This past long Easter weekend, Allan and I headed out to Mustang Powder for some freaking incredible catskiing. We had 3 days of amazing untouched powder and pretty much snowboarded until our legs fell off. Oh — and we took TONS of video footage… so stay tuned for that video coming soon. I also have a contest in this post for THREE full-day lift tickets to Grouse Mountain, so keep reading.

What is catskiing or catboarding you ask?

Well, you load all your gear into the bus…

… then you head up the mountain on a “snowcat”… which is a huge machine with a cab for twelve people that can take you up and down the mountain.

You arrive at the lodge, in the middle of nowhere with gorgeous mountain ranges all around. Yes, you are living and sleeping right at the top of the mountains. Allan and I were very fortunate. I won a contest to go to Mustang Powder (although Allan paid for his full trip)… so we didn’t really know what to expect. It was my first time EVER going catboarding.

The rooms are comfortable with their own private bathrooms… but to be fair, you almost never spend any time in them.

The lodge is soooooo amazing. Vaulted ceilings, all wood beams, and they didn’t use a single nail (apparently it’s some kind of peg system?). There’s enough room for 24 guests there, but since it was the end of the season they only ran one cat… so 12 guests.

The lodge really is in the middle of the mountains.

And there was a HECK of a lot of snow. It had been snowing all week and we got a few feet of fresh powder the day we arrived.

Their terrain is pretty incredible. Allan has gone catboarding before and he said it was the best operation he’s ever been to. The amount of terrain they have above the tree line is breathtaking.

Yep, you couldn’t wipe the grins off our faces. It was ridiculous.

We were riding in waist and knee deep snow the entire trip. We hooked up the GoPro HD for a few shots by sticking it on a pole to get a better wide angle. Worked pretty well!

The gladed runs were probably my favourite. They have a ton of old growth trees, but also some great runs with new baby trees that were fantastic.

The food. MAN. I did NOT expect this kind of food. It was gourmet meals every day for breakfast and dinner, not to mention a huge lunch spread to make your own.

Meals included chicken with beurre blanc sauce and capers, lamb osso bucco, a huge piece of bison tenderloin, fresh homemade pastry for lemon meringue, cheesecakes, carrot and coconut soup, broccoli cheddar soup, beautiful salads, and fresh blueberry pancakes for breakfast! My only complaint was that they didn’t seem to get the allergy concerns we listed on the admission sheet, so my recommendation is to make sure the kitchen receives your concerns on the very first day.

There’s a lot to do in the lodge too. There’s a full bar with premium liquors, a huuuuuuuuge outdoor hot tub, and a games room with pool and foosball and books.

One of the days I also got to go out on a snowmobile and do a private film shoot with one of their ski stars, Bruno. It was a lot of fun and I can’t wait to show you the video footage.

It was great to make new friends in the group, and I hope we all stay in touch.

This is one of my FAVOURITE photos from the whole trip. Check out our lines in the snow. Check out the incredible terrain. Holy crap, yes, that was a LOT of powder this past weekend.

The snowcats were brand new too, so they were super fast and we rarely ever had to wait for the cats to pick us up and bring us up and down the mountains. They have over 30,000 acres of terrain, so there was always a new untouched run to do.

The group we had was fantastic… 11 guests and a couple staff members to guide and help out. I can’t say how awesome the guides were (thanks for helping to carry my camera gear and dig me out on multiple occasions!) and the group was a really fun mix of people who were all friendly, and good skiers and snowboarders! From left to right back to front: Garrett, Roger, Dell, Kieran, Gail, Paula, Allan, Nigel, Ben, Greg, Bruno, Cam, and me. Kieran and Paula are owners and operators of Big Red Cats, so it was neat to see them there too and talk about their operation as well.

Our group had a pretty fast pace and on one of the days we managed to cover 22,000 vertical feet! Yes, that is for ONE day of skiing! It was surreal to look back up at our tracks.

At the end of each day, I felt exactly like this dog. I was exhausted. But I was also very, very happy. By the end of the third day I was actually getting my legs underneath me and I think I’ll be a lot more prepared for next time.

Nick and Ali Holmes-Smith are the owners and operators of Mustang Powder, and they are one of the nicest couples you will ever meet. I gotta say they have a pretty charmed life with their three girls, dogs, catskiing operation for the winter and summer farm with horses for the summer. Crazy, eh? They invited us back for next year and I CAN’T WAIT!

It was the end of the season so the entire group of guests plus all the staff said their goodbyes. It was sad when it was over. It was the best snowboarding trip we’ve ever gone on, and without a doubt we’ll be back next year. Stay tuned for videos!

GROUSE MOUNTAIN LIFT TICKET CONTEST

I am also giving away THREE full-day lift tickets courtesy of Grouse Mountain here in Vancouver, BC. You’ll have to use them before the end of the season, but considering the amount of snow we are getting, you could very well have a powder weekend!

What: Three, full-day lift tickets for Grouse Mountain that must be used before April 30, 2010.
How: Just leave a comment on this blog post and you’ll be entered!
When: I will draw the winner on Saturday, April 10th at 10:00 PM. (So you can use them on Sunday if you want)

Good luck, thanks for reading

Are you looking for my Olympic ticket giveaway? If so, you can find it here, just one post below this one. Also, don’t forget you can follow me on Twitter along with more than 3,000 other friends for Vancouver 2010 Olympic Games coverage and my West Coast tweets of course.

Just a quick post here on our last weekend before the Olympics start in Vancouver. We headed up to Apex Mountain (near Penticton, BC) for Allan’s outdoor ice hockey tournament with his team, as well as for snowboarding and fun! There’s so much to explore in BC outside of Vancouver… if you’re in town visiting, I highly recommend you check out other parts of our beautiful province of British Columbia!

Here I am snowboarding in the trees in the powder. We got so lucky with the conditions… it snowed all week and then dropped 15 cm of light fluffy BC interior powder the night before. Yep, we pretty much rode trees in the bowls on the backside of the mountain all day.

It was a beautiful drive up to Apex.

Every morning we woke up there is looked like this… gorgeous blue skies and lots of snow.

The snow was fantastic. (Yep, I’m actually in this picture although very, very far away)

I loved watching the boys play outdoor hockey. We don’t really ever get to see that in Vancouver, and it’s such a part of our Canadian heritage and culture! Definitely got me even MORE stoked for the Olympics if that is even possible.

We made breakfast a few mornings… lots of sustenance for the day! Can’t live without BACON!

We left a little surprise on a friend’s car.

Here’s the boys’ hockey team. They lost two games but won their last one, and they definitely played hard (although drunk). So much fun to watch… I love these guys!

View from my office window above. What can you expect from my blog in the upcoming weeks? Well, lots of Olympic coverage… definitely from the games/events/pavilions I am attending (see below) and tons of photos and HD video. I’ll be all decked out cheering Canada on as loud as I can, and I’ll be wearing my Canadian pride on my sleeve (and well, my face with tattoos).

GO CANADA GO!

P.S. I’m currently deciding what I should do… should I buy myself a ticket to the Men’s Gold Medal Hockey game? Each ticket is now over $2,200 and it’s a big expenditure… argh… help! What would you do?

Today is a bit of a weird blog post. I’m posting the winner of one of my contests, while also entering a contest myself!

First up, this is my contest entry for the Cat Skiing at Mustang Powder Contest. I’ve never been catskiing or catboarding before, and I thought this would be a great opportunity to try it out!

The contest asks for a blog post, but I also thought I’d include a video just for fun. It’s a little silly, it was filmed and edited late at night in the midst of chaos. Still, I think I’d be a great candidate to win the contest and I’ve put together some reasons why ( in text, just in case):

- I am extremely passionate about snowboarding and I’m constantly on the hunt for deep, fresh powder lines
- I’d love to take high quality photographs and videos of the catboarding experience; I’ve got a ton of equipment such as a DSLR with fisheye and telephoto, an HD video camcorder/DSLR, and a helmet mounted or board mounted GoPro HD camera which can help capture the experience
- I’m always on the lookout for new adventures!
- I have my AST-1 avalanche certificate so I know some of the basic safety principles for the trip
- I love road trips!
- I’d love to post about the experience on my blog and Twitter

Cross your fingers for me, friends!

ALSO, I thought this would be as good a place as any to post the winner of the contest I held for the Volcom Snowboard jacket!

Congratulations to the winner. Again, please excuse the silliness, as this was even later in the night. Winner, please e-mail me at allie@vancityallie.com. If I do not hear from the winner within 2 weeks I will do a re-draw.

Thanks to everyone for entering!

It’s been dumping snow here in BC, and for the past 3 weeks I’ve been DYING to strap on my board and get out there for some snowboarding… but I’ve been sick and low on energy lately. After waiting 3 weeks and just not being able to stand it anymore, Allan and I finally got up to Whistler Blackcomb on Sunday for some FANTASTIC boarding. Although I couldn’t do more than 3-4 hours on the hill, we definitely made the most of it.

It has snowed 259cm in the past week at Whistler, and even though it’s been snowing all the way through the week, we still got an extra 20 cm for our first day of the season yesterday. And it shows.

The runs were ridiculously powdery, even the groomers… although we ended up riding knee-deep untouched powder in the trees all day.

Allan had a great time too… he didn’t get a chance to ride his new board, but he was wearing a perma-grin on his face all day… despite this very sombre-looking gondola shot.

I was stoked on the new Westbeach outerwear this year, although my new white helmet hasn’t come in yet so it looks kind of funny with my green helmet from my old outfit of past years. I rode my new Burton Supreme boots and my new Burton Malolo… and let me just say…

… riding my Malolo in the trees all day let me know that the ‘Lolo was definitely the right choice for me. Oh man.

Here I am in the trees… far, far away!

Did I mention that it was sunny and blue skies for most of the day? We really lucked out! Even the birds came out to play in the snow.

For the readers of VancityAllie.com, I am happy to present a contest to win some brand new spankin’ outwear from a fantastic local company:

WESTBEACH LADY RACER JACKET AND RENDEZVOUS PANTS CONTEST NOVEMBER 2009:

What you are playing for (either for yourself or a friend, girlfriend etc):

• A Westbeach Women’s Lady Racer Jacket Insulted Jacket in the Twilight Zone colour shown in my photos, size Medium
• A Westbeach pair of Women’s Rendezvous Pants in the Breezer colour shown in my photos, size Medium

Total value of the contest: $420.00 CAD

Both the jacket and pants are waterproof, rated to 6,000mm..  and are coated and seam sealed.

What you have to do:

• By Sunday, November 29th at midnight Pacific Standard Time (PST), leave a comment on this blog post
• I will do a random draw (I will video tape this) of anyone who left a comment between today and the contest deadline
• The lucky winner will win the full set of Westbeach Women’s Outerwear, which I will ship to them anywhere in the world.

That’s it! Good luck. By the way… I will have some HD video from yesterday’s snowboarding up, hopefully by Wednesday!

You can follow me on Twitter… and you can also follow Whistler Blackcomb and Westbeach on Twitter as well!

Yes, November is almost upon us… and already in many parts of the continent people are starting to snowboard (Darn you, Mammoth, darn you!).

For us here in Vancouver and BC, we are patiently waiting for the temperatures to drop and more snow to fall on the mountains. Realistically it is only weeks away, but it feels like forever.

Whistler Blackcomb has announced its opening day is November 26th this year. Cypress, Grouse, and Seymour have yet to report opening dates. Hemlock is reporting an opening date of December 10th, and over on Vancouver Island, Mount Washington is slated to open December 11th. Big White and Apex are saying December 5th, and Sun Peaks is early with an opening date of November 21st.

Ugh. So far away.

So in the meantime, why not fantasize about all the new gear coming out this year? It’s no secret that I’m a little biased towards Burton, so I’m going to kickoff my gear previews with them. This post will just be snowboards, I’ll be featuring other hardgoods and softgoods in a follow-up post. I’ve posted a selection of boards here, feel free to check our their full product lineup at Burton.com.

Note: All images credited to Burton.com

2010 Burton Custom X

Definitely one of the best boards that Burton has put out this year. Not only are the graphics absolutely GORGEOUS (the snowboarder/surfer in me loves the trees and ocean design), but the tech is darn good. It’s got the Channel, which most of the new Burton boards have this year… basically allows you to configure your bindings in any stance you can possibly think of. It’s a super light board and is generally a good board for any condition. Good in pow, the park, free riding and even groomers. So sexy.

2010 Burton Fish

Ah, the Fish. A board I have lusted after for a long time. Who doesn’t dream of adding the Fish to their quiver and having a true powder board? For those of you just getting into snowboarding, you probably don’t need a Fish just yet. But for those of you who skip work on powder days, spend all day hiking for the good stuff… this is the board for you. Light, tapered with a swallow tail, and the addition of an S-Rocker really makes this board float in the powder. It’s also super fast and even has a surfboard-style rail. It’s pretty much like surfing on the snow.

2010 Burton Custom V-Rocker

A little cheaper than the Custom-X, the Custom now comes in Regular and V-Rocker. The Added V-Rocker puts a centre rocker between the feet, which brings the tip and tail off the ground… so basically it’s better in pow and let’s you jib and ollie a little easier. This is a fun, fun board if you like to pop and hop around the mountain, either in pow or park. I wouldn’t recommend this if you’re JUST going on groomers though. I really like the design this year.

2010 Burton Supermodel

This year I think the real sleeper hit is the Supermodel. Not a lot of people talk about it (the Customs are super popular), but I personally think this is the perfect board for a BC boy. This board can be used on the whole mountain, and is light and fast and has the Channel as well. I REALLY love the design on it… the reds are so vibrant (and the blues on other sizes) and they’d look great in photos… a must if you’re into snow photography or video with your friends. It’s slightly tapered so it’ll work nice in pow, and it’s got great control for groomers. It’s got a mid-range price too.

2010 Burton Joystick

I’ve been hearing a lot about the Burton Joystick this year for the park. It’s got a new Freestyle Scoop which makes it super easy to do tricks in the park, and also has a V-Rocker to put that rocker between your feet as well. It’s a pretty aggressive board for the park, but Burton says it is forgiving and fun as well. The reviews are coming in now, and it is looking like a really strong contender for a park board this year.

2010 Burton Malolo

Ah the Malolo, my board of choice for this year. It’s technically a unisex board, as I have the smallest size at 149. It goes up to 166. I actually purchased my 2010 Malolo last year at an event, and I’ve been pretty much waiting all year to ride it. I’m so excited. It’s the perfect board for me… from the surf-inspired graphics to the name.. (Malolo means “flying fish” in Hawaiian). It’s got an S-Rocker for the snow, which helps with the speed and float of the board. I love the powder and the trees, so the Malolo is going to be a significant improvement here. I’ve tried it out on groomers and it’s actually pretty good. I think for real hard-pack ice days though, I’ll bring out my old Burton Feelgood (it’s 2 years old).

Speaking of girls… I also wanted to showcase a couple women’s boards out there for all my lady readers.

2010 Burton Women’s Supermodel

An absolutely stunning board design for a girl’s board. I love it… it’s girly but also colourful and cool. This is a high performance girl’s board. Same as the men’s super model, it’s a tapered board that will ride well in powder. It’s extremely versatile… you can ride it anywhere on the mountain. It also has the Channel if you have EST bindings. No worries if you don’t, it’s got a conversion kit as well.

2010 Burton Women’s Feelgood ES

The Feelgood ES (and the Feelgood) are top-of-the-line women’s boards. This board is SUPER light. It has the Carbon Vaporskin, as well as the Channel. If you’re looking for a fast, beginner to intermediate board (I learned on a Feelgood no problem), this board can SERIOUSLY hold an edge in the groomers. It’s not skittish at all. Note: If you’re wanting to eventually ride this in powder, you may want to get a couple extra inches on the board to hold some float… I found this board wasn’t great for deep powder.

2010 Burton Women’s Lipstick

The perfect board for a girl in the park, the Lipstick is super poppy with a V-Rocker and Elliptical Kicks. It’s light and has super cute graphics… not to mention the Channel and Pressure Distribution Edges (helps you on groomers and also on landings). Unfortunately I’m not much of a park girl, because I would really love to ride this board.

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And that’s it for now folks! What do you think of the boards that are out this year? Any particular favourites in the Burton lineup? Anything you’d like me to cover in future posts?

Cheers!