For my second trip to interior B.C. I was based in Kelowna to ski the Okanagan areas but also commuted to Revelstoke for one day of heliskiing and two days of snowcat skiing. The cat skiing was on Mt. MacKenzie, which in 2008 became the lift served Revelstoke ski area. The heliskiing was with Selkirk-Tangiers, whose tenure is mostly north and east of the Revelstoke ski area up to the boundary of Canada's Glacier National Park.

The trip had a rough start, as I was late to LAX in traffic and missed my flight to Kelowna. As a result, I landed in Vancouver at 8:30PM, needing to be in Revelstoke at 7:30AM the next morning for Selkirk-Tangiers. So I had 7+ hours of driving with a sleep break in Kelowna from 1-5AM.

My 1997 and 1998 trips had been nearly ideal introductions to Canadian snowcat and heliskiing with good weather and consistent settled powder snow. This day was excellent but more of a challenge. Weather was what I have learned to call "The Great Gray North," thick overcast above 8,000 feet, which kept us out of the high alpine up to 10,000. This was as good a view as we had up high.

Here is our guide at a pickup site:

1998-99 was a spectacular season in western Canada, and this week was no exception in terms of powder. About 1/4 of the time I was skiing the deepest powder I had ever experienced up to that time.



Most of the skiing was in the trees and much of it was fairly steep. So I didn't get that many pictures given terrain, weather and my level of energy after the overnight road marathon.

After lunch we had some longer runs, starting with an excellent run from 8,000 down to 5,000 feet. A 3,900 foot run descended into some exhausting snow below 5,000. The final run was from 8,000 - 6,000 in nearly ideal snow.

We skied 18,300 vertical, about 16K of mostly deep powder. We slightly overran the guaranteed skiing, which was something like 15-16K, and paid a bit extra. I do not recall the pricing from 20 years ago.

Selkirk-Tangiers is now owned by the Revelstoke Resort. Multiday packages including loding and meals at the Hillcrest Hotel are available. Day skiing is available in 3 or 5 run packages similar to other day operators in Canada.

The rest of that week in 1999 contributed to what is still my record season in terms of percentage of skiing in powder (27%). The two days with CAT Powder Skiing on Mt. MacKenzie totaled 27K with 23K of powder. I also got my fair share of powder on my first days at Big White (26/7) and Silver Star (23/4). Wind restricted my day at Apex to the Stocks chair, which serves maybe 1/4 of Apex's terrain.