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Cat Boarding in B.C. TR
During our stay in Whistler....one night we got drunk at the village and happened to stroll by the catboarding sign up place :laugh: so what did we do? we pulled the trigger and $500 later, we were booked for a trip to POWDER MOUNTAIN on our second to last day there:rolleyes:
from whistler village, the bus picked us up and drove us about 20 miles to powder mountain. At the base lodge, we hopped into the cat and were on our way to the first drop off point. At the top, we were given transponders and did a short avalanche recovery training session. http://i680.photobucket.com/albums/v...1/KSU_6701.jpg Once we were fully trained:laugh: the guide told us where to strap in and which paths to avoid. All of the guides were really cool, friendly and well trained and they made u feel comfortable. My first impression of Powder mountain: :eek::eek::eek: They were NOT kidding when they advertise that it gets 60% more snow than Whistler. Guides told us that well be riding on 20-30ft of untouched snow. So my first thought was ummmm ok cool no problem. i strap in and watched as the skiers dropped in first effortlessly, i was the first one out of the snowboarders to go first and as soon as i managed to dig out the nose of my board from what seemed like 50lbs of snow on it, i followed their tracks. http://i680.photobucket.com/albums/v...a1/Still34.jpg http://i680.photobucket.com/albums/v...a1/Still35.jpg CONTD.... |
http://i680.photobucket.com/albums/v...a1/Still36.jpg
http://i680.photobucket.com/albums/v...a1/Still37.jpg http://i680.photobucket.com/albums/v...a1/Still38.jpg This was the moment of impact where i lost my GoPro and didnt realize that it wasnt on my head until i reached the Cat. One of my friend happened to take the exact path i took and found the strap sticking from under the snow. Oh man did i ever get lucky. I was cursing at the bottom of the run for losing it until i saw of one the guides having it strapped to his own helmet:laugh: CONTD.... |
Coming from the East....i have NEEEVEEERRRR encountered conditions like these and prob never will. Staying afloat was no big problem on my Custom Flying V 158, i set my bindings back about 1" the day prior and really didnt have to put any pressure on the tail to lift up the nose. Going straight down was easy but intiating any turns was like learning how to snowboard again. Totally different mechanics as opposed to riding on hardpack or groomers.
there was a photographer that set himself up on each trail and took pictures of us as we were coming down and made us look good lol At the end of the day u could purchase a cd with the pictures from the trip for a whopping $75:dunno: And so here are the pics of me in action when I WASNT digging myself up :rolleyes: http://i680.photobucket.com/albums/v...1/KSU_6929.jpg http://i680.photobucket.com/albums/v...1/KSU_6835.jpg http://i680.photobucket.com/albums/v...1/KSU_6786.jpg CONTD.... |
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http://i680.photobucket.com/albums/v...1/KSU_6698.jpg
http://i680.photobucket.com/albums/v...kecrane_03.jpg Some poor skiier who really hit it hard and was buried...it took us like 15min to get him out haha http://i680.photobucket.com/albums/v...1/KSU_6960.jpg And this is the crew of people that spent this lovely experience with us http://i680.photobucket.com/albums/v...1/KSU_6943.jpg |
I have no regrets spending a lot of money on this trip. It gave me a sense of understanding that riding deep pow isnt as easy as it seems. I remember watchin T. Rice in thats it, thats all how he was doing pillow lines in deep snow, and i told myself yea thats easy. I totally take all that back.
It was a fun new experience but i dont recommend it to new riders. I had a hard time doing some turns and pretty much had to dig myself out at least twice per each run. At one point i was really not enjoying myself because i just couldnt grasp the mechanics of it in such short amount of time. But now when i look back on it, it was totally worth the $$. I guess the next time that ill experience somewhat deep conditions, it will be at this yrs East coast meet:thumbsup: |
Sweet! Sweet! Sweet!
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How many runs did you get to do on the cat tour? |
yea thats a lot of money for 3 pics....i guess they know that people would like some sort of a souvenir from their trip so they jack up the prices.
We did about 7 or 8 runs that trip. It wouldve been more, but the guides had to help dig out people...myself included:laugh: |
Thats a great report and pics. Looks like a great adventure.
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