I was looking forward to the challenge of roughing it a bit at Skeena Cat Skiing to try to prove to myself that I wasn’t as unadventurous and soft as I thought I was becoming. I knew that it wasn’t going to be full-on camping in those freezing little tents that seem like they’ll blow away at any minute, or where I’d have to use baby wipes to bathe, and potentially wear the same socks for 4 days. But I still thought it would test me!

I’m not sure if I was disappointed or pleasantly relieved that the backcountry camp wasn’t roughing it at all! Heated tents with proper beds – tick! Hot showers and heated shower room – tick! No squatting to go to the toilet (yes I’m female) – tick! Masseuse – tick! Nice food and plenty of alcohol – had it in spades! Relaxing couches, a fire, fun company, and of course I had fresh socks!

And most importantly I got to do my favourite pastime – cat skiing! I love cat skiing! And getting to take only 20 steps through the fresh powder to the snowcat in the morning, made it even better!

A warm spell had hit all of BC before our arrival but thankfully the snow quality got progressively better each day, with a small to moderate amount of fresh snow everyday. To say that the skiing was lots of fun was an understatement! Many runs started with a very steep open pitch, which petered out to smatterings of trees, and some runs went low down to denser trees where the gullies were the only real exit.

Some pros: unique backcountry lodging (hence the 5/5 rating here); nice steep pitches at the start of many runs; don’t need a rental car to get there; high levels of service (Kevin in particular went above and beyond); fantastic guides; and relatively inexpensive.

Cons: not enough tree skiing and princesses need not apply.

You can check out our more detailed review of Skeena Cat Skiing for more information, and our cat skiing ratings to see how Skeena compares to other operators.
See our video here