It's not Powder Skiing, but.........

Here's a little diversion from powder skiing at Chatter Creek. Mid-summer play on a multi-day rafting trip on the Babine River, near Smithers, BC.

Glades in the Megahoop trees. Trees usually protect snow from wind and sun and provide the very best powder skiing. The living forests tend to have the "tighter" lines whereas the old burns have much wider spaced trees. Some of the tree runs open onto cleared cut blocks at the lower elevations. These have lots of humps and bumps that result in very interesting cat skiing.

Paul Daniel from NSW got this shot from Spruce Pass, looking across upper Megahoop. The road to Vertebrae glacier can be seen on the right. The slope on the left has lots of great powder skiing lines. Thank's Paul.

Powder Skiing in the Rocky Mountains

One of many great intermediate powder skiing slopes at Chatter Creek. There is a wide variety of alpine terrain, including glaciers and lots of great tree skiing. Expert skiers and strong intermediates find lots of challenges.

A pretty day powder skiing in the Clamshell         thanks to Cliff Jennings

Did You Know?

There are at least 18 snowcat skiing operators in British Columbia, located in the Rockies, the Selkirks, the Monashees, the Shuswaps, the Coast Range and elsewhere. Every year,more and more strong-intermediate and expert skiers are turning to snowcat skiing for great powder skiing. Snowcat skiing does not require prior "backcountry" experience, special training or special gear. Just show up with your boots and some clothing and operators will rent you the best ski for the snow and the terrain (snowboarders need to bring their boards). Never done it before? Some operators provide instruction for novice powder snow skiers. It helps to be in good shape, but lots of "powder" experience is often not necessary.

Some operators having a predominance of steep terrain ask for expert skiers only, but there are may operators with a wider variety of terrain, with more "mellow" slopes that are perfect for any strong-intermediate skier.

Scroll down and use the links at the top of the page to find out about snowcat skiing at Chatter Creek, located in the Western Rockies. Check out the glacier skiing, the open alpine skiing, the wide open cut blocks, the old burns and the tree skiing, with its great open glades. Try it and you'll be hooked.

Want to know more? Take a look at our Cat Skiing Articles.

Wood-Mizer, the sawmill people, have published an article on the construction of Chatter Creek's Vertebrae Lodge. The article can be seen on the Wood-Mizer Web site. A pictorial version of the article is contained in our Moutain Lodge Construction site.

Photo-op on Megahoop. The upper reaches of Lodge Ridge are on the left, Wonderland and Jo-Pal are far above, on the right.

We've collected some of our best powder skiing shots into one gallery called Favorite Chatter Creek Photos. Have a look-see. The "Favorites" link is also located at the top of this page.

 
©Mark Gallup catches pro skier Ryan Oakden playing in the powder at Chatter Creek.

The pros produce great powder skiing shots, but most of the guests at Chatter Creek are more ordinary skiers and boarders. Take a look at Skiing the Chatter Creek Cut Blocks for some more typical, middle of the road types.

The upper reaches of Lodge Ridge.    The lower reaches of Lodge Ridge, out of the photo to the left and at a far lower elevation, bring skiers and boarders right to the door of Vertebrae lodge.

The far side of upper Lodge Ridge beyond the craggy ridge line, lies above the Chatter glacier and contains Dewar's Bowl and other alpine and treed areas. On the near side, at the bottom of the photo, is the Golf Course, the mellow run back from Spruce Pass, which is out of the photo, to the right.

Dinner time at Vertebrae lodge. Good food, good company, toasts, roasts, speeches and the nightly ritual of the "pink purse". For more, look at the Lodge Life and the Happy Campers photo galleriesamong the links above)

Snowcat Skiing at Chatter Creek

What's snowcat skiing, you ask? See our Cat Skiing Articles .....>>>

Get your friends together and have a great ski trip at a discount.

Snow at the Lodge!

It's come, but it probably won't last. However, it won't be long before the Home Run at the base of the Lodge Ridge is bringing skiers to the door of Vertebrae Lodge.

Although snow is always welcome, the last shot was a bit gloomy. Here's an earlier day with the Home Run hill on Lodge Ridge looking a little greener and the Chatter Creek sawmill showing off some of it's product.

Sunset from Vertebrae Lodge. Ski tracks from the last run of the day are still visible on Lodge Ridge in the waning light. Powder skiing right to the lodge door!

Outdoor Furnace heats Backcountry Lodge

Heat exchangers, circulating pumps, water purifiers, heat sinks, storage tanks, pressure tanks and endless tubing and valves. The crawl space of Vertebrae lodge has it all. High tech in low tech surroundings. A simple wood heat system? Look at Mountain Lodge Construction (Vertebrae Lodge) and then click on Outdoor Furnace.

Solitude Lodge Updates

We've added a few new photos from the Solitude lodge construction project. The roof has been on for a while and work has turned indoors to the interior partitions and stairwells. Use the link to check out progress. Snowcat skiing and boarding from a remote lodge places you at the center of great powder skiing and provides a skiing vacation that is just as relaxed as you want to make it.

Ridges upon ridges. The view from the Clamshell includes the Nose, at the end of the East Ridge and ends with Vertebrae Ridge. The East Ridge is the low ridge with the cat road traversing the old burn, which is the Enchanted Forest.

The Enchanted Forest, looking from the Nose in the direction of Vertebrae Lodge. This is long a favorite view while skiing the East Ridge. The runs on this aspect open onto one of the great cut blocks lower in the valley. This is an old burn with widely spaced snags. In other parts of the East Ridge there is lots of living forest with large glades.

What's New

Want to know more about snowcat skiing? Click here for a Cat Skiing Article set to photographs

Some more photos have been recently added to our record of the construction of Solitude Lodge. The roof is long finished and work has moved indoors. There are two months left to finish Solitude lodge.

Quite a few additions have been made to our photo journal about the construction of Vertebrae Lodge (Mountain Lodge Construction) > We've added quite a bit of info about the the Outdoor Furnace and the heating system and we've added some info on the Water and Sewer systems.


First Tracks Magazine reports on Solitude Lodge

An old favorite by Cliff Jennings. Powder skiing on Vertebrae glacier. To see more, look at Glacier Skiing at Chatter Creek .......>>>.

Chatter Creek is still showing a few openings for people hankering for a little powder skiing and riding. No prior experience or special equipment is required. Best for strong intermediate and expert skiers and boarders.

Tracks from powder skiing and boarding at Chatter Creek. Click for a view of Jo-Pal, just one of many areas of open slope alpine skiing.
"Glacier Skiing at Chatter Creek" shows some of the remarkable views from the region.

Alpine scenery at Chatter Creek      Cat Skiing Articles tell about it.

Chatter Creek's Wood-Mizer Sawmill

Chatter's Wood-Mizer sawmill is finishing off it's second major project. Our photo journal "The Chatter Creek sawmill" has photos from the Vertebrae Lodge project. The Wood-Mizer Web site contains a description of the Vertebrae Lodge project . Our own Mountain Lodge Construction is a photo journal describing the entire project.

Now, a second lodge is nearing completion and the sawmill is hard at work doing the final milling for Solitude Lodge, which will increase the total space of Chatter Creek's ski lodge to over 16,000 sq ft.

 
© Mark Gallup catches skier Ryan Oakden playing in the powder at Chatter Creek. More of Mark's photography can be found by using the "Mark Gallup" link at the top of the page. To learn more about Chatter Creek and cat skiing, look at our Cat Skiing Articles, or scroll down this page or use the links at the top of the page. Enjoy!

Glacier Skiing at Chatter Creek

A trip to Vertebrae glacier and an opportunity for some mellow glacier skiing is seldom turned down. Even though there is more challenging skiing at lower elevations, most people enjoy at least one trip each Chatter Creek tour to revisit the magnificent, "top-of-the-world" views. From this vantage point at almost 10,000 ft elevation, many peaks and glaciers of North America,s continental divide can be seen, incuding the Snow Dome, which is the hydrographic apex of the contient (far RH side of photo).

Tree Skiing at Chatter Creek

An aerial shot of the Nose, at the south end of the East Ridge. A cat road climbs the crest of the ridge, allowing skiing on either side. The Enchanted Forest is on the left, while the Trojan, the Phat, the Skinny, EMOP and other lines are on the right. Below the trees, the left hand slope has large cut blocks. Much of the forest is an old burn with gnarly, but widely-spaced trees. Runs on the left hand slope can be as long as 1800 to 2000 ft. vertical. However, this slope is a west-facing and fresh show does not last as long as on the right hand slope, which is well protected. There is a lot of good powder skiing on this ridge!

Fresh Snow!

Dale and Dan, who are double shifting to build new cat roads, report enough fresh snow in the Clamshell for good powder skiing. It's on its way! Still no snow at the lodge level (5450ft.) but there has been white stuff in the alpine for a couple of weeks.

               What in the world is Cat Skiing? .....>>

This looks like the start of something good! 

East Ridge as it sweeps from the Nose, just out of the picture to the right, across to the top of Jo-Pal on the left. Vertebrae Ridge forms a jagged backdrop. The trees on the left blanket Lodge Ridge, above Vertebrae Lodge. The photo is taken from the Clamshell.

        At last! The roof is on Solitude Lodge .....>>

Leaving the Clamshell and ready for Forbidden Fruit. A group of friends share some powder skiing in a magnificent setting.

Click on the image to enlarge, use the "Back" button to return.

September Cat Skiing Archive

End of the October cat skiing posts.
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