Downhill skiing is a particularly fun activity!

There are a few ways the skier can get up to the top. He can choose to ride infrastructure to transport him up the mountain. Should he choose that method, then he does not have to work too hard to get up to the top of the run. If not, then he may climb often deep, steep, soft, and powdery snow to get to the top. Once at the top, the skier lets gravity do the lion’s share of the work. He is simply required to steer and control his speed. I say “simply”, but it is not quite so easy. Weather conditions are the biggest variable, primarily snow conditions and visibility. Other very important factors are how steep is the grade and how much snow is laying where he is skiing? How windy has it been or is it, as that will affect how soft (or hard) the snow is.

 

Here is a little something about me:

I don’t really like winter. I would much rather spend my time somewhere on a sunny beach with some palm trees swaying in a gentle tropical breeze. Even better, I would prefer to be regularly scuba diving below those waves, swimming in that warm water with the fish.
But alas, I live in a country and province where winter reigns for six or more months of the year, every year! So I had to find something to maybe help me try to enjoy some of the snow. That is the reason I originally learned how to ski. And you know what? I quickly learned to find skiing delightful, and indeed it has helped me to get through our long winters. Additionally, I always relish any chance to be in or on the mountains.

 

 

As fun as skiing is on its own,

is there a way to take this adventurous activity and add more adrenaline? Yes, of course there is: add a helicopter into the mix!
Having everybody ski down specifically cut runs that are serviced by cable lifts or T-bars can be beneficial, as this allows many people to use those runs. But one of the disadvantages is that any new snow on the top half gets tracked up and packed down pretty early in the morning. Another disadvantage (if you are wanting to ski on untouched snow) is that usually, the bottom half is groomed every night. Lastly, where cable-driven ski lifts are installed, certain terrain considerations need to be taken into account.
In contrast, riding a helicopter to get to the top of mountains offers a few advantages.
Helicopters have a large flight range, which means there is much more terrain that can be accessed. Having more terrain means that the skiers are able to ski on virgin powder all day long. Fresh pow, man! Also, as long as there is room for the helicopter to land, and there is at least one safe way to ski down, then almost any terrain will work. And finally, if a particular run looks sketchy, due to avalanche risk or un-skiable terrain, there are plenty of others to choose from.

The other popular way to get to see more of a mountain rather than just sticking to ski runs at a resort is to go cat skiing. Riding the cats, you will have much more terrain to ski than at a resort, but not quite as much as is available with heliskiing. The cats stick to specific groomed tracks where they drive up to drop off their passengers, then drive back down to meet them again at the bottom. This is not an activity that I have tried yet, but I hope to at some point in the future. It has been said that a good day of cat skiing can be as good or better than a poor day of heliskiing, so my curiosity is certainly piqued. In addition, of these three activities, heliskiing is the most expensive!

 

 

 

 

I used to ski every winter with my friend Terence. A minor knee injury, that ironically happened while I was skiing, has kept me off the slopes for a few seasons now. But I do hope to get back on my skies one of these winters.

Terence usually got a few of us guys together for one or two trips a year. We had often discussed going heliskiing, but every time it came up we always talked about the price; and how none of us thought that we could afford to go.

 

Then in February of 2012,

Terence’s wife gave him a heliskiing gift certificate for his birthday. It was for just 3 runs at a place in British Columbia (the neighbouring province to the West of my home province of Alberta). Terence reached out to us guys and asked how many of us would be able to join him, as he only planned to do this once in his life.

So I juggled some things in my budget, and made it work. In addition to myself, Lance and Nick also planned to join Terence. If I was going to go heliskiing maybe only once myself, I could not think of a better group of friends to do it with. We booked our trip for March 2012. We left on a Friday, and our trip started out smoothly. But once we started driving in the mountains, we were slowed down quite a lot. This was because the highway was in very poor condition due to heavy snowfall and the associated bad weather.

 

 

We completed the mandatory avalanche and helicopter safety training the next morning. But then bad news: due to the poor weather conditions, they would not be flying any choppers that day. Instead, they gave us a half-day of skiing at the closest Mountain Resort with our rental skis. For heliskiing in the powder, the rental skis were big rocker powder skis. I had never skied on skies that wide before, so it was really good to get a feel for them, in preparation for the real deal. That day, I learned that skies designed for powder take a lot of energy to use on groomed trails. As such, my legs were quite sore after just that half-day of skiing on mostly groomed runs.
The following morning, we eagerly awaited their decision whether they would fly or not. And it was a no-go. They informed us that this was their third day unable to fly, and in their business that had not happened for a long time. Since this was the last day of the weekend, we all needed to go home so we could get back to work. The company had a bit of a conundrum, because they had been unable to fly us for the last three days, and their bookings were filled for the rest of the season. This meant that they would be unable to get us flying for the remainder of this season. Therefore, the company offered us a choice. We could accept a refund, or a gift certificate for the next season. Seeing as I had already made it work in my budget, I chose to take the gift certificate. Everyone else in our group felt the same way. As an apology, the company added an extra run on our gift certificates, at no charge to us. Yay, now we had 4 runs to look forward to next year!

 

 

We had about a seven-hour drive home, so we got going as soon as we found out that we could not fly. But just a few hours into our long journey, the highway was closed due to, you guessed it: bad weather! We were unable to drive farther than the town of Lake Louise. So we called our bosses, booked a night at a hostel, then spent the rest of the day skiing at the Lake Louise Resort. This was not all bad news, because we got to ski at another mountain! And for me, there was even some good news: my Aunt & Uncle from another province happened to be skiing at that mountain resort on that exact day. I knew that as we were planning to drive by, and I had been saddened because I would not get to see them. But instead, I was able to visit with them and get some skiing in with them. It had been quite some time since I had last seen them, so it was nice to be able to spend an unexpected day together, what a fun surprise! My uncle is very witty and funny, so time spent with him is often peppered with much laughter, and this day was no different.
The snowplows worked throughout the night, so the next morning the highway was once again open. We drove home without any further delays, all arriving safe and sound.

 

 

The next year,

the four of us were joined by Ryan and Parker.
Those of us who had attempted to heliski the previous year remembered how we had booked our trip in March, which was closer to spring, and the snow melting. This year, the six of us decided to book our trip for early February. We hoped that the conditions would be a little better, with spring further away than the previous year. And our plan worked! We had a safe drive there, with no highway closures or any other issues.
Anytime we skied in this area, instead of staying at a hotel or a hostel, we stayed at a friend’s place. They warmheartedly agreed to host us again, and we had an excellent stay! They even hosted a celebratory supper for us after we successfully got out for our big day of heliskiing. Thank you, Dan and Barb for always being such gracious hosts!

 

 

Our first priority upon arriving and checking in was our helicopter and avalanche safety training. We learned two main things during our training. One was safety around the helicopter, because the engines would not always be stopped while we were around it. This meant that we would always have to keep the spinning rotors in mind while near the helicopter. The other main thing we learned during this training was how to locate a transceiver buried under snow. We used our transceivers and probes for this. For more information about transceivers, and how they have advanced over time, check out this link. Everyone exiting the helicopter and heading down the slopes, so all of us except the pilot, were required to wear one of these transceivers. During the training, we strapped them over our jackets for easy accessibility while we were learning to use them; but when we went skiing, we would wear them under our jackets. It was a sobering reminder that avalanches were a real risk where we were planning to go play in the mountains.
Thankfully, this time the weather cooperated; so with our safety training completed, we flew in the helicopter on schedule. And we all had an amazing day skiing! Up to that point in my life, this was the best snow I had ever skied in. The overarching prominent part of the day was that we did not have any avalanches, and everyone stayed safe.

 

 

We were a group of six friends, but on our own, we were not enough to fill the helicopter to capacity. So we were paired with four more skiers, for a total of 10 passengers. In addition to us customers, there were two guides, and of course the pilot. One guide lead us down the mountain, showing us the correct lines to ski. We were instructed to ski close beside the tracks that we were following but not in them, so we would get to make our own fresh tracks. The other guide was at the rear of our group, the last one down the mountain so no one got left behind. While we were flying, one of the guides sat beside the pilot in the front of the helicopter and paid close attention to the conditions where we intended to ski. I can remember one run in particular when we did not land where we were originally planning to, because the guide saw something in the snow that he did not like. So we easily flew to another place. We were informed of this decision mid-flight, and it made me feel confident that we were being looked after and kept safe.

 

 

After we had skied a couple of runs,

we stopped at a place in the valley where the helicopters let out all of their passengers at the same time. There, we were served hot chocolate and a snack. Just before we were ready to depart again, our guides made us an offer. We were all offered one more run at the end of our day, at a good price, but with one condition. In each helicopter, the majority of us passengers would need to agree to pay for the extra run, in order for the pilot to fly us there. 2013 was a long time ago to remember the small details, but I believe that we were offered that extra run for only $100! Personally, considering this offer, and how much I had already spent to be there; it easily made sense to spend the almost insignificant extra for that one more run. Sure enough, that is how the majority of us felt; so it was decided that if we had the time at the end of our 4 runs, we would get an extra run in. Anyone who didn’t want to pay for the extra run would simply stay on the helicopter while the rest of us went skiing.

However, on the next run, one of the other skiers lost one of his skis halfway down the mountain in some very deep snow. First, the guides sat all of the rest of us down to wait. Then the skier with only one ski, his partner, and the two guides searched for that lost ski. It took the four of them over three-quarters of an hour before they finally located it. Only then did we all continue down the mountain.
Later, after we finished our fourth run, we were informed that we no longer had time to complete what should have been our extra run. That was disappointing, but we still had an epic day!

 

 

Parker was snowboarding, while everyone else on the helicopter, including our guides, were skiing. On our second last run of the day, somehow Parker broke his snowboard. He managed to complete that run, but unfortunately, that was his last one. Therefore, he stayed on the chopper with the pilot while the rest of us did our last run. After the helicopter picked us up for the final time, we all had a safe flight back to the base. We returned feeling ecstatic, and after dropping off our rental gear, we left. Throughout supper and into the evening, we kept replaying and discussing scenes and moments from our day.

 

Here is a gallery of some of those moments:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Even though this trip was delayed by a year due to unforeseen bad weather, it turned out to be an amazing birthday surprise for Terence! I am glad that I was able to share this experience with my friends that were able to come.

 

 

 

Seeing as this post

was released in December, I would like to take this opportunity to wish you, my readers, a very Merry Christmas! Whether you have been reading my posts since the beginning, or have just found me, I appreciate each of you. Thank you for joining me on my adventures!

 

I will see you next year with stories of my nearly missed and missed connections. This is one that you won’t want to, ahem, miss!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Till next time, keep dreaming big!
» Jamie

 

“Never let your memories be greater than your dreams” – Douglas Ivester”