Visitors have many opportunities to enter the “Powder Room” in the Selkirks.
THE SELKIRKS
RECOMMENDED BY Lyndell Keating
“First, I have to say that I really love snowcat skiing,” Lyndell Keating enthused. “It’s very hard to find a resort where you can get amazing powder and fresh line after fresh line. If you’re cat skiing, it’s guaranteed. When you’re cat skiing, you don’t have to elbow your way off the chairlift to get to good snow. All the powder is there for the taking.
“To me, all cat skiing is fantastic. But after all of my travels over the years, Selkirk Wilderness Skiing is my favorite. There’s something magical about this operation. The founder, Allan Drury, pioneered snowcat skiing in British Columbia back in 1975. They’ve had a lot of time to perfect things!” Selkirk Wilderness is doing something right: More than half of their guests have skied with them for more than ten years.
It was an oil-industry boondoggle that helped give birth to British Columbia’s snowcat scene. In the winter of 1969/70, Drury was invited to take a spot on a promotional heliski week sponsored by Bow Helicopters when more-senior executives at his company balked at what seemed a preposterously edgy endeavor. This experience—and a similar trip the following year—got him thinking about the possibilities. Recalling how snowcats had been used to convey skiers to areas soon to be served by lifts at Aspen, Drury contacted Bombardier (a major manufacturer of cats for trail grooming at the time) and the company agreed to sell him a twelve-passenger cat with a major improvement over the cats at Aspen: an enclosed cab. With conveyance in place, Drury and his wife, Brenda, began seeking the right spot to establish their operation, and landed in the Selkirks, sixty miles north of Nelson, on Meadow Mountain. The original farmhouse has been replaced by a comfortable lodge (with hot tub, sauna, and massage facilities) that can accommodate twenty-four guests, but the panoramic views of the Purcells and Selkirks have remained the same … though sadly, Allan Drury passed away in 2008.
Selkirk Wilderness guests generally arrive in the sleepy town of Meadow Creek on Sundays. Here, two cats wait to spirit you to the lodge. For the rest of the week, you’ll settle into a routine rife with powder. The operation has access to thirty square miles of terrain in the Selkirks and Purcells, more area than you’ll find at Whistler and Vail combined. The region is blessed with an abundance of dry powder, an average of more than fifty feet a year; some have dubbed it the Powder Room. This is the result of a convenient convergence. The region’s big lakes (Kootenay and Duncan) seed storms from the west as they meet the mountains to create abundant moisture; glaciers in the region help keep the snow nicely chilled. (“The powder is often so deep, you’ll get to powder your nose, whether you like it or not!” Lyndell quipped.) Thanks to the Selkirk team’s extensive network of cat paths, visitors can expect to cover between twelve thousand and eighteen thousand vertical feet a day through bowls, chutes, and glades—and an average of eighty thousand feet over the course of five days of skiing/boarding. Some runs pack a whopping four thousand vertical feet. Lyndell described a typical day:
“After a phenomenal breakfast, you head out in one of the cats for your first run. Some of the terrain is very close to the lodge, so you’re in the snow in minutes. I find that there’s an amazing variety of terrain with Selkirk Wilderness Skiing. Some places you go, every run seems the same. Here, every run is different. You’ll ski tight trees on a slope with fairly moderate pitch, then you’ll get a steeper run with the trees wider apart. I recall one run on a former avalanche path where the trees had been taken out. New trees had sprouted but they were still only really small. They looked like mini Christmas trees. You could really put the afterburners on, because if you hit a tree, it didn’t matter … well, maybe it mattered to the tree! During the off-season, they do a bit of glading on some of the runs. The guides—many of whom have been with Selkirk Wilderness for ten years—go out and fell the trees themselves, and they know just what to take down to make for a great experience. The cats are very comfortable. In between runs, you can warm up a bit, listen to music, eat homemade brownies, and have a warm drink. It’s very relaxing, though none of the rides are very long.” (Selkirk still runs Bombardier cats, including one of 2010 vintage. In this model, seats face forward, there are drink holders, storage cupboards, and easy-to-navigate steps. The tracks are spiked to get you to fresh powder faster.)
“The dinners that the chefs create are amazing,” Lyndell added. (Dishes include beef tenderloin with Yorkshire pudding, crab-filled Dover sole with charred tomato–basil tart, and cilantro mint chicken thighs with lemongrass Thai curry.) “The lodge is not quite as over-the-top as some cat- and heli-ski operations I’ve visited. But it’s quite comfortable and very friendly. I’d say that the folks at Selkirk Wilderness have found a good middle path between utilitarian surroundings and opulence.”
It’s pleasant to return to the comfort of the Bombardier after your last run to warm up and swap stories en route to the lodge. But the folks at Selkirk Wilderness figure that you haven’t come this far to take the easy route. So at the end of the day, the cat drops you off near the summit of Meadow Mountain so you can descend more than four thousand feet to the front porch of the lodge.
A warm fire, appetizers, and libations will be waiting.
LYNDELL “LUSCIOUS” KEATING is the chief editor of Powderhounds.com, a group of ski and snowboard enthusiasts who have traveled the world in search of the best powder stash. Based in Australia, Lyndell’s hallmark is her pink Barbie helmet, which she hopes will help her retain youthful knees so she can ski powder into her seventies.
If You Go
Getting There: Visitors from the United States can fly to Spokane, Washington, and drive the five hours to Meadow Creek, where a cat will pick you up. Spokane is served by several carriers, including Alaska Airlines (800-252-7522; www.alaskaair.com) and Delta Airlines (800-221-1212; www.delta.com).
Season: Selkirk Wilderness Skiing generally operates from late December to mid-April. Mid-January through mid-March usually offers the best snow.
Lift Tickets: Packages that include six nights of lodging and five days of cat skiing range from $2,580 to $4,800 (CAD), depending on the time of year. See details at www.selkirkwilderness.com.
Level of Difficulty: You’ll cover twelve thousand to eighteen thousand feet of vertical a day; Selkirk recommends you have at least intermediate powder skills.
