We are here for two days. K3 was started in 2007 and was exclusively a day operation until about 3 years ago. It's not that well known yet for its lodge operation as there are only 6 of us staying in South Park Lodge now. In my 90+ days of cat skiing I have never skied with this much less than a full cat. We are skiing with 4 snowboarders, a local couple from Vernon and a father and son from Sydney, Australia. FYI sbooker, father's name is Simon!
In other threads we have discussed the season in B.C. The Selkirks/Monashees had a very strong start in November/early December, but as we know January has been lean. Here at K3 the most recent decent snowfall was 10-15 inches two weeks ago plus maybe a couple of inches the weekend before last. And as also discussed there was a warm full sun day a week ago and the high winds on Thursday.
In the above context today was decent skiing and better than most would expect. However, I wasn't that surprised because K3's tenure is adjacent to Mustang, where i had an impressive record of consistency over 10 seasons. The "settled powder" was not deep, nor was it consistent top to bottom of any single run. The steepest terrain tended to be smooth windpack not unlike Mammoth.
Weather was high overcast with several sunny breaks. This allowed us to get up to the high point of K3's tenure at 7,400 feet.
The run behind Liz, Bob's, was partial south facing but snow was mostly wind packed powder.
Lower down below tree line was more powdery.
Temperatures were around 10F, which is quite comfortable with no wind and going uphill in an enclosed snowcat. We were fortunate to get K3's first ski day of the season in their Dark Side sector. View over the edge of Euphoria:
Skiing that upper bowl:
Lower part of Euphoria:
Euphoria was reminiscent of the "Roman" runs at Mustang and about 2,000 vertical before a long and somewhat tedious runout. WIth a deeper snowpack they can get the cat in for a closer pickup.
With the lengthy turnaround logistics, each of the 3 cats (there is a second now lodge plus one cat of day skiers) got one run in Euphoria.
The next run Baker's Dozen started with a nice tree shot but I strayed skier's right into some ugly sun crust and had two ski release crashes.
Scoop and Bella had similar topography to Euphoria but were short with a higher proportion of windpack.
Next was The Coombe during a sunny break.
Last run of the day was Sunset, a cut block with the beginnings of new growth in the the afternoon sun. Our guide Shannon had not been there for awhile and was unsure of snow conditions. But it was mellow intermediate pitch and nearly all settled powder.
Total vertical for the day was 10,800, maybe a little over half powder. Some of the runouts through choppy snow were strenuous, so we still got a workout.
We have had excellent dinners and enjoyed the friendly and helpful staff. At a new lodge operation you are not getting the fancy amenities like spa, sauna or massages though. But as noted before there was the big plus of skiing in a group of only 6 customers.
In other threads we have discussed the season in B.C. The Selkirks/Monashees had a very strong start in November/early December, but as we know January has been lean. Here at K3 the most recent decent snowfall was 10-15 inches two weeks ago plus maybe a couple of inches the weekend before last. And as also discussed there was a warm full sun day a week ago and the high winds on Thursday.
In the above context today was decent skiing and better than most would expect. However, I wasn't that surprised because K3's tenure is adjacent to Mustang, where i had an impressive record of consistency over 10 seasons. The "settled powder" was not deep, nor was it consistent top to bottom of any single run. The steepest terrain tended to be smooth windpack not unlike Mammoth.
Weather was high overcast with several sunny breaks. This allowed us to get up to the high point of K3's tenure at 7,400 feet.
The run behind Liz, Bob's, was partial south facing but snow was mostly wind packed powder.
Lower down below tree line was more powdery.
Temperatures were around 10F, which is quite comfortable with no wind and going uphill in an enclosed snowcat. We were fortunate to get K3's first ski day of the season in their Dark Side sector. View over the edge of Euphoria:
Skiing that upper bowl:
Lower part of Euphoria:
Euphoria was reminiscent of the "Roman" runs at Mustang and about 2,000 vertical before a long and somewhat tedious runout. WIth a deeper snowpack they can get the cat in for a closer pickup.
With the lengthy turnaround logistics, each of the 3 cats (there is a second now lodge plus one cat of day skiers) got one run in Euphoria.
The next run Baker's Dozen started with a nice tree shot but I strayed skier's right into some ugly sun crust and had two ski release crashes.
Scoop and Bella had similar topography to Euphoria but were short with a higher proportion of windpack.
Next was The Coombe during a sunny break.
Last run of the day was Sunset, a cut block with the beginnings of new growth in the the afternoon sun. Our guide Shannon had not been there for awhile and was unsure of snow conditions. But it was mellow intermediate pitch and nearly all settled powder.
Total vertical for the day was 10,800, maybe a little over half powder. Some of the runouts through choppy snow were strenuous, so we still got a workout.
We have had excellent dinners and enjoyed the friendly and helpful staff. At a new lodge operation you are not getting the fancy amenities like spa, sauna or massages though. But as noted before there was the big plus of skiing in a group of only 6 customers.