Great Northern Powder Guides

Aidan Stead

2024-03

From start to finish, this place was unreal. The guides/ staff were stellar: never once felt in danger, great to talk to, and made a phenomenal lunch. It felt like we were in a video game and teleported to the middle of nature in all the best ways. Conditions were amazing and I felt like I was surfing.#montanasucksstayaway

Jason Eckerman

2024-03

Amazing!!!! The terrain is special, the guides drivers and staff are wonderful, and the whole operation is really well done. I’ve been up several times and it’s an exceptional time each and every time.

Brian Judd

2024-04

Had the best time with our guides Calvin and KC. Special shout out to Cole who was our lead guide all three days we skied, who put us on trails that were amazing. It was great to have him all three days as he picked stuff for us that fit our skill level and really tailored the trip to us. Can’t recommend GNPG enough! Resort skiing won’t be the same after experiencing this!

Chris Carruthers

2020-05

Great time! So much fun I would have probably skipped yurt lunch for more pow lines and snacks in the cat. Great crew or people, Kai is super helpful, and cat was in great shape. The new website to allow booking up to the day before is HUGE. Great way to book when you know it's good. Adding this to the list of Pow trip options. Zones have lots of playful hits, flowy wide open pow fields, well space tree lines and a range of pitches to rip. Overall fantastic cat laps!

Seth Correll

2023-05

Did 2 days with GNPG in early Feb 2023 and we had a blast. Powder was deep and abundant!!! Cole, Sebastian and JP were awesome guides. Super friendly, accommodating, very engaged with guests and make a mean Tomato soup from the Costco box! Operators Kyle and KJ were legit however, the rear ski rack might have something different to say about Kyle haha!All in all we had a great time and would definitely recommend GNPG!Terrain note --- decently steep --- trees got tight on some runs & for me semi-uncomfortable...the guides would advise me on which runs were more open and up my alley --- made my 2 days much more enjoyable and fun!!!We will definitely be back!!!

Jace Barrera

2024-04

Such and amazing experience! The skiing and powder were insane and the staff rocked! 100% doing again!

Seth Egge

2021-05

The whole operation from start to finish was first class. The snow cats are exceptional and the best out group has been in! The terrain was challenging, diverse, and expansive! The guides always found us fresh lines.

Lynn Henderson

2018-05

I shared my 30th birthday with the team at Great Northern Powder Guides and it was the best birthday to date! I will get to the terrain in a moment, but the staff where absolutely amazing!!! They made me a cake for my birthday and made sure I had some extra special birthday perks! They went out of their way to make sure everyone had an amazing time!The terrain!!!! WOW! It was amazing!! There were fresh tracks galore! The terrain they have offers something for everyone! There were nice open runs and tree'd runs, as well as, natural drops, jumps and features everywhere!I highly recommend them for your next cat skiing trip and I sure hope to return in the future.Photo Credits to: Abby Dell Photography

Justin B

2022-05

Spent 2 days with Great Northern Powder Guides in early March '22. Was thoroughly satisfied with the experience. From the professionalism and friendliness of guides, approach to safety, quality of the Snow Cats, quality of food at lunch and variety of runs including adapting where we skiied to suit changing conditions. Will return and would definately recommend.

Chris L'Heureux

2019-05

First time riding Great Northern Powder Guides... been driving by it for years and years and this year booked a seat. Thanks to Mother Nature and Ullr we had a bluebird day with deep deep deep fresh powder to play in. The terrain is full of features and a great mix of runs in trees and alpine. We had a great crew in the cat along with Jay driving and Ken as our head guide, were able to shred the tenure at a good pace. I must try the steep and deep next. The entire staff are super friendly and just what you'd expect from a group with the same passion as you - blower pow... Seeing our guide all smiles, just as much as us is a pretty amazing experience. Looking forward to seeing the pics from Emily :)Thanks for a great experience, and you've definitely got yourself a regular now from Canada, Eh!!! see ya next time!

Russ Morgan

2019-05

Incredible first experience cat skiing. Trip was 3rd week of Feb ‘19. Carl was lead guide, Emily on photos, and we had 11 total guests; 5 of which were from my group. In our group only two had previous experience cat/Heli. They got us in to tons of great untracked powder. Carl was an excellent guide, instructions were clear, concise, safety focused. Emily was a riot and shot a ton of great photos. Great lunch of grilled cheeseburgers and tomato soup in their backcountry yurt. Skied hard all day, tons of vert. Will go back was consensus from new guy (me) and others that had been on trips with other operators. Can’t recommend them enough.For newbies some questions I had answered here:Locker room: show up on time in street clothes and there is plenty of time to get changed before heading outCat: Tons of space in the cat. Great stereo system, bring a old school jack if you want to plug in. Space for small bag if you want extra layers. You’ll warm up in cat no problem in between runs.Trees: We skied a mix of open runs and heavily treed. I’m guessing each day is different but you should be comfortable in trees to go.Beacon: They supply avalanche beacon and basic training.Ski width: Carl heavily biased toward “ski what u have/know” vs showing up renting skis widely outside your normal range. I skied Soul7 HD (106 underfoot) and they were perfect. That said you can rent from them onsite.Steeps/Deeps: We did lots of deeps, some minor steeps, but generally very gentle pitch. Not sure if that varies group by group.

Kali Seisler

2018-05

We went when they had not had snow (Feb 2017) for about 7 or more days. The first run was solid ice and awful. Many people fell. I wish we could have skipped that "warm up run." The rest of the morning we lapped the same area which was corn-type skiing in the sun. Fun, but not powder skiing. But what can you do when it hasn't been snowing. Our last 3 runs they took us up to an area out of the sun with about 8 inches of untouched powder. That was fun! I understand they couldn't have us ski powder all day because they had to save some for other guests on future days given the poor weather forecast. All in all it was enjoyable. If we would have hit it after a dump, it would have been amazing. My only complaint was they recommended renting their powder skis. This was unnecessary given the conditions. Two older gentleman in our cat rented them expecting powder and then injured themselves trying to ski ice and corn the first half of the day on the big skis. They were too wiped to ski by afternoon when we finally got to the powder. My friends regretted spending the extra money on the rental skis. Otherwise we had blast. The guides were friendly and helpful. We loved Emily! The food was great and the scenery beautiful. We will be back!

John Ozog

2024-02

Scummy company. I’ve done multiple ski excursions including heli skiing in Whistler. No other company I have dealt with will steal your money when they decide to canceldue to weather under the veil of “we keep it as a credit”. Total scum bags. Avoid.

Matt Trebesch

2018-05

Can't say enough about the great guides and the trip we had last weekend. Jude and Scott our guides were top notch got us to good lines and most importantly took care of us in the back country. Powder! YES!!! The day was filled with some adventure - but our guides handled the problem with ease and professionalism. If you can ski powder, trees and follow the guides instructions and if you're looking for a day filled with memories, fresh lines and no lift lines? DO IT! Take a trip with these guys (and gals)! Thanks for the great day Great Northern Powder Guides!

Vinny Merlino

2018-05

Spent two phenomenal days with GNPG over 2018 Pres Wknd. All our guides (Jude, TJ, Ken, Scott and Carl) were fantastic, focusing on both rider safety and ensuring we were enjoying the great terrain. Have to also call out Tarn and Bill, our cat operators, who drove us through some intense snow conditions to give us access to amazing pow. Amazing experience all around by a first class operation. Can’t wait to come back.

Aaron Laws

2022-05

I've done several cat ski trips. This one was probably my worst. The snow was good, the guides were cool, the cat's themselves were very nice and comfortable. My problem was they wasted the first half of our day taking us into tightly treed terrain on south facing slopes (denser snow). Finally after lunch they took us onto north facing slopes with light and deep snow with some open spaces so I could finally make a few consecutive powder turns without getting funneled into trails between trees and playing follow the leader like we did all morning. If they had taken us right to the good stuff in the morning, this would be a five star review. My suspicion is they intentionally do this to preserve the good stuff for other cats/customers to get some each day. My advice would be to not book more customers than you have fresh snow for. I paid for two seats on the cat to ski fresh snow all day, so half of my $900 was wasted skiing tracked up snow in the trees all morning. I'm giving two stars because I feel like this trip was worth 2/5 of the money I paid. We skied good terrain for 1 1/2 hours of the day. That's all.

Ashley S

2023-05

From our first email and call to the last interaction, the staff was very friendly, helpful, and answered all of our questions. The crew did a great job finding us the best lines available, keeping the group on pace, and getting as many runs in as possible. Lunch was delicious plus the yurt and separately, end beer, were perfect accompaniments to the trip. Thanks for a great day!

Cheman Cuan

2020-05

This was hands down the best experience of my life. Great crew, awesome guides, would HIGHLY recommend going out with this crew!

Jens Odegaard

2023-05

Had a fantastic time. Katie was an awesome guide and kept the good vibes rolling all day. Amazing terrain and snow. The cats were top notch. Highly recommend and will definitely be back.

John Cooke

2018-05

These folks have the goods! Totally professional, Well organized, Friendly, FUN, Comfy cats, Excellent terrain. What more could you ask for? How about a beer after the last run, from a remote stash, for the ride back to HQ...CHECK! These guys sure know how to roll....

Erik Esala

2021-05

Or guide Ken delivered an epic 2 days of Deep Powder skiing on excellent terrain. It was more than I ever expected. Thank you Ken, "Best run of my life!!"

Pete Byl

2018-05

Ever tried skiing? It's pretty fun. Ever tried skiing untracked pow all day from a cat?! It's the freaking best!GNPG put us on great snow all day. The runs weren't super gnarly or technical but if you are looking for long, gladed tree runs, this is the place!Two big thumbs up from this guy! Can't wait to go again!

derrick Frank

2021-05

I did three days here and this is a very refined outfit. I was completely amazed by how efficient and well organized they are. It was noticeable right off the bat that our guides and cat driver were dead set on making the most out of each day we were there. After talking with both our guides and cat driver it was obvious that we were in good hands with years of experience and know how.Besides having an unbelievable time these are the type of people you could learn a great deal from. I just wish I had more days. It's a very friendly atmosphere and small town type of mentality. There will be a return trip.

Jeff Krautkramer

2023-05

What a great operation from booking to the day of Powder Skiing! We booked a private CAT and had a blast.The snow was amazing. You need to be comfortable skiing in the trees!Will come back!

Jason Forrest

2018-05

I was fortunate enough to experience GNPG about three seasons ago on a great trip with a ripping crew of Burton sponsored snowboarders. We had the steep and deep cat and got in tons of fun runs, all fresh pow, fun little transitions, nothing crazy just really fun and quick runs. The cat was fast, had a blasting sound system, provided warmth and snacks between runs. Our guide was great, she was focused on safety and did her best to wrangle a bunch of excited dudes. We had lunch at the yurt followed by more fun laps then a final long run back to the base area. I'd certainly go again!

Philip Law

2019-05

We rented our own cat with 10 people and had an unreal day. We've cat skied before and thought this operation was very professionally run, and the snow and terrain was really high caliber. Jay and Ky were awesome to work with leading up to our cat skiing day, and we were fortunate to have Jay as our driver who was a ton of fun. We had Scott as our lead guide and Kira as our tailgunner guide and they were both fantastic and resulted in us having a great day. They do a nice job focusing on some of the smaller customer experience items (the Yurt and hot lunch were a huge hit, the popcorn machine and breakfast were a nice touch, and the base lodge is really neat). Nothing to say but good things about this operation, which was top caliber.

Doug Kling

2021-05

Our crew has been going to BC for the last 9 years. This year was skunked by Covid, so we found another plan - Great Northern Powder Guides. The skiing was amazing and the guides really knew what they were doing. The terrain is truly amazing. It felt like a small family operation but had all the skills and knowledge of any major operation. Our Cat consisted of Kira, Colton and Connor for two days. They put us on great slopes and we always felt safe. I have to say that this was one of the finest mechanized skiing experiences that I have had in the US. Truly a great operation with very fun and experienced guides. Ski you later! And, the cat dogs were a true bonus!

Jeff Gerdes

2023-05

Did 3 days on the Steep and Deep Cat with GNPG and had an absolutely fantastic time! Amazing guides, spectacular terrain and super comfortable cats made for an ALL-TIME experience - these guys deliver the goods!

Jared Richards

2020-05

What an amazing experience!!! This might be the best hidden gem in North American cat skiing. I’ve experienced 4 other cat operations in the US and Canada and this had hands down the best terrain, was the easiest to access and it didn’t break the bank. It was an authentic skiing experience - super deep powder and steep terrain with incredibly fun features (jumps, stumps, cliffs). The actual cats were the fastest and best maintained I’ve experienced and the operators handled the incredible machines with skilled precision. The cat cabins were the most comfortable I’ve enjoyed, and were situated for quick loading and unloading. The time between runs was quick which meant we got in a lot of skiing.The tree spacing couldn’t have been better for advanced or even intermediate skiers.We did two nights at the yurt which I’d highly recommend. The yurt is about 25 miles into the backcountry and the snow conditions there are amazing. The yurt is a true yurt (a portable nomadic home). It’s warm, no frills, and perfect for someone wanting to unplug and connect with people and nature. All of the terrain around the yurt is skiable and means that right after you wake up you are minutes away from incredible skiing.Finally the guides (Carl, Kira, and Tarn(Cat Operator)) were really incredible professionals and people. We gained trust in each other and once they knew our limits and trusted us they took us to terrain that pushed us but was within our limits. They were very knowledgeable about avalanche safety and took great care of us.Overall - I’d recommend the experience to anyone who enjoys skiing deep powder. This place is second to none.

Mike Law

2019-05

Amazing experience with these guys - Jay and Ky have created an incredible environment from the moment you walk into their staging lodge, and have some fast moving cats to make sure we got plenty of runs in! Our guides, Scott and Kira were so great all day at keeping the stoke high and choosing some amazing terrain for the group. 11/10 would recommend and will definitely try to come back! (Ask Jay about his speed skiing career)