The white peaks of Rainier and St. Helens rose through the clouds as our flight neared Seattle. It was late December of ’06, and a few hours earlier myself, Señor Wanrooy, and his wife Kathy had taken off from dreary Michigan in search of some snow. We would be skiing with Trevor Holsworth, lead wrangler at the Wildhorse Cat Skiing & Powder Mining Company in Ymir, British Columbia.

After a quick hop back to Spokane, we headed north for a scenic three-hour drive into BC. The landscape quickly transitioned from rolling hills with minimal snow cover to gorgeous forested mountains with plenty of fresh powder. After a stop at a remote Customs outpost that seemed like a scene out of a James Bond film, we rolled into the one-horse town of Ymir (pronounced “why-mur”). Cue the banjo music. Kidding! Ymir is a neat little town engulfed by mountains. In town you’ll find a bar, a couple of inns, a grocery store, and very friendly people. We checked into the recently renovated Ymir Palace Inn which, as a converted brothel, is the obvious choice. No word on how long ago the Palace functioned as a brothel, but rest assured that no funky smells linger. Belinda and Roscoe, owners of the inn, warmly welcomed us and suggested that we head to the bar/restaurant, about a 30 second walk down the street. After a burger, beer, and some chatting with a colorful local named Jay, we hit the sheets.

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Brandon is not a happy man. He’s physically exhausted and is having difficulty breathing. He is verbally abusing the mountain, claiming the situation to be “ridiculous” among other, less flattering terms.

I’m not faring much better. I’ve just lost my footing and am flying down a steep slope at alarming speed, clinging to my snowboard with my left hand and desperately trying to halt my descent with my right. It’s times like this that I wonder why I chose a snowboard over skis. Our Japanese friends, (who are all of the two plank discipline), have made short work of the steep traverse and are now sitting in sun, patiently waiting for the two snowboarding foreigners to play catch up.

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Regardless of which hemisphere you reside in, there is nothing quite like a trip to New Zealand to get your skiing fix from  July – October.  My fix came on July 14th after a fewdays of waiting for the weather to cooperate.

I was picked up in the morning at my hotel and brought to a heli pad near the town of Glenorchy.
This is not an area that is skied on a very regular basis, but it was where the best snow for the day was.  Alpine Heli-Ski has a wide variety of terrain, which enables them to tailor each day’s terrain to what Mother Nature dishes out.  In only their second year of business, Alpine has been able to secure an impressive amount of terrain through both traditional and creative routes.  Sometimes this means securing land rights from farmers through a barter system including heli time, whiskey, beer, wine, and rides to rugby games.

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