Looking for adventurous off-piste skiing or snowboarding this winter? Then read this Powder Mad cat-ski holiday review to find out why I recommend their Turkey backcountry adventure in the Kaçkar Mountains.
As Jamie–world’s fastest snowboarder–Barrow and I boarded Turkish Airlines we had no idea what awaited us. But we figured that mixing epic terrain with good snow, no crowds and a cat-ski/board operation, you’re likely to have a very good time.
What we didn’t expect was bucket loads of camaraderie with an awesome crew we’d never previously met. Or how spending a week in the wild makes a backcountry snowboarding trip feel like a proper adventure.
Review of Powder Mad: Who Are They?
Before I begin this review of Powder Mad cat-ski holiday in turkey, I feel the company needs to be properly introduced.
Stepping into their fourth season, Powder Mad have grown from a humble lockdown project to running off-piste adventures all winter long. A team of one has grown to a family of seven guides and instructors, with many new friendships forged along the way.
They were cat skiing in the Ukrainian Carpathian Mountains just before the war broke out. Have explored backcountry in North Macedonia, Georgia and Turkey. And their next discovery trip is to the breathtaking Indian Himalayas of Kashmir.
Powder Mad Trips 2024/25
Group ski touring courses in St. Foy, France are back for their third year with two new courses. “One Step Beyond” is mastering ski touring techniques and mountain skills. “Two Steps Beyond” is learning how to plan, organise and safely lead your own ski touring adventure.
Cat skiing trips have skyrocketed in popularity, with this review of Turkey backcountry adventure their maiden trip to the Kaçkar mountains. Weather front from the Black Sea dump loads of fluffy stuff on these high mountains and the cat assisted riding is epic.
Georgia is calling again this year! Powder Mad will be there in February. Using ski lifts to access off-piste terrains, ski touring/split boarding and even helicopter drops – all at an unbelievably affordable price!
The Powder Mad Legends is new for this season. A gnarly cat-skiing/boarding trip just for the over-60s. It sold out an entire cat within weeks of launch.
Or join the invite only trip to St Foy. You need to have already been on a Powder Mad adventure to join the entire team for freeride skiing and snowboarding holiday in St Foy, France. It’s the perfect blend of skiing and socialising that coincides with legendary celebrations thrown by the locals.
Getting to Erzurum via Istanbul
Getting to the Kaçkar Mountains wasn’t going to be easy. Erzurum, the closest airport, could only be reached by internal flights from Istanbul.
With two international airports there are a variety of options to get to Istanbul. But slightly awkward flight times to Erzurum meant it made sense to stop over in Istanbul. We took the M11 Metro from the airport to the city, it’s the fastest and cheapest option.
Istanbul is a great city. We stayed in Kadıköy, on the Asian side of the Bosporus where there are lots of bars and restaurants and a great nightlife. Almost too good as we were out partying until three in the morning.
The next day we took a ferry on the Bosporus Straight, visited the Blue Mosque and Hagia Sofia and had a little explore of the city. I had been there before and its a city that needs much more than 24 hours!
Turkish Airlines to Erzurum via Istanbul
We flew Turkish Airlines from London Heathrow to the main Istanbul airport (IGA). It is new, huge and very impressive. A nice place to lose a few hours between flights.
The international flights were comfortable with good food and in flight entertainment, certainly a step up from budget airlines. The internal flight to Erzurum were still good, but not quite the same standard.
Erzurum is an military airport with a tiny luggage area. Note: luggage from international flights gets taken to a different area to which you arrive. Once through customs we met with the rest of the Powder Mad Turkey backcountry adventure crew.
On the way home we spent a night, and an incredible gala dinner in Erzurum. Unfortunately, the restaurant, and most of the city, is alcohol free. There are an handful of bars, but groups of Western guys are not let in.
Beyond the lack of booze it is an interesting city, with a rich Byzantine history, lots of agricultural machinery sales and a local ski resort. (Three things, I am not sure have ever been written in one sentence before!) Erzurum is at 1950m, so it’s cold and has hosted the youth winter Olympics.
Adventure Reaching Kaçkar Mountain Base camp
The 200km transfer from Erzurum Airport to Kaçkar Pansiyon in Olgunlar is an adventure in itself. It takes four to five hours. We broke up the journey with tasty traditional kebabs on the way.
For the first 150km is on lovely smooth new(ish) roads through lots of impressive tunnels. But from around Yusufeli the surfaced road is replaced by a dirt track that gets progressively bumpier.
We had landed late in the evening so I slept through most of the drive – including much of the bumpy track. That ended with a rather abrupt stop at a small landslide.
Hopping out we all helped move the rocks from the road. Surrounded by high cliffs and banks of icy snow on one side and a drop to a fast flowing river on the other, I realised I was on a proper adventure.
From here the road deteriorated… Just before Yaylalar, the last inhabited village, we switched from 4WD mini buses to Jeeps. There was ice covering the road, and a couple of times we had to push the vehicles over treacherous patches. We eventually arrived at the Pansiyon in the small hours and without further ado hit the sack!
It wasn’t until the way home that I realised what an incredible feat of engineering the road to Yaylalar is. Clearly the river regularly floods, there are metres of snow each winter, frequent avalanches and landslides. Remarkably it is kept open.
At points cliffs overhang the road, and at others the vehicle overhangs drops into the river. It is a pretty drive with plenty to look at. Or to try not to look at if you are a nervous traveller!
Powder Mad Cat-Ski Holiday Review
This trip was cat assisted skiing and snowboarding as opposed to a full on cat ski operation. So we typically put in some leg work to reach higher elevations. That said we had a couple of cat only days, and even the other days we did a few cat only runs.
Usually the cat would be able to get higher than our top point. But some dangerous snow was overhanging its usual track. They were waiting on the delivery of dynamite to sort that out. But while that was the case the track stopped about 200m below it’s target destination.
They intend to open up other tracks in the opposite direction in order to access more terrain. However, despite it not snowing for more than a week before we arrived we still enjoyed powder on every run.
Cat-Skiing in Turkey
The first and last day, plus the first few runs on other days were conducted by cat only. This gave us all the chance to warm our legs up, for the guides to assess us, and to get a feel for the snow conditions.
The first run on the first day was a huge surprise. Stood on icy snow conditions didn’t seem great. But after a short traverse the snow softened and we were in knee deep powder. The terrain was easy, a relatively shallow pitch except in a couple of places.
From this drop off there were a few faces with different aspects and varying terrain to enjoy. Some runs crossed the cat tracks which are fun to jump off. Beyond that you enter gladed trees with plenty of space with fun undulations to get playful.
Amazingly this and a couple of lower drop off points, gave us a weeks worth of fresh tracks. And while the powder quality varied by aspect, and reduced slightly over the week, we were hitting the soft stuff each day without it feeling tracked out.
Its a large area, and with just one cat load of skiers/snowboarders there is plenty of snow to go around. So don’t worry if it doesn’t look like it will snow while you are there.
Fellowship of the Snowshoe
After a couple of warm up cat runs we typically set off on a hike. Most people had ski touring equipment or splitboards. Unfortunately my splitboard didn’t arrive in time due to post brexit red tape, so myself and three others snowshoed.
On the first day we followed the tracks of the ski tourers. This was incredibly difficult as they go across slope. On future days we created our own straight up the mountain path, and the fellowship of the snowshoers was born.
Joking aside it was significantly easier to go straight uphill than zigzag back and forth on snowshoes. So much so that on the second day we beat the tourers to the top. Of course they didn’t let that happen again!
Backcountry Snowboarding in Turkey
This Powder Mad cat-ski holiday review would not be complete without discussing the big backcountry lines! I mean all of the riding here was backcountry, there is no resort, lifts and hardly anyone else around for hundreds of miles.
But there is a difference between a line accessed from a snowcat and those you reach under your own steam. There were two main options, each with plenty of variety. The first was dropping into the valley that leads back to the lodge. The second took you down into the village of Yaylalar.
Either route you are in for a great time. To head back to the lodge you can take an easy hike and drop in through a gully. Alternatively you can take the double hike of Mount Doom. Two tough ascents (on snowshoes) with a ridge between.
Both times we were rewarded with untold powder riches stretching away before us. Even going second to last you could make your own tracks, hit features and have a great time.
Snowboarding into Yaylalar
The route to the village requires half of the aforementioned hike up Mount Doom. You then drop in from the ridge into a steepish face and can take different ways down into a massive bowl, all of which are a lot of fun. Best of all you can pop off the ridge into the deep pow for a dramatic entry!
The valley then undulates and meanders it’s way down the mountain in mostly easy steepness, but often relatively tricky terrain. You need to judge your speed well to get over inclines, while avoiding trees, random steep sections, streams and some rocks.
After this the valley gets very narrow and before long the snow hardens to a treacherous icy route to the road. But while it is challenge, it is still fun. You can then walk into the village to have a tea, or and illicit beer, while you wait for the pick up.
Review of Powder Mad Crew & Local Guides
Great mountains, good snow, backcountry wilderness will only get you so far. The final, and arguably most important, ingredient is the crew you ride with.
When we arrived, hungover, in Erzurum to be enthusiastically met by a bus load of mainly 30 somethings, all I wanted to do was sleep. It wasn’t really until the next day, when we got in the snowcat that we started to get to know each other.
The first journey up was fairy quiet, people chatting in small groups. But after the first run everyone was pumped, enthusiasm to get back on the snow was overflowing and camaraderie began to build.
From shared snacks (the tray of sweets were a huge result, thanks Christian and Robin!), to testing each others gear and taking it in turns to act as follow cam, the crew were awesome. Everyone pulled together in the same direction, helping the trip to eclipse my expectations.
This was epitomised when one of the team injured his knee. We were a long way from nowhere, even the snowcat took an age to reach us. But everyone worked together to get the recovery sled to safely get him down the mountain.
Warwick, the Powder Mad guide and Floss, a guide who was there on holiday, both regularly discussed the safety with us. They ran an avalanche rescue refresher session before we set off on the first day. Looking around us it was clear that slides happen.
In fact our guide was caught in a very small avalanche when leading. He had told the others to stay back as it looked dicey, and he slid a fair way down the slope. This was rather scary but also added to the adventure as we were crossing that face on snowshoes at the time.
Review of Turkey Cat Ski Lodge
The lodge during this Turkey backcountry adventure was basic but comfortable. The food was very tasty, lots of rustic dishes that are traditional in this part of Turkey. Veg and beans featured heavily, with a lot of stew and kebab style cooked meats, plus bread, potatoes and rice etc.
My only complaint was that our room was really cold. The radiators worked but we were in a corner of the building with two exterior walls and it never really warmed up. The bathroom was typical of this part of the world, not great but we had hot water.
The communal rooms are comfortable and rustic. The sitting room was ridiculously hot, but at times that was very welcome. Outside is a sitting area made of snow where we had a few beers straight after the days riding.
Powder Mad Cat-Ski Holiday Review: Conclusion
I have been on some awesome snowboarding press trips over the years; Japan, Colorado, heliskiing in Turkey and did a season in Whistler. While these are dream destinations this Turkey backcountry adventure is up there with my favourite trips.
The reason is twofold. Firstly, it was a proper adventure, we were in the middle of nowhere and had the mountains pretty much to ourselves. Second, and most importantly, the group Powder Mad pulled together were awesome.
Everyone was on the same powder hunting wavelength. We all wanted to explore the backcountry and didn’t mind some effort to do so. Ranging from the UK, Germany, France, Denmark and the Netherlands everyone had an adventurous spirit, that was highly infectious.
As a result, most of us are heading on a similar backcountry skiing adventure to Georgia in February 2025. This will include lift accessed pow, some touring/splitboarding and a heli drop or two. There are still a few spots left if you want to join us!
I hope you found this Powder Mad cat-ski holiday review inspiring. To book a spot on this trip or to join us in Georgia visit: www.powdermad.com
