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Powder Hunting
Searching for backcountry pow with Pacific Crest Snowcats
Lake Tahoe, CA - February 18, 2004

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Powder lunch
Photo by Alex West

The Pacific Crest experience is down-home and comfy. One can easily tell that everyone involved is in it for the love of the sport and they all want the company to succeed. Guides considerately trade duties with each other. "You tail-gunned (went last) on that run so I'll set up lunch while you take another." Speaking of which, lunch is a tasty picnic in a sunny spot at the bottom of aptly named Corn-ucopia. We ski down and it's all set up. Everyone lounges around bragging about the snow while Dave and Scott ask what kind of stuff we'd like to ski in the afternoon.

Dave is a self-starter who got into this enviable game in a round-about sort of way when Alaska "fell into my lap." He had been 'one of those guys' - a young guide for whitewater, biking, hiking and climbing trips. Then he heard about a heliskiing operation in Alaska, which tried to make that sport actually affordable. So he started a small booking company and began sending folks up Chugach way, to Alaska Backcountry Adventures. He then became a guide there, too, and continued booking trips under the corporate name Swayback Adventure Services. ABA got into some financial difficulties, one thing led to another, and now Swayback owns and operates ABA, one of the oldest heli operations up there.

A few years later back in Tahoe, a friend of Dave's told him to go scope some little-used terrain near Truckee. He went back there and saw the rolling steeps below the main ridge that connects Squaw and Mt. Lincoln. "I've gotta ski here!" was the declaration that got him started on the quest to get California's only commercial snowcat skiing company going. By the fall of 2001 Dave had permission to use the land - a combination of USFS and private - and enough funding to buy a cat. He got it from a private owner who wanted to haul the thing around for his friends' lazy backcountry whims.

When the snow is good, business is good. Pacific Crest was fully booked over the 2003-4 holiday season for two weeks straight. Twelve riders are capacity but groups who want their own private cat can have it for the price of ten skiers. The guide-to-rider ratio is 1:6. A day of catskiing costs $250 Friday through Sunday and holidays; $225 Monday through Thursday. Remnant seats exist for $50 off the regular price but are rarely available when snow is flying.

"When you play the weather too much, you miss it. The cat is booked on pow days and I hate to say I can't take somebody," advises Dave. The season lasts from mid-December until mid-April. Swayback also makes bookings for a private backcountry lodge nestled deep in the forest for $1,200 per night (four rooms).

When asked what it's like to run an exotic company such as this one, Dave laughs. "I thought it was going to be pow in the face all day. I've learned that itŐs 90% hydraulic fluid and 10% customers and fun!"

And there's nothing as rejuvenating as a day of powder. "It's like a mental health day. I should've gotten paid for doing this!" said Steve Bartis from the Bay Area. His co-worker and the only tele skier on today's excursion, Kaarel Kaljot, agreed. "I feel like I've been away for a million years. This was exactly what I needed."

Reservations for Pacific Crest Snowcats and Alaska Backcountry Adventures can be made by calling 888-SWAYBACK or visiting their website at www.pacificcrestsnowcats.com.

Special thanks to Dave Rintala, Scott Samelson and R.B. for their guidance and info!

Alex West