Powder Snow
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The Powder Stagecoach tenure at Castle Mountain receives approximately 9 to 10 metres of snowfall per season. This is very respectable although it is less than the average for Canadian cat skiing operations. The snow tends to fall in small top-ups rather than massive dumps, so the likelihood of riding knee to waist deep powder is not high. Powder Stagecoach also gets regular resets from the wind buff ie wind blown snow.
The slopes are mostly southeast facing, which is ideal for capturing the usual wind buff, but it’s not ideal for snow quality if the wind blows from the other direction or the sun’s out. Much of the terrain is open or has only a smattering of trees, so the snow is not protected from the sun and wind.
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Overall Terrain
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The small size of the terrain is the main shortcoming. It’s only 800 hectares, which is 73 times smaller than the largest Canadian cat skiing operation and 20 times smaller than the average tenure of Canada cat skiing operations. To further shrink the terrain size at Powder Stagecoach, there are some dense treed areas and rocky cliff zones that aren’t usually skiable.
The small terrain size limited the amount of fresh tracks we scored, and particularly towards the bottom of the runs, we always skied chowder. Due to its proximity to the ski resort and that it’s essentially sidecountry terrain, virgin snow can also be poached by others. The resort is pretty strict about not allowing tourers into the area on some days, but ski tourers are allowed 2 days a week, so if there’s no reset prior to a cat skiing day, some of the freshies may have been taken.
Of course it’s all relative when it comes to fresh tracks (and I’m a tad spoiled). Inside the Castle Mountain ski resort, the fresh tracks are gobbled up pretty quickly, and if you compared it to those busy I-70 Colorado ski resorts, then Powder Stagecoach may comparatively seem like you’re getting fresh powder.
The small terrain size also limited the run variation. We often skied the same slope at the top which was a bit repetitive, but it wasn’t as tedious as the long cat track out at the bottom to return to the chair lift.
Runs were between 2,190 metres and 1,382 metres of elevation, with vertical up to 808 metres, which is quite respectable for a cat skiing operation (although a small portion of the vertical was the cat track). The cat/lift accessed skiing was also reasonably efficient and you could get in a decent amount of vertical each day.
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| Alpine Terrain |
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Powder Stagecoach doesn’t have true alpine terrain. The upper part of the runs tended to have wide open areas with smatterings of trees. These areas were really enjoyable and allowed everyone to open ‘er up, but there wasn’t a lot of run variety.
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| Tree Skiing |
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The cat skiing terrain didn’t really offer true tree skiing amongst old growth forests that Canadian cat skiing is so famous for. Part way down the runs there were often small Xmas trees, which offered a lot of fun. Further down the hill there were lots of heavily treed areas (that were mostly too tight to ski) interspersed with open areas that were former avalanche paths or cleared by humans (like you’d see at a ski resort).
A disadvantage of the lower terrain was that it funneled everyone into the “piste” run. There wasn’t enough space to allow freshies for all 12 guests, and when a snowboarder in our group went down the run first, there were only freshies for 1 guest!
A nice pro of the lower terrain was that it was nicely pitched in places with some 40 plus degree slopes. It was mellower in other parts, so it provided some nice terrain variety.
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Strong Intermediate Terrain
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If you had a private group with riders all of strong intermediate ability, then the guides could probably make it work. The lower terrain is generally too steep for intermediate riders and the chowder makes it challenging, so it would be possible but potentially really slow going.
A pro of the operation is that if you’re exhausted after the first three runs, you can head to the resort day lodge for a while to take a breather (but you can’t sit in the snowcat).
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Advanced Terrain
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The pitch of the terrain, the open zones and the fun mini trees, made the terrain ideal for advanced skiers and snowboarders. If only there was more terrain, it would be amazing!
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Expert & Extreme Terrain
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The steep pitches were a good plus. Most of the terrain was reasonably feature-less, with not a lot of rocks or cornices for experts to huck off. Similarly there was no particularly technical terrain such as tight chutes or steep tight trees (without being too tight to ride).
There was an incredibly tasty looking area in the terrain that had cliffs and rock features. Unfortunately this gnarly area rarely has enough snow cover so the chances of riding it may be very slim.
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| Guiding |
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It’s a small area with mostly open or lightly treed areas, so you’d be unlikely to fall in a tree well or get lost unless you crossed the cat track. This might partly explain the laissez faire and loose nature of the lead guiding. The top areas were sometimes very tracked and considering the lack of instructions, it made it difficult at times for the second rider to figure out where the guide had gone. When the tail guide led the runs it was a great experience and during the cat rides, both of our guides contributed to a fun experience with plenty of tales.
Another limitation of the lead guide was the lack of communication with the lead guide of the other group. There were a couple of times when we got to the top of a slope and our guide was disappointed that the other group had already been there and tracked it out – not sure why he didn’t use his radio to communicate with his colleague to plan run choices to maximise our likelihood of scoring fresh tracks.
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| Cat |
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The snowcat powered from the top of the chair lift up the steep track in only 10-15 minutes. One limitation was that two groups were using the same snowcat and the other group was a little slower, so there were times when we had to wait 5-10 minutes for the snowcat to arrive.
The snowcat cabin set-up was very good with steps up the back, all forward facing seats in a nice sociable set-up, and plenty of windows (some that opened). Some hooks for storing clothing would have made the set up ideal.
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Avalanche Mitigation Strategies
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Whilst not really conveyed to guests whilst out in the field, Castle Mountain puts a lot of effort into cat skiing risk strategies. The terrain is partially avalanche controlled by ski patrol and in the event of an incident, the cat skiing outfit would have the full support of ski patrol (including avalanche dogs) and the ski resort.
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Safety Briefing
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Everything seemed a bit disorganised during the morning preparations and the safety briefing was no exception. The safety briefing covered a lot of content necessary for a day operator but with the guide’s slow drawl, inefficient way of saying things, and skipping back and forth between topics, it felt like the same information could have been covered in a third of the time. The guide would also refer to something such as the buddy system or a practical demonstration of shovelling and state “I’ll explain that later” but then he didn’t. Conversely the briefing conducted by the cat driver about safety around the snowcat efficiently covered all the required information.
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Frills
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Without being super luxurious (for which you’d have to pay a pretty penny), the day package offered some good frills. Breakfast was more than adequate and lunch consisted of a simple pack lunch with a roll, muesli bar, cookies and water. At the end of the day the après ski session was great, and it was nice to be provided with a beer.
The photography service was probably a highlight of the frills. The photographer came out for most of the day, acted like an extra guide, and also took great photos. We watched the slide show during après ski, and the photos were very inexpensive to purchase.
Fat ski/snowboard rentals were not included in the package, but some guests found powder skis really easy to come by at the shop adjacent to the day lodge.
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Value for Money
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Value is always a tricky one to judge. The cat skiing is certainly very inexpensive relative to other Canadian cat ski operators, but the product is not the same (e.g. lift assisted) and the larger (and more expensive) outfits offer bigger and varied terrain, more vertical, and more freshies. I’d probably prefer to pay a little more to get additional fresh tracks, but it certainly was incredibly fun out with Powder Stagecoach.
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