The boys from Catskiing.ca

These guys have the dream job - cruising around catskiing operations photographing themselves skiing powder. They do a great job so all the power to them. We were skiing together last week. If you are on facebook check this photo collection out.

Ski Bums on assignment

Last spring I got a call from a photographer - Cory Leis with an interesting story. Three photographers had been chosen along with ski models to spend three days in the Kootenay's ending in Revelstoke with no money and no car. They had to call up friends, friends of friends and anyone else they could trade photos for skiing. I took them up the Wildhorse for a night at the Wildhorse Cabin and a day of touring and skiing on Wildhorse Peak. Here's a sample photo.

Video shot by Catskiing.ca

Wildhorse Catskiing Review from John Holman on Vimeo.

Taxes, taxes, taxes...

Here are two ways to beat the tax man! This summer in British Columbia the government is introducing a new tax they call the HST which is going to make everything better and be better for everyone which is why we are all so happy about it. In the past we have paid a 5% GST tax on all catskiing trips - now we are going to be paying 13% tax - to pay for the Olympics perhaps? However if you pay for next winter's powder skiing at Wildhorse now we get you 10% discount AND you don't pay the additional 8%. Total savings 18%. Just another reason to book before April 30th.
The other method is to pay a share at Wildhorse Catskiing & Powder Mining Co. A share costs a mere $10K but provides you with an annual tax free dividend of a 3 day catskiing package including all meals and accommodation.

You can order online at www.skiwildhorse.com

Why Ski at Wildhorse Catskiing?

When I meet people that have skied at a wide variety of snowcat skiing operations it is always interesting to find out what they like about Wildhorse Catskiing. There are a range of options out there offering a variety of services. Here are some of the reasons:

Accessible Location - for our U.S. customers we are 3 hours away from the Spokane WA airport. Calgary and Southern Alberta - 3-7 hours and people doing the Powder Triangle tour we are on the road with all the popular Kootenay ski resorts.

Snow and Terrain - We have a good variety of terrain that keeps most skiers very happy and we get the snow and the quality is good. We have short runs, steep runs, long runs and awesome views.

Daily Operation and Ymir Palace - Wildhorse is based out of the Ymir Palace in the town of Ymir. Roscoe and Belinda do a great job creating home-style cooked meals, a friendly low-key atmosphere at a great price. Skiers get all of the amenities of a small town BC town including the Ymir Hotel, a liquor store and the town of Nelson just minutes up the road.

We are happy with the results - skiers like skiing at Wildhorse because the price is right for lots of powder skiing, the food is great, the beer is cheap, and everyone is out to have a good time.

Powderhounds

Greg and Lyndell from Powderhounds.com visited us last week for a day of catskiing. We had a great time skiing with them again - here is their review from last winter. We were lucky again ( as we are every day! ) to be skiing great powder ( with sunshine for great photos! ). We also love it when it's snowing and we can't see for the snow billowing over our goggles.....

Donate to the Environment Fund

Wildhorse Catskiing operates on land owned by the Nature Conservancy of Canada. Every year we contribute to an environmental project in the Wildhorse Catskiing terrain. For every dollar in donations received Wildhorse Catskiing will donate five dollars. A tax deductible receipt is available on request. You can contribute online or by calling 1-888-488-4327.

Kootenay Powder Highway

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.

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.

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.

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.