Epic Face Shots in Perfect Glades

December 28th and 29th were the first two days of catskiing for the season and what a welcome mother nature provided. Untracked snow on the whole mountain and 12 lucky skiers with 20 cm of fresh snow overnight on top of a 180cm base. The following day just cranked up the conditions with a further 35cm of light powder at -8C. Rosco, manager of the Ymir Palace and ex-lift maintenance manager at Whitewater claims "that was the most runs consistently deep I have ever skied in a day." You might remember Rosco from the Powder magazine article "The Legend of the Snorkel". It was a fine day. We hope to see you soon.

Road & Run Map

Here is the latest on the Wildhorse Road and Run Map. Wildhorse Ridge is the main system. We were up today looking at the world. 20cm of fresh dry light powder. Mmmm.

Road building

The last storm dumped about 50cm and then ended with wet precipitation at 6000 ft. The best thing about this was that it set up a thick crust which was excellent for road building. Sections of road that sometimes take an hour to build were negotiated in minutes. We are ready for the season. There is even 20 cm of fresh dry light powder sitting waiting to be skiied. See you soon.

Trade Shows

Sara and I did two local trade shows this fall. The first was at the Silver Mtn Ski Patrollers Ski Swap in Couer dÁlene and the second was the Warren Miller & Spokane Inlander Ski Show. We stayed at Coit House in Sandpoint, ID and also sponsered part of the TGR flick at the local cinema. Good food, wine and great people in both Idaho and Washington. Thanks for coming by the booth. Maybe next year we will head over to Toronto and Chicago? for the trade shows back east. As soon as we hit the Canadian border coming back North we could see the snow on the mountains. I guess that's why they call it the Great White North. See you soon.

Sandpoint, ID

We spent last weekend down in the Sandpoint, Idaho region just N-E of Spokane, WA. There's a bunch of fun patrollers from Silver Mtn and Lookout Pass that organize a great ski swap and we do a small booth to promote Wildhorse Catskiing. Sandpoint also puts on the latest TGR flick on the weekend and we do a little promotion there as well. These are great areas to visit before or after flying into Spokane, WA. Schweitzer Mtn in Sandpoint is on the way from Spokane to Ymir, BC. In Canada - Red Mtn in Rossland, Whitewater in Nelson and Fernie are all great ski areas to drop in on.

La Nina

I must admit to not having done a lot of research on the forecasting of future snowfalls. Frankly, it just has not seemed necessary. We have always had great snow conditions by early December. I did get an email today which talked about this winter being a La Nina winter which
“....keeps the Pacific jet stream farther north, toward Oregon, Washington, and Canada, so the U.S. Southwest and Southeast get less moisture.” explains Bill Patzert of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. I'm fine with that. We have been getting snow storms hitting us since early October with another one dropping 12" yesterday. There's a picture on NASA's website showing the differences in the height of the sea due to warmer and cooler water. What we don't know.

Wildhorse Promo Video

Thanks for watching.

First Snow

The last few days of September and into early October the West Kootenay's received a good dump of snow and rain at lower elevations. It looks like a couple more days of November type weather and then probably we will get some sunny Fall days and the snow will melt a bit. But it's neat to see. The photos is taken just below Wildhorse Pass below the Baldy Cliffs runs at about 5000 ft. I have sent out a few emails in the last week regarding bookings and the updated website. The next few weeks are the time to get your bookings confirmed or miss out. This will undoubtedly be the best winter ever.

Good Times

Of course it's not all work. We camp up at Wildhorse Pass. Have a BBQ in the evenings and enjoy a beer in the moonlight. Talk about the ski days of the past. It helps to have pleasant company. This fall Dan and Mary have been helping out. Skiers from the past at Wildhorse would remember Dan as our snowboarding tailguide and mechanic. Skiers from Valhalla Catskiing might remember Mary as their cat driver.

Snowcat Maintenance

We probably spend a day of maintenance on the snowcat for every 2 days of catskiing during the winter. Every season the tracks come off - and I think they weight about a ton. All the wheels are removed and inspected. This year we are moving to solid rubber tires so no more flats. The suspension is checked and this year we are upgrading to the heavy duty suspension normally found on winch snowcats. All the fluid filters, hoses, wires, cables, bearings, seals, electronics are checked and replaced. The frame of the snowcat is checked for cracks and welded. Then we put it all back together again. Then we go skiing.

PhotoGallery for 2007

If you have been out skiing this last winter there might be a photo waiting for you at the Wildhorse PhotoGallery

Next winter the plan is to have a photographer out every day and the pictures will be available for viewing and download during the week. The pictures are available for purchase in hi-resolution with or without the Wildhorse logo.

Dave Heath

We spent the day working a photo shoot on Wildhorse Peak with Mr. Dave Heath. The light was fantastic - even I could take a good photo. Dave had some ski models that had been competing in the Red Mountain Extreme Competition doing back flips on telemark gear. It was a pretty interesting day and then we skied the 2,000 ft. south face that heads down to Wildhorse Pass in perfect knee deep powder.

Skiing the Steeps!

It's been an awesome season so far. Tons of early season snow followed by awesome skiing. In early February we spent a few days skiing Wildhorse Peak. A 15 minute bootpack to the summit puts us at 7250 ft ( 2200m ) and ready to ski. Over the next few days every single line is skied. The blue skies just made the views even better.