Backcountry skiing tours

If you’ve tried backcountry skiing, you already know the answer – skip to the next question!
But seriously, there’s skiing… and then there’s backcountry skiing. They may look similar in photos, but the experience is entirely different. Backcountry skiing is quiet, remote, and the most elegant way to move through the mountains. It gives you access to some of the most sublime landscapes on earth, and to snow that’s untouched, ungroomed, and deeply satisfying underfoot. Powder days are the dream, but the real magic lies in the variety and unpredictability of natural snow. Resorts can feel crowded and predictable; the backcountry is limitless, surprising, and rewarding around every turn.

Three great reasons to choose Sawback:
- Terrain: we offer ski trips to the most amazing places on earth.
- Guides: Tom has been running Sawback and guiding trips since the 1990s — and still loves it as much as ever. He has carefully selected Sawback’s guides to share the same passion and commitment to the craft that has defined the company from the start. All are ACMG/IFMGA certified and take a truly client-centred approach. Our goal is simple: to honour the trust you place in us and deliver the best ski trip of your life.
- Experience: While we add new destinations each year, our strength lies in the places we know best. Tom has guided at Burnie Glacier Chalet since its beginning in the early 2000s, and our other Burnie guides bring equally deep experience. Sawback has been running Svalbard trips for a decade and now leads more Svalbard ski expeditions than any other single operator. We’re also recognized as the Rocky Mountain hut traverse specialists, guiding more Bow-Yoho and Wapta traverses than anyone else. Our experience is as deep as it is wide.

We’re based in Western Canada but operate ski adventures around the world. In Canada we own and operate Burnie Glacier Chalet, one of the country’s legendary backcountry ski lodges, and run trips from other renowned lodges such as Valhalla Mountain Lodge and Sunrise Lodge. Canada is also home to some of the world’s best ski traverses – multi-day journeys where you travel by ski during the day and spend each night in a different hut or camp. The Rockies feature classic hut-to-hut traverses, while the Columbia Mountains offer rugged wilderness traverses that require carrying full winter camping gear.
Farther afield, we run trips in Japan, Northern Norway, Svalbard, Greenland, Argentina, and Antarctica. Japan is world-famous for its deep powder and steaming onsens. Northern Norway, Svalbard, and Greenland offer the rare combination of sea and mountains: perfect for ski touring and peak bagging, each with its own distinct culture, wildlife, and level of remoteness. And Antarctica is the ultimate: a true expedition to one of the most remote and rewarding ski destinations on Earth.

The simplest definition of backcountry skiing is skiing away from the mechanized drone and crowded chaos of the resorts. People have many reasons for heading into the hills without the aid of a lift. Yes, most of us ski for the “down,” and backcountry skiing certainly delivers – perhaps less in quantity, but unmatched in quality.
Climbing mountains before you ski them takes effort and determination, so it might seem like just a means to an end. But most who take up ski touring – and have the fitness for it – quickly discover that the “up” is just as rewarding as the “down.” There’s something meditative about winding your way along a sinuous skin track. It gives you time to think, to notice the landscape, to chat with friends new and old, and to take pleasure in the simple rhythm of hard work.