Chatter Creek 2006

In what is becoming an annual event, Joni Borghesani, Gene Myers, and I travelled to Chatter Creek Mountain Lodges for our second 4-day cat skiing tour. The tour ran from Jan. 27 through Jan. 31, 2006. We arrived in Calgary on Jan. 26th, drove to Golden, BC, and flew via helicopter into Chatter Creek late in the afternoon on Jan. 27th; we skied at Kicking Horse Ski Resort that morning. We returned to Golden at the end of the ski day on Jan. 31 and drove to Calgary on Feb. 1 for the flight home.

These trips are organized by Lockie Brown, and he has an extensive web site devoted to Chatter Creek; visit Chatter News for more photos and detailed descriptions of lodges, snow cats, and skiing terrain.

The photos below are a small sample of our experience. The web travelogue from our 2005 trip described all aspects of our tour, e.g., snowcats, accommodations, and the skiing. This year’s report focuses on the skiing, because the conditions were much different than in 2005. Last year was a dismal snow year, so we skied mostly above the tree line (which was great). This year is a terrific snow year—so good that we rarely skied in the alpine because of poor visibility and the avalanche danger, so we stayed in the trees. It snowed almost continuously during our tour.

Click on the thumbnails to reach the corresponding pages, which include navigation links to walk through the photos in the order shown below. These photos were taken by John Dougall (Chatter Creek’s resident photographer) and Pat Miller.

Steep and Deep
Face Shot
Here Comes Joni
And Gene, Too
In the Alpine
Bob
Pat
Lisa
Greg
Kyle
The Bontkes Clan
Rob
Jeff
Tim
Mark
Justin
(One of) Mark's Fiascos
Dave
Joni
Gene
Pick-up Sticks
Regrouping
Josh
Don
Our Group