Chatter Creek Snowcat Skiing, Feb. 3-6, 2007

At the start my streak continued of below average conditions on Canadian cat/heli trips. There is lots of snow here, but the last storm was 2 weeks ago. And it's cold so no sun deterioration, but there's been a lot of wind. So there's quite a bit of wind crust in the alpine where we did most of our skiing. A couple of our 10 runs pretty much sucked top to bottom, but the others definitely had their better moments. Flat areas almost always had crust but most of the steeper pitches had more consistent snow, either windbuff or dense powder.

Supposedly the wind blew "snowbombs" out of the trees and thus our guide stayed away from the denser forests. But one of our runs went just below tree line and it had the best snow of the day IMHO.

When I post pics after I get home you will see the vast alpine terrain within Chatter's tenure. To most of you it will look more like heli terrain than the typical cat skiing which is mostly below timberline.

I'm here 3 more days and some new snow is expected. Last year this 4-day trip had 5 feet of new snow. I'm not complaining because I was at Jackson Hole around that time, and as Patrick will recall it wasn't too shabby there .

Tony Crocker":fxo92or3 said:

A couple of our 10 runs pretty much sucked top to bottom.

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It could have been worst. I know someone that was going one week at Chatter Creek earlier this year. One the first run of his first day of his dream vacation, he hit a tree stump and fracture his leg. :x

Tony Crocker":fxo92or3 said:

I'm here 3 more days and some new snow is expected. Last year this 4-day trip had 5 feet of new snow. I'm not complaining because I was at Jackson Hole around that time, and as Patrick will recall it wasn't too shabby there .

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\/ \/ \/ \/ \/ Still smiling when I think of it. :x

As I suspected from observations at Kicking Horse, the tree skiing at Chatter Creek was in better shape than the alpine. We were up high that first day because it was bluebird and the weather forecast was that we would be socked in for the other 3 days.

Day 2 it started snowing lightly about 8AM. Even though there was only a little new snow conditions were generally good in the trees. There were a few of those "tree bombs" which could be an occasional nuisance in tight spacing, but north facing trees were wider spaced and those runs were in what I would call average condition for cat skiing, which is pretty damn good on an absolute scale.

Today was even better. It's not snowing that hard but it's probably totalled 8 inches or so and the old crust is only rarely detectable, even on some of the open runs. We did not go as high as Saturday due to ongoing snow and visibility, but some of the runs started above tree line and were still excellent. Light and dry snow by California standards, about 1/2 the effort of yesterday and about 1/4 the effort of Saturday.

The final day at Chatter Creek was also of excellent quality. We got 2 or 3 runs in the now powdery alpine before the fog chased us back to the trees. We quit at 2:15 because there was a potential issue of fog impeding the helicopter pickup to return to Golden airport. But there were enough clear spots for us to get out on schedule. The alternative would have been a 45 minute snowcat ride to a clearer heli pickup site.

As I suspected, I will probably renew this spot at Chatter Creek next year, deposit required within 2 weeks. They expect a few more slots to open up for this group in 2008, in case any of you on FTO have been sufficiently impressed by my report this year and Lockie Brown's from 2004 and 2005.

I just arrived at Wiegele for 2 days, and they got the same storm as Chatter. It's a bit warmer here, so low elevation snow is heavier. Alpine snow is very good but the fog kept them below 8,000 feet today.

Pics mostly from the photogenic first day at Chatter Creek. I might also add that I was pleasantly surprised by the Island Lake level (that is to say excellent) quality of food and service at Chatter Creek.

Chatter Creek has 3 key advantages over other Canadian snowcat areas IMHO.
1) They have 55,000 acres of permit area (vs. 7,000 at Island Lake for example). Unlikely to ever get tracked out by 42 skiers per day.
2) They have as much tree skiing as their competitors but far more alpine to add variety of terrain comparable to heliskiing.
3) Northerly location in the Rockies, abundant alpine to 8,000 feet and one glacier to 9,800 protects them from warm events like the 2005 Tropical Punch rain.

It was somewhat of a puzzle to see so much snow in the Rockies given the low snow reputations of places like Marmot and Lake Louise. But Chatter is across from the northern end of the Selkirks and west of the Columbia Icefield, adjacent to the new and also well-reviewed Mica Heli Guides. It probably doesn't snow as much as in the Selkirks and Monashees, but it snows enough and the gain in powder preservation is worthwhile.

The sprawling terrain makes for slightly longer cat rides than a more compact area like Island Lake, so even the best ski days at Chatter are going to be 12-14K vs. 16-18K at Island Lake. But reliable powder is what you're paying for, and that's why I'm renewing here.

More pics from the 3 days at Chatter Creek with better snow.

Did you like Chatter Creek better than Island Lake?

I assume yes, but curious about your reasoning.

Is the alpine that more extensive?

I think I compared Chatter Creek and Island Lake quite well in the Feb. 13 1:36PM post above. More alpine was visible to me at Chatter Creek on the first day than Island Lake has in their entire tenure. And I never even saw the higher glacier area that Chatter had to use after the Tropical Punch in 2005.

If I could show up on short notice right after a dump, I'd take Island Lake for the longer fall lines and more daily vertical. But since you have to reserve way ahead (I just sent next year's deposit today) I'm going back to Chatter for the greater reliability.

Price, food and service are comparable. Facilities are a bit more plush at Island Lake.

You also have to consider the numerous cat operators in the Selkirks and Monashees. These include the oldest places, Selkirk Wilderness and Great Northern, plus newer ones like Mustang which someone else on FTO visited around New Year's. These places have nearly all good tree skiing and get lots of snow, but can have some of Island Lake's low elevation issues if the weather is too warm.

I've now had 18 heli days and 23 cat days, and have ample evidence that conditions and weather can vary extensively. So I'm starting to get picky. I like to have abundance of both alpine and trees available, because you never know which will be favored in terms of snow conditions. This is a strong point of Mike Wiegele's heliskiing tenure also. In general last week was not that great in B.C., but the places I went had pretty good powder skiing most of the time.

Thanks Tony.