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Ski trips to the most
amazing places on earth
Featured Trips
Mountaineering and Adventuring, for over 25 years.
In the winter season we specialize in high end ski touring trips to BC’s finest Backcountry lodges as well as exotic international destinations like Svalbard, Greenland, Antarctica and Europe. In 2021 we added a new array of trips in our own magnificent backyard to appeal to the growing demand for local trips close to home. Trips we haven’t done for years, such as our Wapta, Bow Yoho, Northern Selkirks and Bugaboos Traverses, are world class and have a strong appeal to Canadians especially this past winter when we couldn’t travel internationally. When our borders reopen — and we hope they do soon — we look forward to sharing with our visitors, once again, what we believe to be the Best Skiing on Earth.
A few spots still available for March 2022
One of Canada’s very best ski touring lodges, Burnie is surrounded by towering glaciated peaks with epic 1500 m runs, and 700 m tree skiing behind the hut!
Comfortable hut to hut ski touring in the Canadian Rockies, April 2022
We are the Wapta Deluxe experts. For years we have offered the very finest Bow Yoho traverses. Our clients have confirmed that this is the closest you’ll get to a luxury Euro-style traverse in Canada and certainly on the Wapta. Find out why! Book now!
Mountains as awesome as their mythical namesakes
“Rows of glaciers on either side of the valley are lined up one beside the other at varying degrees of steepness, all perfect for skiing. The peaks are towering and rugged. I’ve been to most of the best backcountry ski lodges in the world … Nirvana tops them all for terrain.”
An effective framework for riding safely in avalanche terrain
Our two evening online zoom sessions introduce the concepts taught during the field day. The field day focuses on practical application of safe travel techniques and rescue systems.
Explore Northern Norway’s fjords and glaciers
The first week will be spent skiing along the coastal mountains of the Lyngen Alps, staying in quaint mountain huts and hotels in small towns. On day 6 we will board the Rembrandt van Rijn and continue along the rugged coastline of Northern Norway, exploring the fjords and glaciated peaks that makes this region so famous.
Explore the Fjords of Svalbard from the s/v Noorderlicht
The most exotic guided ski touring trip possible: backcountry ski touring and sailing along the west coast of Spitsbergen in the Greenland sea, 1000 km north of Norway, in the Svalbard archipelago of over 60 (mostly unpopulated) islands. It is a wild and remote place, and at a latitude of greater than 78º, high in the Arctic, it is level with Canada’s Ellesmere Island, or the northernmost end of Greenland. Yet it easy to access – with three-times daily flights from Oslo – and offers the supreme comfort of a luxury sailing yacht.
More About Us
Sawback was founded by Tom Wolfe in 1995, running mountain hiking trips for groups. Since then we have expanded programming to offer just about any mountaineering adventure you could imagine. Tom is a trained and internationally certified Mountain Guide and a member of the Association of Canadian Mountain Guides (ACMG) and the International Federation of Mountain Guides (IFMGA).
We work with a variety of other certified guides. See our Guides and Partners Page for some photos and brief bios.
For existing trips, simply use our Book Now link to fire off a quick booking request. We will follow up quickly with you to confirm the booking with you.
If you are looking for a custom trip – e.g. a day of ski touring or ice climbing or a multi-day trip that we don’t offer – email or phone us or use our contact form. We will offer suggestions and personally help you organize the best possible trip for you .
Sawback is primarily a small one-man operation. While there are guides who work with large operations in Western Canada there is also a small, co-operative community of independent guides who pass work they can’t do on to others who can. If Tom can’t join you in your mountain adventure we will refer you to another independent mountain guide who will.
Sawback’s guides are members of the following associations: