Map and description
Helicopter skiing means going skiing in an area where there are no ski-lifts, no groomed slopes, and usually very few people. Contrary to what you might think after watching too many James Bond-movies, it does not involve jumping out of a helicopter that is hovering 100 feet above ground and then racing down the mountain at breakneck speed (much less being chased by machine-gun toting adversaries). Also, it doesn’t mean one helicopter-ride in the morning to a place so remote that it will take you a full day to ski back home. Rather, the helicopter serves as your ski-lift. It will take you up to a suitable place, where it lands. You get out, and wait for the helicopter to leave. Then you put on your skis and ski down a certain path to the pick-up point. The helicopter lands again, and brings you to the next drop-off point. You do this until close to sunset (or, as in my case on the last day, you pull a muscle and can’t ski anymore, and the helicopter takes you down instead). The slopes you will ski are ungroomed, which means you will be doing powder-skiing. For those who think this is difficult: you are right. However, there is the mitigating factor of using wider skis than normal which helps you not sinking in the snow too deeply. Unless you’re a weak skier like myself, of course. In that case, be ready for many falls, and getting tired of pushing yourself up over and over again… But there’s always the massage in the evening!
We had a group of eleven guys who traveled from different places (mostly London, but also Munich, New York and Tokyo). The operator is “Mike Wiegele Helicopter Skiing”, located in Blue River, BC, Canada. See their website: www.wiegele.com.
Blue River is located several hours northeast of Vancouver – the closest commercial airport is Kamloops (map taken from Mike Wiegele’s website):
