After our sunny days at Sunshine and Revelstoke, intermittent snow was predicted for our 3 days at Mustang. We were able to get in on the heli transfer Friday afternoon.
We also got out on the heli Monday, welcome with a 3 hour drive to Golden ahead.
The forecast was nothing exciting, 1-3 inches per storm, but the weather models do not reflect Mustang’s microclimate well and typically forecast similar to Revelstoke. The reality is that Mustang’s lodge at 5,700 feet averages 558 inches vs. 367 at Revelstoke’s Ripper snow plot at 6,400.
So in my tenth year here I can’t say I was surprised to see about 6 inches new by the time it stopped snowing 11AM Saturday morning. With the weather on this trip I only took pictures intermittently, particularly since most of our skiing was below tree line. Snow quality was excellent down to pickup points as low as 4,000 feet. The sunny weather earlier had created some sun crust on south exposures, but even that got further buried over the three days.
With a partial sunny break Saturday morning we got partway up Cloud 9.
This was as high as we ever got.
The “Roman” runs are among my favorites, NW facing with steep fall lines, This is Hail Caesar.
I was wearing goggles most of this tour so I often couldn’t identify which skiers I was photographing. I just fired away when I had a break (we were skiing this pitch with longer spacing) and it looked good.
Around 4PM we got out of the cat with this view to the lodge below.
But we weren’t going that way. We were skiing NE facing Jane’s Run for 2,200 vertical. We had to negotiate a cliff band near the top. One of the tail guides seized the opportunity for some big air.
The mid and lower sections had consistent pitch.
We had the view opposite of Love Me Longtimes, which drops 3,500 vertical from the high alpine but with SE exposure. Both runs end at a remote pickup where it takes 20+ minutes to return to the lodge, so they are generally done only as last run of the day.
We skied 16,800 vertical, which is on the high side for the first day with transceiver drills until 10:30AM.
On Sunday it snowed all day, probably another 6 inches. Temps were 15-20F, a bit warmer than average for Mustang. The new snow was not blower, but skied great so contact with the old sun crust was very rare.
We were mostly in Mustang’s SW quadrant of terrain that I had skied only occasionally before. Serpent & Rainbow and Snake Charmer were new runs for me. Everything was in the trees aside from a few clear cuts and openings like this.
It was still easy to spray lots of snow.
Since we stayed in a compact area, lift rides were shorter so we racked up 21,700 vertical. This was my second highest to 21,900 on 2/23/2014, also at Mustang. Snow was similar then, but stability was so-so that year so we had some steeper runs this time.
Liz was delighted to learn that Mustang has a new Great Pyrenee, Marco age 1 1/2, here lounging in front of the lodge waiting for the cat skiers at the end of the day.
He’s also not camera-phobic like his predecessor Stella.
It snowed another 2 inches overnight plus some late afternoon flurries on Monday. Weather was mostly thick overcast so again we stayed out of the alpine. Snow was high quality to the bottom of low elevation clearcuts around 4,500 feet.
The ongoing snowfall made Mustang’s premier SE facing fall lines fair game. We had two runs Stage Right, two runs Super Bonbon and one Showtime. On Showtime we are sent one at a time, so I got some pics. Here are Calgary skiers Colin, Janet and John.
Snowboarders Jay and Stu:
After I took my run, Tseeb is here at lower left nearly waist deep.
Two skiers are above him and three at far upper right waiting their turns. My apologies for missing flyover and his friend John in pics on this trip but they will presumably post their own.
We had one flat light start in Cloud 9, but everyone got going here in the subalpine stunted trees.
On one afternoon tree run I squeezed though a tight section into this opening.
These are Jay and Stu’s snowboard tracks as they scored this section from the top. I waited a bit hoping to get a good action shot but no one else came through this opening.
I had a close call with a tree well on the second to last run. I avoiding falling into it, but my skis were stuck and when I rolled over to extract them I ended up skis down in the tree well. Flyover and one of the tail guides assisted me in removing skis and getting out.
We skied another 20,200 on Monday and the 58,700 total was my record for a three day tour.
The past two seasons have illustrated Mustang’s premier status among catskiing operations. In 2019 we were mostly in the high alpine with many long runs including their longest Fifth Dimension. This year with weather we were nearly always below tree line yet quality was outstanding both years. There is enough terrain both above and below treeline that quantity is not compromised by shorter runs in either scenario. And of course there is that 558 inch snowfall average.
We also got out on the heli Monday, welcome with a 3 hour drive to Golden ahead.
The forecast was nothing exciting, 1-3 inches per storm, but the weather models do not reflect Mustang’s microclimate well and typically forecast similar to Revelstoke. The reality is that Mustang’s lodge at 5,700 feet averages 558 inches vs. 367 at Revelstoke’s Ripper snow plot at 6,400.
So in my tenth year here I can’t say I was surprised to see about 6 inches new by the time it stopped snowing 11AM Saturday morning. With the weather on this trip I only took pictures intermittently, particularly since most of our skiing was below tree line. Snow quality was excellent down to pickup points as low as 4,000 feet. The sunny weather earlier had created some sun crust on south exposures, but even that got further buried over the three days.
With a partial sunny break Saturday morning we got partway up Cloud 9.
This was as high as we ever got.
The “Roman” runs are among my favorites, NW facing with steep fall lines, This is Hail Caesar.
I was wearing goggles most of this tour so I often couldn’t identify which skiers I was photographing. I just fired away when I had a break (we were skiing this pitch with longer spacing) and it looked good.
Around 4PM we got out of the cat with this view to the lodge below.
But we weren’t going that way. We were skiing NE facing Jane’s Run for 2,200 vertical. We had to negotiate a cliff band near the top. One of the tail guides seized the opportunity for some big air.
The mid and lower sections had consistent pitch.
We had the view opposite of Love Me Longtimes, which drops 3,500 vertical from the high alpine but with SE exposure. Both runs end at a remote pickup where it takes 20+ minutes to return to the lodge, so they are generally done only as last run of the day.
We skied 16,800 vertical, which is on the high side for the first day with transceiver drills until 10:30AM.
On Sunday it snowed all day, probably another 6 inches. Temps were 15-20F, a bit warmer than average for Mustang. The new snow was not blower, but skied great so contact with the old sun crust was very rare.
We were mostly in Mustang’s SW quadrant of terrain that I had skied only occasionally before. Serpent & Rainbow and Snake Charmer were new runs for me. Everything was in the trees aside from a few clear cuts and openings like this.
It was still easy to spray lots of snow.
Since we stayed in a compact area, lift rides were shorter so we racked up 21,700 vertical. This was my second highest to 21,900 on 2/23/2014, also at Mustang. Snow was similar then, but stability was so-so that year so we had some steeper runs this time.
Liz was delighted to learn that Mustang has a new Great Pyrenee, Marco age 1 1/2, here lounging in front of the lodge waiting for the cat skiers at the end of the day.
He’s also not camera-phobic like his predecessor Stella.
It snowed another 2 inches overnight plus some late afternoon flurries on Monday. Weather was mostly thick overcast so again we stayed out of the alpine. Snow was high quality to the bottom of low elevation clearcuts around 4,500 feet.
The ongoing snowfall made Mustang’s premier SE facing fall lines fair game. We had two runs Stage Right, two runs Super Bonbon and one Showtime. On Showtime we are sent one at a time, so I got some pics. Here are Calgary skiers Colin, Janet and John.
Snowboarders Jay and Stu:
After I took my run, Tseeb is here at lower left nearly waist deep.
Two skiers are above him and three at far upper right waiting their turns. My apologies for missing flyover and his friend John in pics on this trip but they will presumably post their own.
We had one flat light start in Cloud 9, but everyone got going here in the subalpine stunted trees.
On one afternoon tree run I squeezed though a tight section into this opening.
These are Jay and Stu’s snowboard tracks as they scored this section from the top. I waited a bit hoping to get a good action shot but no one else came through this opening.
I had a close call with a tree well on the second to last run. I avoiding falling into it, but my skis were stuck and when I rolled over to extract them I ended up skis down in the tree well. Flyover and one of the tail guides assisted me in removing skis and getting out.
We skied another 20,200 on Monday and the 58,700 total was my record for a three day tour.
The past two seasons have illustrated Mustang’s premier status among catskiing operations. In 2019 we were mostly in the high alpine with many long runs including their longest Fifth Dimension. This year with weather we were nearly always below tree line yet quality was outstanding both years. There is enough terrain both above and below treeline that quantity is not compromised by shorter runs in either scenario. And of course there is that 558 inch snowfall average.
