Feb. 01, 2012 - Issue #850: Godot

Kings of the Castle

The place where VIP means 'very incredible powder'

Late afternoon shadows stretch across the white slopes along the backside of Mount Haig. In a clearing between stands of slender pine, I'm riding the spine of a Siberian tiger as it dashes forward to make the kill, holding fast with both hands as the forest vegetation blurs by. Then, with blinding speed, the predator whips around to face me, jaws gaping, and in a split-second I'm swallowed whole, only to be spat back out into another small clearing.


I tumble through and land almost on top of the snowboarder ahead of me, both of us laughing as we punch through tight underbrush, skirt tree wells and blast pow in every direction. I have no idea where we are, but explosions of excited chatter and whooping breach the stillness and silence, regularly reporting the whereabouts and derring-do of the rest of the group. We're like a hunting party flushing out small game, airborne as we go—except this is big game, and the quota is infinite.
Cat skiing at Castle Mountain is a rarified experience for many reasons. First, it's the only cat skiing in Alberta—and therefore also the uncontested "best" cat skiing in Alberta, as many like to joke. Secondly, it's lift-accessed cat skiing, meaning you cross the resort boundary on each run.


This creates an interesting dynamic. While the rest of the populace content themselves with Castle's in-bounds terrain, a select few guests (24 max per day) enjoy elite privileges, crossing under the VIP rope off the Huckleberry Chair into the backcountry for "very incredible powder" access. Here, at the beginning of a groomed cat track, your Stagecoach awaits.

Standing on the edge of the cat track overlooking a fresh slope, steeped in silence after the buzz of the cat trip with 10 other blower-happy riders, the chest-swelling feeling of being some kind of royalty is overwhelming. You can scope a line and know that this—this is mine.

Wrapped up in that sense of freedom and empowerment in an unclaimed landscape there is a parallel between monarch and cowboy. The crown of the lower Alberta Rockies juts imposingly from the ranchlands and prairie scrub, defining the boundary with sharp barbs and snarls. But with its relationship between land and livelihood and its simple, down-to-business ethic, the Powder Stagecoach owes its heritage more to the latter than the former.


"A bunch of us got together and started hammering out how we were going to do it," says Darrel Lewko, manager at Powder Stagecoach, describing in typical understated cowboy fashion how the operation came into being. "We came up with a good plan and, just started ... doin' it!"
When he's not lead guiding, Lewko dons scuffed suede boots and a quiet comport. He has a compact build, with a close-cropped beard and the ranch hand's trademark squint. The Lethbridge businessman has been skiing at Castle since 1974, so he's well versed in the hill's western roots.
"Years ago, in the '90s, our head of pro patrol came up with the western theme," he recalls. When it came to the cat operation, it just made sense to carry on the tradition, with run names like Fist Full of Turns, Roll Your Own and Hang 'Em High. "We're down in cowboy country and this is the Cowboy Trail—it was invented here ... You know, horses and cows, cowboys ... and," he adds, with a wink and a chuckle, "cowgirls."


The cowboys and cowgirls who inhabit the hill are a big reason Alan Heidl and his family have chosen to spend the past 10 winters at Castle. Heidl is a grain farmer in Saskatchewan, but every winter he, his wife and kids close down the farm and head west for the ski season.


"There's no attitudes at all, [everyone] is very friendly, they'll take you everywhere on the mountain," he says. "The terrain is—we've never seen nothin' like it—and the snow you get and the friendliness of the people is what attracted us."


It was while enjoying some après-ski with friends at Castle that Heidl met his wife. The romance blossomed and before long, the couple married and began spending their ski seasons here.
For Heidl, the cat skiing just adds another dimension to the experience. Lewko sums it up aptly, "When you're out on that open run with nothing in front of you—it's like putting icing on the cake."

Like the assembly call of the gods to Mt Olympus, the call of fresh powder resonates within the breast of every disciple. Few of us are blessed with the freedom to heed its call on every occasion; it does not wait for weekends or holidays, does not follow the whims of family, geography or "other commitments."


But being able to put aside responsibilities and transcend everyday existence is part of the reward of a day spent powder skiing. There's a reason gas stations like the one where I stop to fuel up in Nanton, AB, carry all those silly trucker hats with slogans like "A bad day fishing is better than a good day at work." We skiers have our own powder equivalents.


But in Alberta, slipping out of work to go skiing isn't as simple as grabbing the fishing rod at the backdoor and heading down to the ol' fishing hole, unless you live in the Bow Valley, Jasper or Pincher Creek. Even then, up until Powder Stagecoach opened in 2010, if you wanted all day fresh tracks to yourself, you had to work for it.


In some ways, that stereotypical hardworking Albertan ethic has pervaded the skiing mentality as well—especially in Edmonton. We are willing to drive immense distances, sacrifice time and money and generally go to great lengths to get to the goods.


Round trip, I spend nearly 12 hours on the road and by the time I get home, I'm fully spent. But fatigue from a day on the open range isn't the same you feel after a long stint desk jockeying. It's the icing on top of the icing.

Cat stats

• Serviced off the top of the Huckleberry Chair, the Powder Stagecoach expanded to 800 acres of skiing terrain in 2011 – 2012, with approximately 2000 vertical feet per run. A typical day will consist of six to 10 runs.


• The day starts with complimentary coffee and muffins in the Barnaby Steakhouse and ends back there sipping drinks while viewing photos from your day on the TV screens.


• The day rate ($295/person) includes avalanche safety equipment (pack, beacon, probe and shovel) and your day's lift pass. Lunch can be thrown into the mix for $12/person, and powder skis rented for $40/day.

powderstagecoach.ca

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