Fancy the ida of cat skiing in a small group - ony six guests and two guides  - skiing or boarding in steep, challenging terrain? This past season Mustang Powder Catskiing had a successful pilot project of 'Small Groups - Steep Chutes' ski program. This upcoming winter it will be an interesting and regular addition to the Mustang Powder Cat Skiing experience.

What is the 'Small Groups - Steep Chutes' ski program?

The group consists of a lead guide, a tail guide and only 6 guests. The objective is to ski the most interesting ski lines in the Mustang Powder skiing terrain. Some of the runs will be coulloir lines and others will be big, long runs that are not totally accessible with a snowcat road. The small group of 6 allows you to do narrower and trickier lines that are difficult for a full group of 12. Skiers and boarders will sometimes put on climbing skins and do a short or medium length tour in order to access a run's entrance. This program is for strong, fit and ambitious skiers and boarders who want to ski steep and exciting runs. Weather conditions and snowpack stability will have a bearing on the run choice each day. If stormy weather or poor stability prevent you from skiing the bigger lines there will be a regular cat skiing day in the powder - but still with the smaller group of six.
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The details...

Mustang Powder has opened up some ski holiday dates for this program and will add more once these are filled. See their 2010/2011 Availability Page for dates currently offered. If however, you have a full group of six people, give them a call since they may have have other dates they can run this program. Group discounts are not available for this program. All skiers and boarders need to be experts and must be comfortable on steep terrain. You should also be fit since most days you will do several climbs with skins. How much uphill ascents will be in the snowcat and how much on skins? This will vary each day but overall about 80 to 90% of the climbing will be the easy way - in the snowcat. This is basically a snowcat skiing trip with a bit of touring (rather than a touring trip with a few cat lifts). They will try to get lots of skiing each day, especially during the March trips when they will often be doing very long ski days. For 2010/2011 they will have a new snow cat and guest carrier for our groups so you will be riding one of Three Piston Bully guest cats for the 'Small Groups - Steep Chutes' program - not the older Bombardier that we used for 2009/2010.

The accommodation will be either with the regular guests or in the 3rd floor staff wing. You will be either in single bedrooms or double bedrooms with two beds. Rooms on the 3rd floor with have shared bathrooms.

You will need to bring skis which have the heel lift mode for touring, skins for climbing and a small backpack. If you don't own touring equipment you can rent fat skis with Marker baron bindings. These are basically downhill bindings but with a heel lift mode for climbing. They also have climbing skins for these skis. The cost for renting skis and skins is $50.00/day. Your own regular ski boots will work well in these bindings.