Day Two of our Valhalla Powdercats trip and we got even deeper into their terrain. Never before have we been this far back this early in the season. BC was treated to a serious amount of early season snow which has blessed the mountains with more snowpack that usual. This is a bonus for those of us into catskiing!

We can't remember what run the above shot was taken on but that doesn't really matter. Everywhere was deep and soft and our entire cat loved every turn. We had a couple over from England join us today on their first trip to BC, their first trip to the Kootenays and their first trip catskiing. The look in their eyes told us that they will be back in our neck of the woods. They couldn't have picked a better season to come try out what this area has to offer.

Our lead guide and operation manager Tyler and our tail guide Carla gave us another remarkable day in the backcountry. Can't wait to see what tomorrow brings us at Valhalla Powdercats...

Standby Package with free lodging & breakfast

Stay 3 nights January 7th, 8th and 9th
Catski 3 days January 8th, 9th and 10th
Expert group.

$999 plus tax per person,

Just 4 spots available!!

Call Paula at (250) 362-2271

You often hear people say that a picture is worth a thousand words. Today at Valhalla Powdercats we got a full memory card full of those kind of pictures. The sample you see above is from a super-fantastic rip down a run aptly named Pick-a-Pop. There are spines and powder pillows all the way down the slope.

It was only day one today of a three day excursion to Valhalla Powdercats and things are looking very promising. We are out here with a group from Freshair.ca and the getting is good. A little more snow fell today and the temps are perfect.

If you haven't got a trip booked to Valhalla yet you had better get on it. Or you can always enter our contest and get out here for a lot less cash!

This is just day one so stay tuned for more pics, vids and stories coming out of Valhalla this weekend.

Valhalla PowderCats and Freshair.ca have teamed up to give away TWO days of catskiing for TWO people. All you have to do is enter the contest and then decide who your best friend is that you want to take. Valhalla Powdercats is an exciting place to ski Kootenay powder and Freshair.ca is the place to get all the best skis in Canada online. 

We are on our way to Valhalla today for a three day adventure. We will share the pics, video and stories right here to get you stoked when you win!

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Growing up many boys read comic books. We read Powder Magazine! We dreamed of one day being on the pages of this pinnacle of skiing media and now it has happened. Our photographer Geoff Holman and skier Adam Benson are in the latest issue of Powder. And not just any Powder issue, but the Photo Annual no less! Needless to say, we are all stoked here at Catskiing Canada headquarters.

The photo above was taken last January at Valhalla Powdercats near Nelson BC. It was on our second day of the trip and we had the pleasure of taking an early run while the new group joining us did their safety briefing. It has snowed somewhere between 20-25cm and it was still coming down. Geoff had been experimenting with new flash equipment and photo set ups and the result ended up on the pages of Powder.

Thanks to Valhalla Powdercats for the opportunity to get this shot (and many more!). Thanks to Powder Magazine for noticing Geoff's work and thanks to Mother Nature for the Kootenay Pow!

We are off to Valhalla Powdercats next week to find photos for next year's Powder...

A very stoked James Smith has won the 2012 Great Catskiing Giveaway Contest! He is the lucky recipient of TWO days of catskiing for TWO people! James could choose from one of four amazing catskiing operators: Big Red Cats, Valhalla Powdercats, K3 Catskiiing, and Selkirk Wilderness Skiing.

James has decided to go with Valhalla Powdercats located out of Nelson BC. It sounds like James is going to combine a his trip with a few days at Whitewater while he is out. Why not eh? Since Nelson/Rossland just won Best Ski Town(s) as voted by the readers of Powder Magazine!

As an added bonus, James also received TWO jackets from Outdoor Research and TWO base layer kits from Icebreaker Merino. I am sure he will have a line up of people offering up reasons why they should get to go with him!

We want to thanks all of our participating catskiing operators and our sponsors for this fun giveaway. And thanks to all of your for entering.

Stay tuned for the next contest announcing very soon...

It is technically early season in the skiing world but you wouldn't know it up at Big Red Catskiing near Rossland BC. We have been hearing the stories of epic powder dumps and rapidly accumulating snow bases across BC so we had to check it out for ourselves.

Our first catskiing trip of the season happened on December 11th and Big Red Cats was the place. This wasn't their first day though...they have been running cats since the last weekend of November! As a result, they have an early road network built like no other early season which got us to many new skiing spots; even some runs that were skied for the first time.

We have been skiing Big Red Cats since the year they opened and have never seen a December like this. Normally we would expect that we would see some exposed rocks, stumps, alder and other reminisce of summer. But not this season. No, this year it is all powder and we aren't complaining. In fact, we had an incredible day filled with powder bowls and tree skiing. We even found a few things to huck ourselves off!

This season we were reunited with Bob Legasa and his crew from Freeride Media. Bob hails from Sandpoint Idaho and is a regular visitor to BC for catskiing and heliskiing. We always enjoy skiing with Bob and his crew and had another day for the history books. We will be talking about this opening day for years to come I am sure.

We are stoked for what the rest of the season has in store for us. We can confidently recommend that if you are thinking about some early season catskiing that you should give Kieren and Paula a call at Big Red Catskiing. They are set up and skiing and have some fantastic early season promos to help you get your powder fix in. Besides, who doesn't need an early Christmas present?!

Until then, check out our photos from the day. Enjoy!

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With our first trip coming in a couple of days we figured we had better get the new boards mounted! Normally we would use some of the old sticks to go poke around the rocks out there during the early season. But this year with area catski operators reporting above average snow fall, we thought we would break out the new stuff.

Our collection expanded this year thanks to the guys down at Moment Skis. They hooked us up with a late season deal at the end of last year and we couldn't be happier. On the bench we had a couple pairs of Donner Party's, A Ghost Chant, a sweet pair of Comi's and a Jaguar Shark. Also in the mix is a big-ass pair of Liberty Mutant that keep our photographer Geoff floating to all the best shooting locations.

All these skis are strapped up with the Marker Jester bindings from the our friends at Fresh Air. They will be joining us on a trip to Valhalla in early January so stay tuend for footage on that one.

For now, we are getting stoked for first turns of the season at Big Red Cats. Check in with us next week for a full report and a load of pics and video!

Here is some very tantalizing footage from December 6th at Chatter Creek Catskiing. 14 lucky people got in on this epic early season powder and it looks like they took full advantage. December powder is so sweet because people down in the valley bottom have no idea what is going on up high. Chatter, along with many of the other snowcat operators this year, have an above average base. This early base has set everyone up for what looks like an incredible season to follow.

In the words of Chatter Creek: "Watch and dream..."

Or you can give them a call and book one of the very few seats left available Dec 11-14. It will be worth it!

Tell them we sent ya!