Yes, 50,000 acres, by far the largest cat skiing tenure. Any complaints from these hotshot skiers about travel time logistics, low vertical?
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BC Heli/Cat Operations 2023/24
- Thread starter ChrisC
- Start date
Any clue how much it costs to lease that amount of land from the guberment?
EMSC
Well-known member
Not a lot is my guess. I saw a BC gov't website with sample calculations for recreation tenure fees a bit go and would guess most operations are in the couple of 10K's per, with smaller operations in the 2-6K range. Part of it is being charged by volume of recreationalists that come to your tenure. So if say mustang has ~1500 guests per year * 3.5 days average * $5 per day... that would be something like $26K plus a few added fees for other metrics. If I recall correctly it's something like that, though it looked surprisingly complex on the website.
EMSC
Well-known member
Sigh, someday...
tseeb
Well-known member
Not BC and it's early April skiing. Ruby Mountains Heli showed up in my Facebook feed at 1/3 off.
2024 Final 2 three-day tours special.
Arrive 3/31. Ski/ ride April 1-3. Depart 4/3.
Arrive 4/4. Ski/ ride April 5-7. Depart 4/7.
$4,000 for 3 days, $2,000 off per seat.
Book online, www.helicopterskiing.com. 775-753-6867.
2024 Final 2 three-day tours special.
Arrive 3/31. Ski/ ride April 1-3. Depart 4/3.
Arrive 4/4. Ski/ ride April 5-7. Depart 4/7.
$4,000 for 3 days, $2,000 off per seat.
Book online, www.helicopterskiing.com. 775-753-6867.
EMSC
Well-known member
Always seemed like it would be a crazy unique place to go. Anyone ever done it? Or heard from someone who has? Curious how much/good the terrain is. Surprising number of Mtn Ranges exist in between all the desert in Nevada...
Former admin came very close to arranging a day there. I don't recall why it fell through.
An expat NYer on @Harvey's forum who's based in Sedona has mentioned several times how great Nevada is (check out the great youtube clip) and has threatened to relocate there IIRC.
ChrisC
Well-known member
I finally caught up with my brother last night...
He said this group has been doing Chatter Creek for almost 10 years. Good timing this year. Before their arrival, Chatter Creek canceled 2 groups in February (a 3-day and 4-day) due to unskiable sun crust. They took the 3-day tour for a ski - disaster....and brought them to a glacier cave, then flew them out.
And now - supposedly after my brother's excellent March trip, the temp went to 50f almost to the summit of Chatter Creek a week or more ago....and created a death crust. They are now closed and have been since about March 10 or so. Their snow safety group said - yeah, the death crust is unskiable. And not much snow was forecasted. Imagine they had 2-3 weeks of lost business in February/March. It is supposedly backed by wealthy Calgary oil guys (?), so profit is not always the motivation.
Anyways, a Chatter Creek Guide was spotted on Instagram last week in Mammoth, CA (hook-up in my brother's group). Definitely implies season end.
Back to the early March skiing:
Greg said due to familiarity and conditions -- guides would take them to the good stuff right away. But it would be Cliffs sometimes - do you want a 30, 20, or 10 ft-er? He said the skiing skill level is not really always there with this group, but they are familiar with how to just throw your bod off something and land it in a couple of ft of snow....followed up by some semi-sloppy tree skiing. A couple in the group would ask for the 'non-cliff' way out due to knee preservation/injuries.
My brother said there were plenty of runs (12-14 per day / 8:30-4)—some much more than a 1000 ft vertical. Some time was lost when they transitioned zones. He said he was tired. One guy blew out a knee trying to land something onto a cat road. The group was 45-55 (mostly in 50s).
He said he might have been tired at times due to previous skiing: 2 Revelstoke powder days, 1 Eagle Pass Heli day, and 1 Kicking Horse day—all with new snow.
Lodge. Not luxurious. More adequate. Good food. Excellent BC wine selection.
Will try to get a pic more or two from the professional photographer. His friend, Roman from Crested Butte, is a Tele skier, so the photographer loved him. It's easy to get down and blow snow when you drop a knee. (Aside: I somewhat get annoyed watching these guys completely go weirdly sideways for 1 turn - to spray as much snow as possible - for a single photo. That's not really how you ski.)
He said it was the top ski week ever. Alaska and Japan were others.
EMSC
Well-known member
Talk about the exact opposite of my luck at Mustang so far...
There was one group at Mustang that 'skied' for one day during the rain/really bad conditions somewhere in Llate Jan/early Feb and apparently they voted to ditch so they were flown out on day 2... Even the guides at Mustang said there were 4-5 days this season where they couldn't put lipstick on the pig and pretend the skiing was anything other than really bad.
Such a weird season in a lot of places.
As my brother will say: "Don't tell me your favorite ski area, tell me the best conditions you ever skied." Almost literally anywhere can be super fabulous if you hit it in the right conditions.
tseeb
Well-known member
Mustang Powder half-off and they gave you a couple of days to get there. Email received 3/20 @ 1:27 PM
SOMEONE CAN'T JOIN US, WHICH MEANS YOU CAN!!
OPTION 1 50% OFF!!
We currently have 1 REG SEAT available on our March 23 to 25 trip, arriving on March 22.
The trip includes 3 days of guided cat skiing, avalanche training, and safety gear pack, as well as all meals and accommodations.
The total cost is $2135.25 CAD, including all taxes and optional $5/day evacuation insurance.
Full payment is due at the time of booking
OPTION 2 $250 OFF PER DAY
We currently have 1 REG CAT SEAT available on our March 26 to March 29 trip, arriving on March 25.
The trip includes 4 days of guided cat skiing, avalanche training, and safety gear pack, as well as all meals and accommodations.
The total cost is $3477 CAD , including all taxes and optional $5/day evacuation insurance.
Full payment is due at the time of booking
SOMEONE CAN'T JOIN US, WHICH MEANS YOU CAN!!
2 Options Available and DISCOUNTED to Sell!!!
OPTION 1 50% OFF!!
We currently have 1 REG SEAT available on our March 23 to 25 trip, arriving on March 22.
The trip includes 3 days of guided cat skiing, avalanche training, and safety gear pack, as well as all meals and accommodations.
The total cost is $2135.25 CAD, including all taxes and optional $5/day evacuation insurance.
Full payment is due at the time of booking
OPTION 2 $250 OFF PER DAY
We currently have 1 REG CAT SEAT available on our March 26 to March 29 trip, arriving on March 25.
The trip includes 4 days of guided cat skiing, avalanche training, and safety gear pack, as well as all meals and accommodations.
The total cost is $3477 CAD , including all taxes and optional $5/day evacuation insurance.
Full payment is due at the time of booking
Late March is not like what we are used to at Mustang. Unless it’s dumping you are only going to get powder on north facing.
It has not snowed for a week, it is forecast to rain today, then snow about an inch per day starting Sunday. I don’t think I’d take that seat for free.
It has not snowed for a week, it is forecast to rain today, then snow about an inch per day starting Sunday. I don’t think I’d take that seat for free.
I skied at Chatter Creek for 4 seasons 2007-2010. This year's weather strikes me as a bizarre aberration, I'm guessing your brother's group has never seen it close to 50F. My time slot was the beginning of February and it was usually very cold. Chatter Creek and Mica Heli are in the Canadian Rockies between Jasper and Lake Louise. They get more snow because they are opposite Kinbasket Lake and thus not in the shadow of the Selkirks and Purcells. But it's still a continental snowpack. That means worse snow stability than the Selkirks and Monashees. I sometimes experienced crust in the alpine but it was caused by wind not sun.
This was part of the reason vertical was on the low side for a remote snowcat lodge. The reason I was at Chatter Creek is that it seemed immune to the rain events that wrecked my 2005 snowcat trip after close calls in 2003 and 2004, due to Chatter's colder climate and its Vertebrae Glacier up to 10,000 feet. But in 2010 I skied at both Chatter Creek and Mustang one week apart and switched to Mustang for the next decade. I would normally expect Chatter Creek to be less risky in March than the Selkirks/Monashees due to colder weather and higher alpine terrain.
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