Changes
It’s the start of a new year. There are so many changes I don’t know where to start. We have welcomed two new owners to the Powder Mountain family this summer. Randy Breitenbach and Doug Ballinger have bought out Alberto Corso and are now waiting for the snow to fall in even deeper amounts so they can come and experience the Powder Mountain flava! Berto has moved to Sicily and says “adios and good skiing” to all the friends he’s made over the years. The owners of Powder Mountain are now Randy, Doug, Schwarty, me and Hilary Achenbach (my mom).
Improvements
We’ve purchased two Pisten Bully 300’s and are now running an all Pisten Bully fleet. At 100 more horsepower and a lot more fuel efficient and a lot less likely to break down than our old Bombardiers there is nowhere we can’t get to now. We’ve refurbished all our cabins as well. We’ve gotten custom made seats from Freedman Seating in all the cats. The individual bucket seats recline, have water repellent fabric, armrests, pockets for your stuff, flip down tables, drink holders, and a sweet Powder Mountain embroidery on the headrest. Best of all the cats are faster too... which brings us to our next improvement.
Terminal Forest Products has upgraded our roads so that we can basically haul ass to the powder. They’ve done such a fantastic job on the roads, we can’t really believe it. Getting out to our high alpine terrain in Cypress will be at least 10 minutes quicker. Smooth roads + more horsepower = more skiing. The smoother roads also mean we’ll be skiing earlier and later in the year because all the stumps and rocks that usually poke out are no more. We’ve got a new access route to Tricouni as well so the sun won’t melt out the road and it will let us ski all the way back to the lodge... which brings us to our next improvement.
We’ve totally gutted the lodge and brought it back to life. It feels like a new building. In fact Michelle (my wife) thought part of it was a new building. We pretty much tore it down to the studs. The inside has been completely redone and the best thing ever has been added...flush toilets! Yup, no more Port-a-Potties. STOKED! We also added a 16x23 foot deck to the lodge so those days where the sun is shining you can hang out in the sun. We resided the building and painted everything, literally. We got the paint off the lights so we didn’t actually paint everything. We’ve added new seats, new carpet, new stories and photos from magazines that have come out with us have been framed and put on the walls, we’ve hung flat screens for checking out all the photos from the days skiing, hooked up Sirius satellite radio and Bose weatherproof speakers, and landscaping by Another View. It really is a new world at our lodge. Epic!
Terminal Forest Products has also been busy busting a new road 3/4 of the way up the side of Brew and heading 2.5 kms towards Cypress. We don’t know how far they’ll get before the snow shuts them down but however far they get it means we’ll have a bunch of new storm skiing. The trees will be kinda tight this year, but after they log Brew next summer.... MMMMMMM! Perfect angle tree skiing this year and great gladed runs next year. I think we need to make t-shirts that say “Logging Feeds My Shred”. This time next year we’ll have a whole new area to ski. Awwwwww yeah!
We’ve also purchased vehicles that will make Gord, the GM’s job a lot easier. We have a new fuel truck and sander/plow truck. The road up to the lodge will be a lot better this year as we can finally plow and sand it during and after every storm. Some mornings there was 3 feet of snow on the road so those trucks will be getting a workout. On the safety side of things, we also have replaced all our snowmobiles with Summit 700 and 800 sleds so our emergency response will be even better than ever.
Even the entrance to the Powder Mountain access road has been upgraded. Kiewit, the company upgrading the highway for the Olympics has built a great new lighted parking lot that’s easily accessible by the great new turn lanes they built. Now if you have a 2 wheel drive vehicle you don’t have to batter it to get to the lodge. You can just park in the new lot and we’ll pick you up on the way by. If you aren’t sure where the PM turn off is just look for all the new overhead lights and the beautiful parking lot. Our new sign might even be up by the time you get here. What a year!
Burton Snowboards has hooked us up again this winter with the best guide uniforms ever made. Burton AK outerwear is the best outerwear we’ve ever experienced. If you are looking for new outerwear or equipment this winter, hit up www.burton.com and get stoked and stocked. I’ve never seen a jacket used by a guide make it through an entire season without being destroyed by the abuse guides put them through. After a full season of abuse, our AK jackets didn’t even have a pulled stitch. That’s what outerwear is supposed to be. The 2008 AK stuff that just turned up is even better. Amazing.
A stoker for me was the prototype Burton Malolo 66 with EST bindings that turned up as well. Baseless bindings have returned. To quote LL Cool J, “Don’t call it a comeback!” I don’t think I have been this stoked to ride a new board in years. I forgot how insane it was to get a hand built prototype board from JG the head designer at Burton. Inventing the baseless years ago and then seeing it sidelined was always a bit of a bummer for me, but now that they are back with the Burton EST, it makes the wait worthwhile. I’m just kicking myself that I didn’t think of the mounting slot back then. Let it snow, I want to ride!
It’s been an amazing fall and the winter is going to be even more amazing. Whistler Blackcomb already has a 50 inch base so get up here, you are missing it. The snow is coming in deep and another storm is looking like it will turn up on Saturday so we’ll be skiing soon, hopefully December 8th, We’ve tried to do everything we could think of to make the entire experience better for you and I think we’ve nailed it. The word seems to be getting out about Powder Mountain Catskiing, we have been filling up a bit quicker than last year so if you know when you are coming to Whistler, make sure you book your seats soon for your best day ever.
