Powder Cowboy Cat Skiing

[el hefe]

Heard this closed down, any idea of why? Heard that maybe there was user conflict between them and local sledders? Any info?

[mntlion]

powcow was part of island lake lodge? that part was shut down 3+ years ago I think

[el hefe]

Ok thanks. Will ask my bud at Island Lake.

[cmcrawfo]

I would think it was related to user conflicts. I say this because; i thought they were operating in an area pretty popular with sledders to begin with. And almost every single Int. BC cat op is 80% booked right now. Not too many people want to pay 1000/d to ski sled ruts and take in the soothing sounds of two strokes.

[digitaldeath]

they got a fun little infomercial on saturdays tho


they didnt advertise sled ruts tho

i would demand a refund if i skied over just 1 sled rut

[cmcrawfo]

The look on paying cat skiers faces when sled skiers roll in.... Priceless.

[digitaldeath]

1000$ a day to ride on some snow bus ? jesus

the infomercial makes it look to private and pristine.. impossible to reach



why cant the luxury lodging at island lake offer sleds too? this makes no sense

scott schmidt is scamming now too?

[cmcrawfo]

Its mostly your Trump Tower buddies who are shelling out to ski the goods.

1000/d day with sled ruts is still better than a week at Lake Louise... They don't cater to the sled crew either.

Half the Ops use pics/ footage from other Ops tenure, Truth in advertising? meh...

[Harry]

My favorite is Castle Mountain, just to the east of there. They advertise cat skiing, but it is on the intermediate side of the mountain.

Cat Skiing Customer:
-- "We just paid big money, and this terrain is fucking lame. I see people skiing those gnarly chutes over on that ridge line, how did they get up there ?"

Cat Skiing Guide:
-- "Uhhh... They rode a lift for $42 dollars...."

[cmcrawfo]

I would bet that less than 10% of the Cat ops customer base is capable of skiing anything beyond intermediate terrain.

Sweet Hot tub views and Wifi are the top selling points, after "Gourmet" bagged lunches and heated Cat seats.

[Angle Parking]

Never went there myself but know a local dude who worked there. His take on it is that they were a struggling shoestring operation all along. Never really made any money. When I asked him about sled conflict he said it was huge. Practically a war. They would go to work and find sledders had defected all over their infrastructure. Seriously.

[digitaldeath]

I would bet that less than 10% of the Cat ops customer base is capable of skiing anything beyond intermediate terrain.

Sweet Hot tub views and Wifi are the top selling points, after "Gourmet" bagged lunches and heated Cat seats.

Probably pool table too. Love shootin'

[digitaldeath]

Never went there myself but know a local dude who worked there. His take on it is that they were a struggling shoestring operation all along. Never really made any money. When I asked him about sled conflict he said it was huge. Practically a war. They would go to work and find sledders had defected all over their infrastructure. Seriously.

There was a feel of desperation and too good to be true on their great infomercial.

More about the infrastructure defecting please

[Angle Parking]

There was a feel of desperation and too good to be true on their great infomercial.

More about the infrastructure defecting please

He just told me that it was an all out war with sledders. To the extent that they would show up at their staging areas after a few days away and there would be shits all over the place. I'll ask him more about it tomo.

[raisingarizona13]

Am I the only one that reads this thread title and imagines a human like kitty cat wearing a cowboy hat skiing with cocaine all over his nose?

[eldereldo]

Powder cowboy started out as a couple of buddy's who bought a used cat to shuttle themselves and their friends around on old logging roads. After a couple years of that, and friends of those friends asking to get in on the goods, they decided they would get the permits and start doing it semi commercially. We started going when they were still meeting at the diner in Jeffray and shuttling you to their staging area in vans. Few years later they made a deal to use the cabins at a summer ranch for a winter base so they could offer trips with accommodation and meals. During that whole period they had conflicts with the sledders, not so much the locals as they worked out a deal with them to groom a road past their terrain where they could go, but more the people, who only came out a couple of times a year, and saw all of these nicely built roads as an invitation to get in to places they couldn't reach before. They finally sold out to Island Lake when the conflicts got to the point of equipment sabotage. We stopped going there the year after that as the whole ski experience immediately turned corporate. IL shut it down after the crash in 2008 as they weren't getting anywhere with resolving the conflicts, and the economy and real estate crash in the U.S. caused a sudden drop in skier bookings, so they decided to concentrate them all over on the Island Lake tenure.

[Angle Parking]

Equipement sabotage? Defecatory vandalism? What is it with the sled / atv crowd? I'm painting with broad strokes here, but wtf? We just recently lost access to a primo summer skiing spot around here due to vandalism from the ATV crowd. The mine owner whose road was used to access the skiing basically shut the whole scene down due to constant B.S. from quaders. You got to the skiing cabins around here and they are immaculate. The sled cabins are a disgrace. Garbage everywhere. Random act of destruction all over the place. There are lots of cool motor heads out there but there sure seems to be a disproportionate number of ramrods.

[pancake]

The story about this area just keeps getting better ! The government is petitioning to shut this area down to summer motorized traffic. Apparently a Conservation Officer watched as a guy on an ATV unloaded a few 5 gallon pails of Huckleberries into a freezer on his truck, turn around and go harvest some more. The reasoning for shutting it down to motorized users is that they are concerned about the bears not getting enough berries for themselves. Endangered Huckleberries in Little Sands !!

[gwat]

We just recently lost access to a primo summer skiing spot around here

Whaaaa? Really? I was gonna go make some turns up there in the next week or two. Can't drive up there anymore?

[Angle Parking]

Whaaaa? Really? I was gonna go make some turns up there in the next week or two. Can't drive up there anymore?

No gate up yet as far as I have heard. Last skiers I know of that went up there got chased away by a very angry dude (not the owner but a caretaker) who took their pictures and said he was going to contact the police. Nothing came of that threat BTW. Some other long time Sweeney skiers ran into the mine owner shortly thereafter at Safeway and asked him what was up. The owner said that over the Aug. long weekend there had been an ATV party there and they made a huge mess and trashed the alpine. Owner said that he had had enough with the carnage, and he was not going to allow the public up there any more. Which is a damn shame. Friends who work for the government told me that the mine owner had been under pressure for years to put up a gate but he had resisted because he knew that people liked going up there. We ran into him once up there and he was a very cool guy, happy to see us, welcoming. Asked us not keep our trucks on the road and pick up after ourselves as he had been having some issues with the off roading crowd.

The guys who ran into him at Safeway have known him for a long time and I think they are hoping we can get special permission or something one weekend a year but otherwise the place is off limits. Which f@cking sucks. Such a sweet place....

[LiveLarger]

$1000 ?

You can get heli days cheaper then that?

[mntlion]

most cat ops are $500-700/day. $1000ish if you add food/accm

day heli is $600-800 and with accm/food will start at $1200.

yes deals are avail, depends on who you know/blow, and more avail early/late season

[cmcrawfo]

Access loss. awful.

Is it just that they own the private road to the alpine? or is there an active claim in the alpine?

[digitaldeath]

that picture is the suck


private property freaks are the worst

[Angle Parking]

Access loss. awful.

Is it just that they own the private road to the alpine? or is there an active claim in the alpine?

Good question dude. Not sure. It is not a producing mine, but whether or it is an active claim is unclear to me. Or what denotes an 'active claim' for that matter. They do work up there every year as far as i know (mostly because I have seen dudes working up there probably 1/2 the times I've been there.) The road accesses a Telus repeater as well as the mine site so i am not sure how that impacts the legality of things. Ultimately, I think what you are getting at is whether or not it is even legal for them to deny access. Like I previously stated, government friends have told me that the department of mines (or whatever it is called now) have asked the mine owner to shut down public access the area, so maybe that is an indication that it is within his rights to deny access. I know some folks who could answer that question. Will ask them about it next time i see them. What about you, do you know the legalities of such things?