I arrived at Mustang as the season storm track was finally moving south, with steadily declining temperatures to the north. Nonetheless there had been about 2 feet of recent snow in Mustang’s tenure and with the frigid temperatures it stayed light and deep. Overall this was the second deepest snow of my snowcat trips since 1997, exceeded only by Chatter Creek in 2008.
Jan. 17
The first day had thick overcast so nearly all of the skiing was in the trees. Temperatures started at 0F and declined to about -6F by the end of the day. I struggled a bit with the temperatures, usually warming up some on the cat rides, but the heat inside was not that much as my water bottle actually had an ice film in it by the end of the day. In fairness, clothing and body heat are usually more than enough to keep comfortable inside a snowcat, so ultimately it’s my problem to figure out the appropriate level of clothing to wear. I was also wearing goggles and did not notice for awhile that any fogging inside them was freezing.
The trees were fairly steep, so I had some adjustment using my Head Jimis, which as Adam noted when I got them are more of a big mountain than pure powder ski. The 5th run had more spacing so I picked up the speed some. About 2/3 of the way down I missed a mild contour change and crashed, losing a ski and sliding about 30 feet before coming to rest.
I fell next to the small bare shrub at center right. In the deep snow it was slow going to work uphill toward where I fell. Owner Nick was tail guiding and soon came by to assist from the top down. He worked his way down to me with no success. This took 15 minutes or so, so he radioed the cat to take another run while we continued the search. Nick finally noticed some intermittent vertical lines on the snow below us, followed them down 20 feet or so and recovered my ski. Nick after recovering my ski.
My goggles were completely hopeless by now, so I skied the rest of the run without them, reaching the pickup point about 5 minutes ahead of guide Bruno leading the rest of the group on a repeat lap. Nick skiing the lower part, which was a clear cut.
This turned out to be the first of 4 lost ski incidents (one more today and the others on day 3, thankfully none of them mine). In all of them the ski ended up below where the fallen skier came to rest, as was also the case for Mark Meisner at Snowbird last March 8. On day 3 we were skiing a steep open section one at a time and those of us at the bottom saw the ski eject and run on the surface for over 200 yards before diving into the snow. Lesson learned: fat skis are designed to float and they may continue to do so for some time after they come off your feet.
The clouds lifted a bit for this view at one of the pickups.
Dropping into one of the deep tree runs.
The last run presented an opportunity for our youngest skier Ben to huck a ~20 footer.
He crashed the landing. After a few minutes Bruno led us down to wait in the cat for the 10 minutes more it took to recover Ben’s ski. Despite starting out at 10:30AM after the first day transceiver drill, all of the skiing being in the trees and the 2 lost ski incidents, most of the group skied 15,600 vertical. Make that 13,800 for me with one missed run.
Jan. 18
We were warned last night that it would get colder, but at breakfast the official lodge temperature was -22F, which is a record for me by 10 degrees. So I wore 4 upper layers under my ski suit, a face mask and the neoprene Boot Glove over my boots. This kept me functional through the morning, particularly since I also wiped down my goggles after every run to prevent the freezing fog buildup. The snow was a bit denser in the extreme cold and on the first run my tips seemed to dive some. Unlike at Niseko last year, I remembered that my Head Railflex bindings are on a track and got guide Corey to set them back 1.5 cm on the ski.
It was not as cloudy so we were in subalpine terrain soon.
It cleared up more, so midday we went up to a high drop point at 8,200 feet where I had been 2 years ago. View SE down the 3,500 vertical Love Me Longtimes we skied then.
Note the slide path this time. Corey didn’t want us skiing super long runs in the unusually cold weather. Late in day we got a view of the Love Me Longtimes drainage (shaded right of the top peak)
From the 8,200 drop here’s the view NE down another long run Fifth Dimension.
We skied west down Eldorado. The upper section was wind affected (fortunately no wind while we were up there) but by the time we got down to 7,000 feet it was soft and deep again.
Another pickup lower down.
Here’s a good shot of the usually comfortable Monashee tree spacing.
While Mustang is not on private land like Island Lake, they have influenced some of the logging on their public tenure to be gladed.
Around 1:30 it warmed up to a max of -2F before falling back to -10F when we were done skiing at 4:30. We went back into the alpine, but only to about 7,500 to stay in the good snow.
Cloud 9 Peak, often seen in Mustang’s brochures and posters.
This was a scenic day but I was sparing in use of the camera as I rarely was comfortable taking my hand out of my mitten, even wearing glove liners. I skied better than the day before, mostly due to cleaning the goggles regularly and my feet being more comfortable with the Boot Gloves. We skied 16,500 and I was getting some muscle burn late in the day. With predicted mostly tree skiing for the next 2 days I decided to switch to Mustang’s demo skis, which I believed would be less work with more rocker.
Jan. 19
We started coming out of the cold snap overnight. It was -3F when we started and got up to +5 in the afternoon. I wore 3 layers under the suit vs. 4, only needed the face mask for 2 runs but continued using the Boot Gloves. We have Bruno as guide again, and he is more ambitious about choosing more “sporting” lines. In this general area, named Christians and Lions on their map, there are tight entrances but wide open deep powder below.
This one had two entries and the first person in skier’s left lost a ski (it ran almost as far down as where I’m taking the picture) and got stuck between some trees. So the rest of us were sent skier’s right and the tight entry was already scraped down when I went 5th. Nonetheless from the pic above you can see the snow is good when it opens up. And it was very deep in the trees below us.
We returned to an even narrower entry that needed to be sideslipped.
When it opened up I temporarily lost my balance and had to sit down. It was steep enough that the powder started to sluff. I realized I was sluffing with it and quickly stood up and skied out of it. Zoom from below of sideslip entry and then tracks below.
Mustang has added a 3rd cat with a new program, Small Groups, Steep Chutes. This group must occasionally hike or skin up to more technical terrain not directly accessible by snowcat. I have my AT gear along on this trip, but Mustang’s regular program is plenty challenging for me. If Bruno was auditioning us for the Steep Chutes program on these two runs I don’t think too many of us passed.
By early afternoon we got some sunny breaks and moved higher. Showtime was a long pitch and one of everyone’s favorites.
Finally we went back up to Cloud 9. View down as the cat departs.
We traverse the other way.
And then ski this.
Total for the day was 18,600 vertical, finishing at 4:40PM, just barely a record for my cat skiing slightly more than one of the days here in 2010. I skied on the Armada TST, liked them a lot in the deep snow.
Jan. 20
Temperatures have finally risen to a more normal range of 15-20F. It snowed off and on so we’re mostly in the trees as on the first day. Corey is our guide and the tree runs have mostly ideal spacing, so not too much work even for those wearing down after 3 days. Most of the runs end in clear cuts with nearly effortless powder cruising or airing buried tree stumps for the more energetic. While the skiing was epic in quality it was not photogenic in the weather. Here Cameron was surprised by this hole in the clear cut and is being assisted by the tail guide.
Cameron was skiing right in front of me, so I pulled up when he suddenly disappeared.
Here’s the bottom of one of the tree runs.
This run Crème Brulee Couloir started behind the big rock at top and curled around to the open slope at left below it.
Despite the name it was wide open with plenty of room for untracked skiing.
On departure day we come in at 3:45. Here the lodge dog Stella (3 year old 135 lb Pyrenee) checks out the luggage loading.
She lounged in the snow even on the -22F day.
We skied 16,400 for the day and 67,100 in 4 days if you missed no runs. A couple of people would get tired enough to sit out a run or two late in the day. The Armada TST's definitely reduced the amount of work expended in the trees. After the first 2 days I had mild concern that I might wear down enough to need a break. That would be a painful decision when the skiing is this good.
This trip was as impressive as 2 years ago, with deeper snow and demonstration that the tree skiing was of the same high quality as the alpine. I intend to return here as long as I am up to it. Considering Mustang’s snow and terrain quality and average vertical of 16,500 per day, I am less motivated to heliski in Canada, where my average vertical is only slightly more at 18,000.
Jan. 17
The first day had thick overcast so nearly all of the skiing was in the trees. Temperatures started at 0F and declined to about -6F by the end of the day. I struggled a bit with the temperatures, usually warming up some on the cat rides, but the heat inside was not that much as my water bottle actually had an ice film in it by the end of the day. In fairness, clothing and body heat are usually more than enough to keep comfortable inside a snowcat, so ultimately it’s my problem to figure out the appropriate level of clothing to wear. I was also wearing goggles and did not notice for awhile that any fogging inside them was freezing.
The trees were fairly steep, so I had some adjustment using my Head Jimis, which as Adam noted when I got them are more of a big mountain than pure powder ski. The 5th run had more spacing so I picked up the speed some. About 2/3 of the way down I missed a mild contour change and crashed, losing a ski and sliding about 30 feet before coming to rest.
I fell next to the small bare shrub at center right. In the deep snow it was slow going to work uphill toward where I fell. Owner Nick was tail guiding and soon came by to assist from the top down. He worked his way down to me with no success. This took 15 minutes or so, so he radioed the cat to take another run while we continued the search. Nick finally noticed some intermittent vertical lines on the snow below us, followed them down 20 feet or so and recovered my ski. Nick after recovering my ski.
My goggles were completely hopeless by now, so I skied the rest of the run without them, reaching the pickup point about 5 minutes ahead of guide Bruno leading the rest of the group on a repeat lap. Nick skiing the lower part, which was a clear cut.
This turned out to be the first of 4 lost ski incidents (one more today and the others on day 3, thankfully none of them mine). In all of them the ski ended up below where the fallen skier came to rest, as was also the case for Mark Meisner at Snowbird last March 8. On day 3 we were skiing a steep open section one at a time and those of us at the bottom saw the ski eject and run on the surface for over 200 yards before diving into the snow. Lesson learned: fat skis are designed to float and they may continue to do so for some time after they come off your feet.
The clouds lifted a bit for this view at one of the pickups.
Dropping into one of the deep tree runs.
The last run presented an opportunity for our youngest skier Ben to huck a ~20 footer.
He crashed the landing. After a few minutes Bruno led us down to wait in the cat for the 10 minutes more it took to recover Ben’s ski. Despite starting out at 10:30AM after the first day transceiver drill, all of the skiing being in the trees and the 2 lost ski incidents, most of the group skied 15,600 vertical. Make that 13,800 for me with one missed run.
Jan. 18
We were warned last night that it would get colder, but at breakfast the official lodge temperature was -22F, which is a record for me by 10 degrees. So I wore 4 upper layers under my ski suit, a face mask and the neoprene Boot Glove over my boots. This kept me functional through the morning, particularly since I also wiped down my goggles after every run to prevent the freezing fog buildup. The snow was a bit denser in the extreme cold and on the first run my tips seemed to dive some. Unlike at Niseko last year, I remembered that my Head Railflex bindings are on a track and got guide Corey to set them back 1.5 cm on the ski.
It was not as cloudy so we were in subalpine terrain soon.
It cleared up more, so midday we went up to a high drop point at 8,200 feet where I had been 2 years ago. View SE down the 3,500 vertical Love Me Longtimes we skied then.
Note the slide path this time. Corey didn’t want us skiing super long runs in the unusually cold weather. Late in day we got a view of the Love Me Longtimes drainage (shaded right of the top peak)
From the 8,200 drop here’s the view NE down another long run Fifth Dimension.
We skied west down Eldorado. The upper section was wind affected (fortunately no wind while we were up there) but by the time we got down to 7,000 feet it was soft and deep again.
Another pickup lower down.
Here’s a good shot of the usually comfortable Monashee tree spacing.
While Mustang is not on private land like Island Lake, they have influenced some of the logging on their public tenure to be gladed.
Around 1:30 it warmed up to a max of -2F before falling back to -10F when we were done skiing at 4:30. We went back into the alpine, but only to about 7,500 to stay in the good snow.
Cloud 9 Peak, often seen in Mustang’s brochures and posters.
This was a scenic day but I was sparing in use of the camera as I rarely was comfortable taking my hand out of my mitten, even wearing glove liners. I skied better than the day before, mostly due to cleaning the goggles regularly and my feet being more comfortable with the Boot Gloves. We skied 16,500 and I was getting some muscle burn late in the day. With predicted mostly tree skiing for the next 2 days I decided to switch to Mustang’s demo skis, which I believed would be less work with more rocker.
Jan. 19
We started coming out of the cold snap overnight. It was -3F when we started and got up to +5 in the afternoon. I wore 3 layers under the suit vs. 4, only needed the face mask for 2 runs but continued using the Boot Gloves. We have Bruno as guide again, and he is more ambitious about choosing more “sporting” lines. In this general area, named Christians and Lions on their map, there are tight entrances but wide open deep powder below.
This one had two entries and the first person in skier’s left lost a ski (it ran almost as far down as where I’m taking the picture) and got stuck between some trees. So the rest of us were sent skier’s right and the tight entry was already scraped down when I went 5th. Nonetheless from the pic above you can see the snow is good when it opens up. And it was very deep in the trees below us.
We returned to an even narrower entry that needed to be sideslipped.
When it opened up I temporarily lost my balance and had to sit down. It was steep enough that the powder started to sluff. I realized I was sluffing with it and quickly stood up and skied out of it. Zoom from below of sideslip entry and then tracks below.
Mustang has added a 3rd cat with a new program, Small Groups, Steep Chutes. This group must occasionally hike or skin up to more technical terrain not directly accessible by snowcat. I have my AT gear along on this trip, but Mustang’s regular program is plenty challenging for me. If Bruno was auditioning us for the Steep Chutes program on these two runs I don’t think too many of us passed.
By early afternoon we got some sunny breaks and moved higher. Showtime was a long pitch and one of everyone’s favorites.
Finally we went back up to Cloud 9. View down as the cat departs.
We traverse the other way.
And then ski this.
Total for the day was 18,600 vertical, finishing at 4:40PM, just barely a record for my cat skiing slightly more than one of the days here in 2010. I skied on the Armada TST, liked them a lot in the deep snow.
Jan. 20
Temperatures have finally risen to a more normal range of 15-20F. It snowed off and on so we’re mostly in the trees as on the first day. Corey is our guide and the tree runs have mostly ideal spacing, so not too much work even for those wearing down after 3 days. Most of the runs end in clear cuts with nearly effortless powder cruising or airing buried tree stumps for the more energetic. While the skiing was epic in quality it was not photogenic in the weather. Here Cameron was surprised by this hole in the clear cut and is being assisted by the tail guide.
Cameron was skiing right in front of me, so I pulled up when he suddenly disappeared.
Here’s the bottom of one of the tree runs.
This run Crème Brulee Couloir started behind the big rock at top and curled around to the open slope at left below it.
Despite the name it was wide open with plenty of room for untracked skiing.
On departure day we come in at 3:45. Here the lodge dog Stella (3 year old 135 lb Pyrenee) checks out the luggage loading.
She lounged in the snow even on the -22F day.
We skied 16,400 for the day and 67,100 in 4 days if you missed no runs. A couple of people would get tired enough to sit out a run or two late in the day. The Armada TST's definitely reduced the amount of work expended in the trees. After the first 2 days I had mild concern that I might wear down enough to need a break. That would be a painful decision when the skiing is this good.
This trip was as impressive as 2 years ago, with deeper snow and demonstration that the tree skiing was of the same high quality as the alpine. I intend to return here as long as I am up to it. Considering Mustang’s snow and terrain quality and average vertical of 16,500 per day, I am less motivated to heliski in Canada, where my average vertical is only slightly more at 18,000.
