With the recent decimation of the British Columbian logging industry due to the economy and housing market issues of late, logging towns and families all across BC have had to find alternate sources of revenue to make ends meet. After going from 120 employees to 5 in three short years, the Moore logging family of Sicamous BC, owners of a local forestry company, were desperately seeking an alternative. Nine years of hard (but slow) work on their contingency plan finally fell into place, and not a second too soon.

Packed house at K3 Catskiing.

Based out of Sicamous BC, just a stones throw from Shushwap Lake (home to many a late night houseboat party), K3 Catskiing has tenure on over 30,000 acres of prime terrain in the Selkirk Mountains, just a few peaks over from Revelstoke Resort. Over 6,000 of those acres are the primo high-alpine goodness you dream about and people from all over the world save up all year long to experience. Talking to co-owner Kris Moore on the drive in (K3 is owned by Kris, his father, and another family friend who also works as a guide), he tells me how the family and their friends used to come up to these very same mountains and sled-ski more than a million vertical feet a year using little more than one or two trail sleds, a lot of rigging and some quality know-how. When the government started accepting applications for commercial tenures in the area, they knew they better act fast before someone else snapped up the rights to their land. Nine years later, after wadding through a mess of red-tape and bureaucracy, the papers were finally signed and K3 Catskiing was created.

Catskiing has many great things about it, but the one thing that gets my goat is the amount of time you can spend in the cat in the morning just getting out to the zone. A cat can only roll at a maximum of about 10 km/h and sometimes the actual skiing terrain can be more than 15 or 20 km from the actual base, so...well, you do the math. What immediately stuck out to me is that not only do the kind folks at K3 pick you up right at your hotel in a fleet of bangin' full-size Tundras, but they actually pay a local man to plow the logging road right up to the base of the alpine and, with the help of some oversized winter tires and a bit of driving skills, get you right to the goods in 10 minutes instead of the usual hour-plus ride in. This is huge and really makes a big difference in the day. At most operations a day usually consists of 8 or 10 runs but at K3, 12 is the norm with 16 being a regular occurrence. Did someone say tired legs?!

The whole crew: top row, Rasman and Lenny (on Bealieu's shoulders); bottom row: Bannock, Melancon and Hockenstein

Bannock, two fists of legend juice.

The crew on this trip couldn't have been better. On most trips you are usually rolling with one film crew where everyone has done everything together all season and is already all settled into their jokes and routines, but for this trip our organizer Lenny Rubenovitch purposely put together a mix of riders from different crews. This made for a really fun time as everyone was able to bring their unique personalities to the table and get to know each other better. Say it with me: awww. Craig Beaulieau and Chris Rasman brought the youth and enthusiasm, Dave Melancon brought the mellow vibe and showed it's better to let your riding do the talking, and Dennis Bannock, who is a living legend to anyone living in the Whistler area, well, he brought a lot of smokes and a back pocket full of nearly three decades of riding experience.

Chris Rasman points an indy while Melacon looks on.

Dave Melacon gets some of his own.

From open pow fields to cliff bands and pillow lines, K3 Catskiing has is all, and more importantly their guides really know how to take the time to figure out what type of terrain you want to ride, and then deliver it on a silver platter. Because of the way the access road forms a ring around the shred zone, they are able to break the group up into several smaller groups who can then each ride exactly what they want. For example, we rode for two days with at least five or six other paying clients, but unless they wanted to, they never had to ride with us (or us them!). There was even this one woman from Vancouver Island who, for whatever reason, was convinced she could not ski anything over 15 degrees in slope. Guess what? The kind folks at K3 gave her her own guide and off they went, only to meet up at the bottom of the run with the rest of the group so we could be regaled by her tales of almost catching her ski tip on a wind-drift. I joke, but you see my point. I'd also like to take this opportunity to give a shout out to another one of our favourite co-catters, someone we dubbed 'Mehhh' by the second day. Picture a mix between Doctor Evil and your prototypical weekend backcountry skier and it was just damn lucky Bannock and him didn't come to blows. Long story short, unless Mehhh was drowning in ten feet of powder too deep to even ski in, he refused to admit how good the conditions were.

David Melacon grabbing tail through the trees.

Chris Rasman pulling one around.

He was kinda right though, conditions weren't good... wait for it.... wait for it.... they were frickin' amazing! We were only there for two days but both of those were pure bluebird goodness with a ton of fresh pow to ski. It's a hard feeling to get used to, but after a few runs in it hits you: the only tracks you are going to see out there are your buddies' and you can relax and have a good time without the pow-rush stress of a typical resort. And that's why once you go catskiing you're likely to return, because once you've experienced 6,000 acres all to yourself, it's a little hard to go back to the lifelines.

Bannock still has it.

One more for Rasman.

We dropped cliffs, we rode pillow stacks, we cruised pow fields and rode some of the steepest trees around. You'll see all this and more in the video of the trip but let's just say K3 Catskiing is one of the best operations around, and with their affordable prices and accommodating guides, if you are thinking of taking a vacation to the BC interior, this is one of your best bets.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot: one of the best things about the whole operation is that Kris is a snowboarder, and that shows through on everything from the way they cut their runs to the way they, well, don't look at us like a bunch of kooks.

Thanks again for all the amazing turns guys! I look forward to getting back out there as quickly as possible.

Craig Bowl-u with a celebratory tail wheelie.

More info:

K3 Website: www.k3catski.com

Sicamous, BC Info: www.sicamous.ca

Last chance to capture the memories.

All photos: Brian Hockenstein

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Related:
Riding Powder With Strangers At Island Lake Lodge
Powder Cowboy Catskiing: Riding The Ranges of Southern BC