In seeking to spice up our blog a bit, we have decided we will start filling you in on a few of the challenges, adventures, and mistakes that happen to us on a daily basis while attempting to maintain a fleet of snowcats and snowmobiles, 13,000 acres of terrain, and a remote yurt in the mountains of North Idaho.  Just yesterday for example we had an interesting experience while escorting our BLM (Bureau of Land Management) supervisor around the PEAK terrain.  Shortly after unloading our snowmobiles and loading down a toboggan with gear we headed up the road towards the yurt as we do 4-5 days a week.  We decided to give our BLM man one of the snowmobiles so he could have some fun riding.  While I knew it was a bit icy up ahead from our trip down the day prior, I wasn’t expecting a 200 foot stretch of pure water ice that would be challenging for any rider, or even walking on.  We managed to barely make it through by carrying lots of speed, but when I turned around I noticed the other sled and toboggan slowly sliding towards the precipice at the edge of the road where there was a good drop to the forest below.  I hoped off the sled, started running towards him, feet flew out from under me and I slid down the road where fortunately our man had managed to stop the sled before hitting the edge.  Took a few attempts to get through the ice, but we made it.  It would have been a bad start to loose our BLM rep over the road on his first visit with us.  Coming back down involved a 180 spin on the same spot of ice into the ditch.  Stay posted for more PEAK misadventures…

The new cat performed great this weekend and significantly increased the number of runs we have been getting in a day with the vancat.   This weekend’s two day overnight yurt trip brought together a crew of longtime Peak customers.  Conditions weren’t bottomless, but the 6 inches of fresh snow made for some nice turns and beautiful weather made for a great trip exploring the North Idaho mountains.   Our name the cat contest winner came up with the name Tubbs for the new beast; however, the jury is still out.

Just back from a 3 day yurt trip with plenty of fresh tracks.  Started the trip with 4-6 inches of fresh on Friday and ended with a snowy day Sunday which brought a few more inches of fresh.  We have a base of over 6 feet and the new cat is in action.  Sounds like the St. Joe mtns are doing better than lots of places including Colorado and some of the Canadian Rockies.  It is snowing up on the mountain again today.  Here are a few pics from last weekend’s trip.  Come join us, we still have some prime dates available in February & March.

The new cat made it safely up the creek to our landing zone early this morning.  We managed not to tear any phone lines down in the process.

Beautiful weather for a day of avalanche education on the snow out in Peak Adventures terrain.  After a classroom session to review the fundamentals of snow science, backcountry travel techniques, equipment for traveling in avalanche terrain, and weather interpretation, we spent an afternoon on the snow.  Up on the mountain we did numerous beacon search scenarios, performed snow stability tests including shovel shear tests, compression tests, and a Rutschblock test. We dug three full pits to the ground and found about 180 cm of snow on a Northwest facing aspect with a relatively stable snowpack.  The day concluded with a multiple burial avalanche scenario that put our crew to the test searching for 4 bodies in the face of some challenging conditions set up to distract and confuse the team.  While it took a total of 25 minutes to discover all 4 beacons, including one buried approximately 5 feet deep, two beacons were found within 10 minutes and the third within 15.  The day ended with a spectacular sunset from the top of Pearson Peak where we stood atop a sea of clouds.

While the snowpack is less than average this year in North Idaho we still have a solid 6 foot base and the yurt is buried once again.  Come join us for an overnight yurt trip, we still have space available this season.  

We are now putting the final touches on our new cat.  After a complete overhaul of the hydraulic system by Lou and the boys at Wholesale Hydraulics we are almost ready for a test run.  Our friend Jeremiah Fanning is finishing up our styling interior on the cabin and Neil from Scooter’s Garage in Pinehurst, who is responsible for the majority of the cabin body, is finalizing our exterior ski racks and lighting.  It is quite possible that we have two of the most bad ass custom snowcats in the catskiing world.  Come join us for a lift up the mountain in style.

We had a crew of folks out from Colorado for a two night yurt trip that included a day of snowcat skiing and two days of ski touring.  Spent a day making great descents with help from the Vancat and then two days exploring our terrain on telemark, alpine touring skis, and snowshoes in some blizzard like conditions.  The crew had a great time earning their turns and enjoying some tasty meals in the yurt at night.  Check out more photos on our facebook page.

Peak Adventures is just back from hosting our first trip of the season with a stellar crew from the North Face.  We started the three day overnight yurt trip with two feet of fresh snow and blue skies and woke up to an additional 5-7 inches of fresh snow on our final day.  The crew included North Face athletes Ian McIntosh, Sage Cattabriga-Alosa, Ingrid Backstrom, DCP (David Carrier-Porcheron),  Mark Carter, and Kris Erickson.  You can check out Sage and Ian in this year’s Teton Gravity Research movie Re:Session.  An extremely solid team of product designers were on hand to test North Face gear and get direct feedback from the athletes on the gear everyone was testing.  Mother nature brought in a good mix of weather including heavy snow and some wind that was great for putting products to the test.  The negative 20 degree North Face sleeping bags turned out to be way too much for our toasty warm yurt.  Hope to have the crew back soon for more fresh tracks and good times.

Ingrid

Page

Kris

DCP

Sage on the Board.

Sage on Skis.

Mark

Photos by Ryan Stanley © 2010

We are nearing completion of our new snowcat cabin. Quite a project, check out some photos from the construction process.