“This is the strongest, but slowest, group that I’ve ever guided,” Guillame Crepault says. Strapped up, can we call that a backside compliment? Anyways, I can’t help but laugh at G’s remark. He’s been guiding our crew for the past two days at Gostlin Keefer Lake Lodge, a premiere catboarding operation in British Columbia. We’re here with a couple of our staff at The Snowboarder’s Journal, Mervin Mfg.’s Pete Saari (featured in Issue 20.4), Reno-based artist Hannah Eddy, and several other close friends of the publication. While everyone can handle themselves on every bit of terrain that we’ve come across, none of us are in any sort of hurry. Rather, we’re taking our sweet time to stop and smell the cedars on this three-day soiree in the Monashee Mountains.

ABOVE All aboard. Time to get on the Star Destroyer, one of the two luxury snowcats at Gostlin Keefer Lake Lodge. Andy Heinzle’s look of childlike excitement says it all. Photo: Colin Wiseman

ABOVE Big Winner, a.k.a. Zoe Shultz, this year’s winner of our signup contest for a spot on our trip to Gostlin Keefer Lake Lodge. Zoe is also the undisputed winner of “Hottest Hat in the Cat,” for obvious reasons. Photo: Colin Wiseman

ABOVE An artist of many mediums, Hannah Eddy painting lines across the dust on schnarb. Photo: Colin Wiseman

ABOVE Rob Machado? Close. Eric Wallis, frontside. Photo: Colin Wiseman

ABOVE Andrew Marriner puts down some good looking turns despite the melon-sized welt on his hip (sustained from a fall he took prior to the trip). Photo: Colin Wiseman

Despite warm fronts before our group’s arrival, there’s still good snow up high, with variable run-outs to the pickup. Late March is finicky like that.  G and the other navigationally gifted guides lead us to shadowy stashes that exceed everybody’s expectations. We find tree-jams and sidehits in sunnier aspects and even get onto a mildly technical line over exposure. When faced with tricky exits, we break, joke, then find our way to the bottom.

ABOVE Guides Guillame Crepault and Levi Lawrence demonstrating very professional scoping and pointing techniques at higher elevations. Photo: Ben Shanks Kindlon

ABOVE Lead Guide Levi Lawrence shows the way down a line called “Swipe Right” on day one of the trip. Photo: Ben Shanks Kindlon

ABOVE (Top/Left) Excluding the lead guide, on lines like these Big Winner drops first. Woah-oh, there she goes. (Right/Bottom) Sean McKillop picking up speed and laying into a nice turn on the exit of Swipe Right. Photos: Ben Shanks Kindlon

Now, I’m not going to write this bit about leading with optimism as if I’m coming from a place of profound enlightenment. Admittedly, it’s easy to keep spirits high when you’re shacking up in a luxury lodge, eating gourmet cuisine and have a snowcat with bucket seats and hot soup shuttling you to the top of beautiful backcountry runs in British Columbia. But it really is that much easier when everyone in your crew is onboard (pun intended) with the pace of riding that presents itself.

ABOVE Hilary Sherman with après on the mind. Photo: Colin Wiseman

ABOVE Pop, drop and stomp it. Andy Heinzle has a knack for these things. Photo: Colin Wiseman

We spend nearly as much time—if not more—making jokes as we do turning our snowboards. While our roll is rather sluggish compared to that of Keefer’s regular clientele, and it’s not the same kind of cold smoke that we rode last January, these spring conditions still stack up for an unforgettable trip. A more relaxed rendezvous, one chock-full of deep laughs, much needed Vitamin D and time well spent in the mountains. Another reminder that when we gather with the right folks, time on snow generally proves to be pretty damn amazing—perhaps even more so than what we thought it could be.

ABOVE (Top/Left) All the way from Vermont: Abby Young, all smiles. (Bottom/Right) The ever-humble and hilarious Pete Saari (featured in Issue 20.4). Photos: Colin Wiseman

ABOVE Colleen Quigley making the most of fresh snow that fell just in time for our third and final day of the trip. Photo: Colin Wiseman

ABOVE One cheery crew. From left to right: Julia Reis, Colin Wiseman, Sean McKillop, (Le)Bronwyn Fache, Eric Wallis, Guillame Crepault, Abby Young, Ben Shanks Kindlon, Zoe Shultz, Hannah Eddy, Andrew Marriner, Hilary Sherman, Andy Heinzle, Colleen Quigley, Pete Saari. Photo: Levi Lawrence

Later that evening, snow starts falling. The guides say it may stack up to a few inches of fresh come morning. Pow turns tomorrow? I can’t help but laugh, and wonder what wine pairs with that.

ABOVE Gostlin Keefer Lake Lodge in only a fraction of its glory. Photo: Colin Wiseman

A special thanks to Jeff Gostlin, Keith Byers, the guides, gifted chefs and gracious operations and lodge team members who work together to create such a fantastic operation. We’ll be back, and in the meantime reminiscing on fuzzy memories from our memorable time riding at Gostlin Keefer Lake Lodge.