Bookings Discounted by US Dollar

Skiers from the U.S. are getting a 20% discount on their bookings currently due to the difference in the value of the US and Canadian dollar. It also means that Canadian skiers can go catskiing at Wildhorse for about the same price as a skiing at a major resort in the U.S.

Some further investment advice: If you had purchased $1000.00 of Nortel stock one year ago, it would now be worth $49.00.With Enron, you would have $16.50 left of the original $1000. With WorldCom, you would have less than $5.00 left. If you had purchased $1000.00 of Delta Air Lines stock you would have $49.00 left.If you had purchased United Airlines, you would have nothing left. If you had purchased $1000.00 worth of beer one year ago, drank all the beer,then turned in the cans for recycling, you would have $214.00. Based on the above, the best current investment advice is to drink heavily and recycle. This is called the 401-Keg Plan. If you had invested your dollars in a cat skiing vacation with Wildhorse you would have powder smiles stretching across your face and memories to last a lifetime. See you soon.

Bookings and Contacting Wildhorse

Thanks to everyone who has been on the phone and email contacting me booking for this winter. I am typically away from the office and telephone getting things organized in the field and then I come back for two or three days. Thanks for your patience and understanding. We don't have cell phone access in Ymir. Even if we did have a phone we would not hear it with the noise of a generator as we inspect the snowcat and tighten bolts.

Google Earth Terrain Fly Through

I included in my last email to returning skiers a link to a Google Earth file of Wildhorse Catskiing terrain. It seems to be pretty popular and it does give you a pretty instant feel for all of the terrain available as well as some great memories. Now if the pictures were in winter that would be sweeter. Click on the link here and open the file and it should open Google Earth if installed and run you through a tour. Enjoy. The picture here is a sample and is of Wildhorse Peak.

Transport from Ymir

The last couple of winter's we have used snowmobiles to transport skiers from Ymir to our snowcat up in the mountains. This winter we are moving to these fine looking vehicles. They will be outfitted with bench seating and we will cruise along the snowy country roads. It takes us about 30 minutes to go from breakfast at the Ymir Palace to loading skis on the snowcat 20 km away.

Nature Conservancy acquires Darkwoods Land

On July 24th the Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC) publicly announced their acquisition of the Darkwoods Property where Wildhorse Catskiing operates. The management of Darkwoods informed Wildhorse several years ago of the intention to sell and subsequent purchase of the company and its lands earlier this year. We have been informed that all existing contracts are being honored. We are very happy with the acquisition by the new owners and the direction towards conservancy of this land. We also operate our backcountry skiing operation at Yurtopia on the Darkwoods Land.

Snowcat Maintenance

It's that time of year again when the snowcat gets overhauled. The tracks are removed and pulled upright so that every single bolt, track and grouser can be inspected, tightened, welded, or replaced. Most of the noises that the snowcat makes come from a loose something on the tracks. We will spend a week alone on the tracks. The snow is pretty much all gone now.

California Riders Ski Wildhorse

Great blog with a great summary of their adventure at Wildhorse Catskiing & Powder Mining Co.
http://kearleys.blogspot.com/2008_02_01_archive.html

Wildhorse Photos

We have a huge assortment of powder skiing photographs from the winter of 2007-08 at Wildhorse Catskiing. I spent part of the day looking them over reviewing the winter - all of the great ski days and great people. These memories are very special. Photographs are one way we can hold onto the memory of a great powder ski day and let it live within us through the long summer.

Check out this winter's photos

March Powder and Sunshine

Classic Mustang Bowl

Under some pressure to produce blogs after a day of skiing.... Another way of checking out what is going on at Wildhorse and how conditions are is to check out Sara's photo gallery at http://www.skiwildhorse.com/. Sometimes it gets a little tricky to get on the internet when Sara is busy downloading images for the photo gallery from our satellite internet connection. But here is some turns from last week in Mustang Bowl.

Wildhorse Bowl Descent

I've been getting mildly hassled by people requesting me to update this blog. What are the snow conditions like? It has not snowed for awhile? Is there any good skiing? Is there any powder? We have about 10-14 days of great skiing between snowfalls. Every day is a little different depending on conditions and the group. The last couple of days has been beautiful bluebird powder days and we made the most of the conditions by kicking steps up Wildhorse Peak and traversing to Wildhorse Bowl and descending this line. Dave and Michelle pose in front of their line.

Tessa's first backflip

Tessa found the perfect jump for a backflip. Jordan found the light for the photo. Dave demonstrated how its done. I skied in the powder. I'm still looking at all the amazing shots that Jordan took and I'll find a way to post them. It was too deep at Wildhorse today.... 60cm of fresh snow in the last 48hrs.

Jordan Manley Photography

Jordan emailed me a couple of the photos that he took around the Wildhorse. There's a good bunch of huckster shots which are always amazing. It was pretty interesting to see the skiing competence and guts to do the cliffs. This was about the last shot of the day on a new exploratory run.

Treadway finds the line at Wildhorse

Dave worked out the line that he wanted and we headed back up to Wildhorse Pass today to stomp it. Sara and Jordan snapped photographs and we all look forward to seeing some sharp shots. Here is my snapped video.

Ski Model Photography

The last two days were busy with ski models Dave Treadway and Tessa with ski photographer Jordan Manley. The weather was perfect for photography with good stability, clear blue skies, cold smoke powder and an assortment of cliffs and powder. We cruised around Wildhorse Peak following the light.

Any Live Bands Playing

Need some more entertainment after a day of shredding. Get up on the stage at the Ymir Hotel. I've seen some of the best performances ever at the Sunday night jams. We heard some pretty good covers from Rylan on this night. Thanks.

Life in Ymir

The skiing is great. That's a given. But what's the apres ski scene like in Ymir? How do you say it anyhow? - Why AM I 'ere? I have heard of Whistler - Are you guys near Whistler? No. Ymir is small town British Columbia. You can't get any more local than here. Here's the scene in the Ymir Hotel after a great day of powder skiing.

Huckers

Bluebird day. Cold Temps. Fun skiers and boarders. Ready to Huck. Photo by Sara. 3, 2, 1... Launch.

Deep

I couldn't resist putting another photo up after Sara finished editing her shots from December 30th. This one captures the feeling pretty good. It sounds like another system is coming in for the 3rd. Another hard day at the office. I think that's Rosco. Correction - It's first time catskier Milena - who purchased the weekend of skiing at the Calgary CPAWS fund raising auction.