British Columbia will be getting a new cat-skiing operation in January 2012. Skeena Cat Skiing, a one-cat operation, will be located on Gail Creek ridge, a little known chunk of the Babine Mountains, an obscure range in northwestern BC near the town of Smithers.
Until this year, Gail Creek was part of Skeena Heliskiing's tenure, the second largest in North America, but was never used. Only a handful of ski touring parties have ever skied here; most runs have never been skied.
"It's mostly north facing," says Jevon Zyp, who owns the operation along with his mother, Lynn Schwartz. "Open bowls at the top lead into steep open glades. And that's just the beginning. It goes on and on. There is room for high-speed turns and crazy cliff lines." Zyp says runs average 1,200 feet of vertical and he figures a typical day will include 10 to 16 runs for a total of 13,000 to 16,000 feet.
Both Schwartz and Zyp are industry vets, having logged time at BC's Mustang Powder and Chatter Creek cat-skiing operations in the past.
"My attitude about it is we'll focus on really good food, having lots of fun and doing something surprising or extraordinary every day," says Schwartz.
The operation will be based at Suskwa Lodge, a seven-room lodge located a 45-minute drive from Smithers. According to Zyp, the remote location has its benefits. "Being on the east side of the Coast Mountains we get the weather but it stays cooler and dryer," he says.