When you first arrive, there's that unmistakable feeling that you could never do it all. Not in just one lifetime. Like exploring an archipelago, or an ancient city. But within that realization comes another - that this will be the experience of a lifetime.

And it doesn't matter where you start. Maybe in Revelstoke, where people have been skiing for a 100 years, or Nelson, where snow buries perfect heritage houses, or Golden, where mountains scratch crystal blue skies. Or perhaps it begins down in Rossland, or over in Fernie, where steep trees, 'cold smoke' and storybook villages have stolen the lives of many a wandering ski bum.

Your journey may not start in a town at all, however. The adventure could begin high and hidden in the folds of the Purcell Mountains, or the Selkirks, the Monashees, perhaps the Valhallas, in a backcountry lodge, where the sun rolls up and down glacially carved peaks, where you inhabit a world entirely uninhabited ... save you.

Or maybe it starts at a remote heli-ski lodge. Or a fly-in cat-ski operation. The region happens to be the birthplace of both genres. For good reason of course, there might not be terrain better suited to backcountry powder skiing on the planet.

One constant is for certain, let's be sure, no matter how it begins. Once here, one highway connects many lifetimes of ski and snowboard adventures. But don't fret, there's no rush. The perfect snow, spectacular mountains and friendly people will wait. On the Powder Highway, there's plenty to go around.

By Mitchell Scott
RELATED LINKS (ADDITIONAL INFORMATION):
~ BC Catskiing
~ Catskiing Canada