Big Red Cats — Local services in Rossland

Big Red Team,

We had a good time. We skied this last Saturday February 4th. Snow was good. Skiing was good and everyone enjoyed themselves immensely, especially my first timer kids (teenagers) and girlfriend. The guides were fine and caring, no issues there. For your background knowledge, this was only my second time cat skiing. I skied my first time with you before the pandemic. Soo, I have nothing to compare this trip to except for my first time with you several years ago. However I do a lot of guided fly fishing trips which may or may not be relevant. They are about the same cost though, $600 a trip. All my guided fly trips have had lots of water and excellent and abundant food.

But I have to raise a few things that I hope will ultimately improve your ski operation. If I were the management team and owner, I would welcome client experience feedback.

In no particular order I'll just rattle off some things that were oddly wrong with this trip and should be addressed.

No cold water. You only provided hot water. I was really thirsty as was the entire group. We were told that only hot water was available to drink. If we wanted cold water, we had to melt snow. This is absurd. Probably don't need to dwell on this any further but as you can imagine this is dumb. Give your sweaty, thirsty, dehydrated clients nice cold water to stay hydrated and most importantly, alive. Or, let us know in advance to bring cold water bottles. Common sense. I was very thirsty on this cat and I would not have imagined we were not going to have immediate drinkable water.

Food. For $500 a trip, I suggest you provide decent and ample amounts of food. I was handed a HALF sandwich and a cookie. Now, I am 6'2 and 250 lbs. Hungry. Our guides just handed over a Tupperware container and said "here ya go". It was a squished half sandwich. I would gladly pay an extra $50 dollars or more a trip to have a decent lunch with lots of food and water. No problem. But please just supply good food and lots of food. People will pay. It would have made the experience so much better. My kid had a friend with an allergy problem and you made him a special lunch. Obviously, he could not eat anyone else's sandwich and he only got the scant little half sandwich too. He is a small growing 17yo and he was starving.

Lastly, music would be nice. Now this is only me and some people might just want silence but we weren't given the option. I think its fun to have if people want it. Nowadays, portable music players are cheap. I heard other cats had music on Saturday.

Ok, so there is my feedback. Food and water. Hopefully you find this...

We spent two days cat skiing with Big Red Cats this week. The first day was very disappointing, however the second was fabulous.

Day 1: Our team of 4 was booked in a shared "Advanced Group" cat of 11 people. We arguably got the "6 run guarantee" in. We spent more time waiting for beginners who couldn't ski/board than the combined ski time + cat ride time. For a company that boasts access to 700 runs, we ended up skiing our own tracks twice. One of those repeats was a pancake flat 500m waste of time. Our lead guide chose to express his frustrations with the group instead of doing anything about it (like maybe benching the folks that clearly couldn't ski/board). Since we had only done 2 runs by noon we asked to be moved to a more advanced cat/group or to ski something with a pitch as we were bored. We were told it wasn't an option and to talk to the office. So afterwards we did speak with the office, our group felt ripped off having paid $800 each for that day. We wanted to ensure we weren't going to have the same experience on our second day. The office offered no solutions or assurances. They explained that they rely on accurate self-assessment of skill. The one silver lining to an otherwise disheartening day was our tail guide Shannon. Shannon brought such a cheerful, fun vibe to the day. We gave up on the epic ski day we drove 14.5hrs for and spent the afternoon chatting with Shannon and picking up beginners stuck in the powder.

Day 2: Once again, our team of 4 was booked in a shared "Advanced Group" cat, this time with a total of 8 people. Our lead guide Keena (sp?) was so knowledgeable and fun. Her safety briefing in the morning was a great brush up on AST1. Up top she gave us great advice on what we were about to ski, tips for how to ski better in the less than ideal conditions, and what to expect. We skied a variety of terrain, some open cut blocks, some nice glades, some steep pitches, and some enjoyable cruisers. I lost count of how many runs we did because I was too busy yelling wahoo and yippie. We did have someone who self assessed beyond their abilities in our group again, however our tail guide Francisco and Keena managed this very well and it was a non-issue. Kodu's to Keena for her fabulous group management skills. Day 2 was amazing and definitely worth the price...

I will be back at Big Red in a heartbeat. I had two days of phenomenal riding in great terrain and everyone's skill level matched the group. With cat-skiing, it is always important to be self aware of your ability so that you are not holding up a group and Big Red provides four options to make sure you get the group and the terrain you are looking for. I rode two days of uber-expert with a stellar group where everyone was flying and no one was ever stuck waiting. Our guides were fantastic and always got us the goods, pointing out where some good cliffs and other huckable features were. On day one we had Kieren, one of the owners of the operation and he keeps you safe but is still plenty laid back and just wants to have fun with the group. The next we had Cory who has a ton of experience and will maybe intimidate you at the start with his dedication to snow safety, but is a super chill, rad dude who got our group some of the best terrain available in the tenure. Both days we were graced with the tail guide experience of Cody who really made the days special. He was always quick to point out where the best stuff was if you asked him and his line recommendations were always on point. Then after the group got down, he would wow the group by hucking something giant and was always as stoked about riding as the group he was guiding. Snow safety guru Andrew joined us for a few runs on day one and on day two we were graced with him as the group photographer. Again, a super rad dude who will make sure you have the best time and will give you the entire oral history of thrash metal if you want it, while snapping some fantastic photos.

All these guides really made the experience. The best part about Big Red is their commitment to making sure you ride the best possible lines in the best possible snow. They always give heads up if snow conditions are not going to be at their best and are plenty happy to offer you a snow-check if conditions aren't to their standards. That insurance policy really sets them apart from other outfits who will assure you that the snow is fine when in reality it's a crust. Keep up the great work Kieren and co - I can't...