Winter 2006

Get in on British Columbia's Backcountry-Ski-Lodge Boom

Emily Johnson and I are looking down a 1,500-foot gully with just enough room for two sets of tracks. We’re just a half mile from our backcountry cabin, the Icefall Lodge, yet this steep shot has never been skied. Until this season, when Canadian mountain guides Jim Gudjonson and Larry Dolecki opened the Icefall, just 40 miles north of Golden, British Columbia, none of the cliff-punctuated valleys that surround us had ever seen an S-turn. We jump into the ravine, dropping and popping a series of stair-step ledges until we bottom out in the narrow valley. Coming up for air, we can see our group’s tracks snaking down runs we named earlier this week.

Icefall isn’t alone in providing backcountry firsts. Since 2001, when a new provincial government took power in B.C. and vowed to make it easier for operators to receive “tenures” (commercial permits) to guide on previously inaccessible public land, more than 20 backcountry touring businesses have opened on crown lands. That’s good news for skiers, who flock to the province each winter for its steady Pacific storm track, relatively stable snowpack, and seemingly endless expanse of virgin lines. In the past, skiers had to wait years to secure high-season slots with the few heli- and ski-touring pioneers operating; today there are more powder peddlers in B.C. than you could visit in a lifetime of annual vacations. Here are our ten favorite new lodge-based heli, cat, and touring operations—all promising first descents and naming rights for years to come. —Hannah Nordhaus

1. Icefall Lodge
Icefall Lodge, which opened last season, operates from a bare-bones four-bedroom cabin. A plusher structure is slated to open in 2008, but in the interim, the Icefall is best for budget-minded skiers more intent on logging vertical than lolling in beautiful digs. Set against the Continental Divide, the lodge lets skiers tour the 11,000-foot Lyells, the highest hut-accessed peaks in Canada. $1,700 per person per week; www.icefall.ca

2. Sentry MountainLodge
Sentry Mountain is for the spoiled skier: Expect terry robes in each of the four bedrooms, satellite Internet, five white wine varietals, and dinners like hazelnut-crusted bison medallions. The airy lodge, set in the northern Esplanade Range of the Selkirks, accesses 10,000 skiable acres, which are best known for an abundance of tree runs, like the Gauntlet, a north-facing 2,800-foot, 38-degree shot through old-growth Douglas fir. $2,150 per person per week; www.sentrymountainlodge.com

3. Talus Lodge
Talus Lodge sits high on the B.C.-Alberta border, with expansive views of the Rockies and the jagged, Hershey’s-Kiss-shaped Talon Peak. The lodge, a three-story chalet with simple but comfortable furnishings and two wraparound southwest-facing decks for sunning, perches on a gentle limestone plateau with access to relatively moderate terrain. Perfect for intermediate skiers and snowshoers. $1,350 per person per week; www.taluslodge.com

4. Powder Hounds Cat Skiing
With a sprawling three-story, 11,000-square-foot log cabin, 12 guest rooms, and a hot tub, Powder Hounds Cat Skiing fancies itself a powder “resort.” The cats can get you to seven different peaks with all manner of terrain, from the undulating Lupine Bowl to the steep 2,000-foot cliff and couloir drops off Harley Peak. No matter where you ski, expect over-the-shoulder powder: The west Monashees, north of Lake Shuswap, average 20 feet of snow annually. $1,070 per person for two days; www.powderhoundscatskiing.com

5. Eagle Pass Heliskiing
Eagle Pass will open on more than 400 square miles in the west Monashees this January—meaning, for lucky early birds, every run could be named after you. Just 20 minutes west of Revelstoke, the homey lodge is built with giant fir beams and a cedar-pine-spruce interior. The four guest rooms and two cabins feature antique clawfoot furniture and Egyptian-cotton linens. From $6,650 per person per week; www.eaglepassheliskiing.com

6. Valkyr Adventures
Eighty miles south of Revelstoke, Shelly and Martin Glasheen built this five-bedroom pine lodge from lumber they salvaged and processed in their own sawmill. The setting is more mountain sophisticate than ski bum, with leather furniture, hardwood floors, and steaming hot showers. Favorite run: the 1,500-foot, 35-degree chute that slashes Viking Holler Bowl. $1,700 per person per week; www.valkyradventures.com

7. Sol Mountain Touring
In an effort to broaden backcountry skiing’s appeal, Sol Mountain Touring, located just east of Monashee Provincial Park, runs a joint program with Silver Star resort. Backcountry novices get comfortable with their gear at the ski area, then spend the remainder of the week at the lodge applying their new powder-skiing know-how. Skiers of all abilities will appreciate the new seven-bedroom lodge, equipped with a wood-fired sauna and a stretching room with million-dollar views, as well as the ample Monashee snowpack. $1,660 per person per week; www.solmountain.com

8. Pantheon Helisports
Seven Years in Tibet, Kundun, and K2 were all filmed in this wild expanse of the Coast Range between Whistler and Bella Coola, as were many a Warren Miller segment over the past decade. Last January, Pantheon opened 780 square miles of skiing here to us mortals. The four-bedroom log lodge, which sits on a working cattle ranch, is an ideal launching point for bids up nearby summits, including 13,176-foot Mount Waddington, B.C.’s highest point. $8,000 per person per week; www.pantheonheli.com

9. Whitecap Alpine McGillivray Pass Lodge
Lars Andrews, a mountain guide who has chased snow around the globe, realized the best skiing he’d ever done was at his family’s heli-accessed cabin, an hour from Whistler. So he opened the cabin to the public and began guiding commercially on the surrounding 9,000 acres. You don’t come here for the amenities (hostel-style lofts), you come for the location on the eastern slope of the Coast Range, where Pacific storms collide with the frigid continental air mass to drop stacks of powder. $1,600 per person per week, with supplements for heli-assisted touring; www.whitecapalpine.ca

10. Skeena Heliskiing
Skeena Heliskiing may be in Canada, but it caters to the oversized American sensibility. Skeena’s terrain covers more than 3,100 square miles, an area one-and-a-half times the size of Delaware. The opulent lodge features carved totem-pole beams, floor-to-ceiling windows, iron-and-crystal chandeliers, and eight enormous guest rooms. $8,700 per person per week; www.skeenaheliskiing.com

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