Valhalla Mountain Touring Week

March 14th - 21st, 2010

For years we have enjoyed spending weeks at the many backcountry lodges of British Columbia. In the land of deep snow, big mountains and heli accessed backcountry solitude, its easy to get hooked on these trips. After a fantastic trip last year to Powder Creek Lodge, we began doing some research for next year's trip . Based on some wholehearted endorsements of the lodge and the terrain, we booked the Valhalla Mountain touring hut. One thing that makes this hut unique is that its snowcat accessed, meaning no depending on good weather to fly in and out and a drastically reduced overall cost.

Valhalla Mountain Touring (VMT) is located in the Valhalla Mountains of southern British Columbia, Canada, outside of the village of New Denver. With moderate winter temperatures and abundant winter snowfall, you can expect 3 meter snow depths by mid-winter. 40 square km (25 square miles) of alpine bowls, glades and chutes is just a skin track away from the lodge, allowing us to venture someplace new every day of your trip.

The peaks and ridges soar to 8,500' providing for continuous descents of over 2,000' back down to the lodge at 5,800'. Beginners, intermediates and experts will find plenty of terrain to keep busy.

The huts exquisite timber frame construction provides 6 private bedrooms, an indoor flush toilet and a spacious living area complete with a large dining table, leather sofas (with lazy boys!), stereo, a fully equipped kitchen, standard electricity that operates 24 hours a day, wireless internet and running hot and cold UV filtered water. Four of the bedrooms offer double beds, and all have at least 2-3 single beds to offer a variety of housing accommodations. All sheets, pillows and down duvets are provided.

At the end of your day you can go to our other building where a large wood-fired sauna, hot shower, flush toilet and large drying area await you.

The Selkirks are truly a skiers paradise. One of the best ways to enjoy and explore this range is from the base of a backcountry hut. Flying a caterer into the hut allows us to focus on skiing all day long. We then return to the hut tired, hungry and thirsty and are greeted by the smell of dinner, appetizers and cold drinks! This is how life should be...

Due to the large number of options available on this tour, we will keep our itinerary flexible to adapt to conditions and the groups desires. The general flow of the trip will look a lot like this:

Day 1 ~ Snowcat ride into hut. Unpack gear, get familiar with lodge and spend several hours on Avalanche rescue training. Short afternoon ski tour.

Day 2 ~ Wake up, eat a large, scrumptious breakfast, ski tour all day. Options include long tours, yo-yoing sweet powder shots, playing in the trees, etc. Guides will decide each day's itinerary based on weather, snow conditions and groups skills and interests. When we return to the hut, we are typically greeted by warm appetizers and whatever cold refreshing beverages we have flown in with. Dinner, sauna, stretch and relax before bed to wake up and do it again.

Day 3 ~See day 2.

Day 4 ~ See day 2.

Day 5 ~See day 2.

Day 6 ~See day 2.

Day 7 ~ Sadly after a week of gluttonous powder skiing and eating beyond frugality, its time to pack up and ride out.

In our experience many folks will take a day off at some point during the week. This could be a full day when the wind is blowing, or a couple of half days when the legs can't hold up anymore. Some people can ski hard for 7 days in a row and these folks can often wind up skiing in excess of 40,000 vertical feet in a week.
 

Skills Required

Participants should have some previous backcountry skiing experience and should consider themselves advanced to expert skiers. While much of the terrain is fairly moderate by resort standards, it is possible to encounter a wide range of snow conditions. It is important for skiers to be able to comfortably ski black runs at a ski area in any conditions. Further you must be able to perform survival turns (hop turns, stem christie etc.) down steeper terrain and in very difficult snow conditions. Skiers should be adept at using skins, performing kick turns and skiing with a day pack.

Good aerobic fitness is also helpful on a trip like this. The guides will set a comfortable pace to allow you to ski full days, but the more fit you arrive, the fun you will have and the more your legs will have for the descents.

All requisite avalanche skills will be taught at the beginning of the week and we will offer tips for touring and skiing as we go.

We will meet in New Denver the night before the trip to get to know eachother and to go over specific details about the next morning. For more information about getting to New Denver, lodging options etc., click here.

If you have any doubts or concerns about your abilities or skiing skills, please don't hesitate to call and address them. We will gladly offer training advice or we can arrange for some pretrip training to insure your skills are up to speed before embarking on this trip of a lifetime.

NCMG highly recommends skiers purchase trip insurance through a reputable company such as Travelex, or AIG travelguard prior to the trip. This will insure you receive a refund if you get injured, have a schedule conflict or for whatever reason, cannot make the trip. Trip insurance will cost less than $100 for a trip like this and cant ease your peace of mind tremendously.

 

Powder Creek Lodge Week Fees

Are you getting excited?

• 8 Skiers with 2 Guides - $1750 per person

• March 14-21

• Hut lodging fees
• Fully catered Breakfasts, lunches and Dinners
• Snowcat transport in and out of Hut
• Use of avalanche transceiver, shovel and probe
• 6 days of guided skiing with IFMGA certified guide Larry Goldie and another NCMG ski guide.

• Travel to and from New Denver ,BC
• Any alcohol you want to bring to the hut
• Lodging before or after the trip
• Trip insurance