got even colder, probably not getting above -5F. Midday drop points in the sun felt warmer, but if you got into the shade or skied fast enough to generate wind chill it was evident how cold it was. Nonetheless Monday had the most consistently good skiing. The upside down snow was improving a little and the guides mostly stayed away from it in any case.
The day started on a high note with Carnival. Flyover's friend John from Seattle:
He is "keeping it tight" here, as with the good snow we did two more laps on Carnival. We needled the two snowboarders from Toronto a few times about "keeping it tight." Most of the time it is not necessary to farm snow at Mustang as there is plenty of terrain, but here we did due to the variable conditions higher up.
With the good snow in this sector we skied nearby runs Mardi Gras, White Rabbit, Grace Slick and Mon Dieu. John on Grace Slick:
Tseeb on steep lower clear cut of Mon Dieu:
As in 2012 the snowcat is the place to be in subzero temperatures. The next few days of lift service would be a bit more of a weather challenge.
The wind turned out to be quite severe in terms of affecting the snow. Above treeline on Saturday it was very much upside down, with dense snow on top of the lighter snow. If your skis got much under the surface it was hard to bring them back up. Once you got deep enough into the trees the snow was excellent powder. And there's a mile-wide south face of subalpine that must have been leeward to the wind, so we skied 4 runs there in the excellent snow of Super Bon Bon. Temps were in the 10-15F range, the last day before a severe cold spell was predicted. It snowed moderately all day with bad visibility if you were much above the trees, so I took no pictures.
I've experienced the upside down snow before, and usually it settles and mixes out overnight. But since it was due to wind it persisted into the second day. Sunday was clear as predicted but it was also around 0F all day. I wore extra clothing layers but my feet were getting cold after two runs. I put on neoprene boot gloves and they served me well for the next week. They are an effective low tech solution to cold feet, and I am personally skeptical of battery powered heat devices because we all know that battery life in subzero weather is not good.
On that same long south facing ridge is one of Mustang's favored long pitches, Showtime. It had some snow stability questions but they bombed the skier's right side of it Saturday and let us on that the next day a few times. Flyover at lower left on our first run there:
Flyover dropping in on the next run:
Tseeb in the middle of Showtime:
Lower down:
We did a couple of the steep "Roman runs" on the opposite NW facing side of that ridge. Janna dropping into the narrow chute entry to Hail Caesar:
Late in the day we skied Colosseum trees and at the pickup point got a good view of the entire length of Hail Caesar.
Next we headed into the alpine, where we discovered the upside down snow persisted up there. Kiwi Cruise is a mellow run that proved to be too flat to ski in the thick powder so we skied a cat road to its pickup. We then took a couple of runs in the Truffula trees near the northern boundary of Mustang's tenure. The top of these runs were wind affected but the steeper middle section was the deepest face shot powder of the trip.
After that I was somewhat surprised to see the cat drive up to Mustang's highest drop point a bit over 8,000 feet. The views were great. Looking east down Fifth Dimension:
This run under ideal conditions is skiable 6,000 feet to the valley floor but that's rare.
Looking SE down Love Me Longtimes, which goes on for 3,500 vertical:
I had 2 great runs here in 2010 and a more challenging one in 2015.
At left here is the backside of Cloud 9.
In 2015 we bootpacked partway up the ridge and traversed to the other side to maximize the alpine skiing as there was a rain crust just below tree line.
We are going to ski west here into Eldorado.
Unfortunately this year was the opposite of 2015 as it was the alpine that had the difficult snow. Eldorado was very slabby from the wind and we bailed to the cat road about 2/3 of the way down.
Here's the Sunday dinner menu.
It was multiple slightly smaller courses to go with the optional Okanagan wine pairing.
Monday it got even colder, probably not getting above -5F. Midday drop points in the sun felt warmer, but if you got into the shade or skied fast enough to generate wind chill it was evident how cold it was. Nonetheless Monday had the most consistently good skiing. The upside down snow was improving a little and the guides mostly stayed away from it in any case.
The day started on a high note with Carnival. Flyover's friend John from Seattle:
He is "keeping it tight" here, as with the good snow we did two more laps on Carnival. We needled the two snowboarders from Toronto a few times about "keeping it tight." Most of the time it is not necessary to farm snow at Mustang as there is plenty of terrain, but here we did due to the variable conditions higher up.
With the good snow in this sector we skied nearby runs Mardi Gras, White Rabbit, Grace Slick and Mon Dieu. John on Grace Slick:
Tseeb on steep lower clear cut of Mon Dieu:
As in 2012 the snowcat is the place to be in subzero temperatures. The next few days of lift service would be a bit more of a weather challenge.
