Soldier Mountain offers one of three places in Idaho for skiers and snowboarders to experience cat skiing in the backcountry.
In this operation, a Snowcat will take groups above the lifts where a blank canvas of fresh powder awaits on every turn. We also had the opportunity to ski with a legend. Reggie Crist competed in the 1992 Olympics and won two gold medals in the X Games.
“There is a lot of amazing skiing, I mean I am blessed I get to ski all over the world and the thing that strikes me about Idaho is just how vast this backyard playground is,” said Crist, who runs a heli-ski operation in Alaska and Chile. “Soldier Mountain not only has the ski resort, but this cat skiing operation is legit.”
Our day started with a brief avalanche refresher before Jeff Hershberger guided us where to go and how to stay safe while taking us to the best powder stashes in the Soldier Mountain backcountry.
“It is a balance trying to find good skiable snow and good pitch, but also maintain good safety and avalanche awareness,” said Hershberger. “It’s definitely our top priority and we get out there quite a bit to poke around in the snow to get a good understanding of what the conditions are like and what we need to be concerned about.”