Before you die there are a few things you need to cross off your bucket list. Heli skiing is definitely one of them. Think packing the perfect run each year, for 10 years, into a single day. Mouth watering yet? Read on…
Bella Coola, British Columbia
Ski-porn impresarios like Matchstick Productions drop in here regularly. Ditto for Teton Gravity Research. Warren Miller Entertainment woos audiences with it as a backdrop, too. And why not? Bella Coola in British Columbia, with its unfathomably deep snowpack and thousands of square miles of steeps, chutes, and bowls, is a big-mountain skier’s Shangri-La.
Located one hour, 15 minutes by plane north of Vancouver, Bella Coola is where those serious about logging six-digit vertical come to play. The Coastal Range here is one giant backstop that catches storms cruising in off the Pacific, which then dump their loads in the Bella Coola Valley, one of the most rugged and remote sections of British Columbia. Spend a week here and it’s entirely possible to lay down over 100,000 vertical feet of big arcs through virgin powder.
Bella Coola Heli-Sports (604-932-3000, www.bellacoolahelisports.com) offers seven-day heli-ski trips throughout the winter. During that time no more than 15 skiers and snowboarders are divided up into three groups of five. Those groups then set out in a jet-powered A Star B2 helicopter to ski terrain best-suited to their abilities. The hardcore head for the chutes. Those out to get their first real tastes of powder stick to easier terrain. Guides with each group are experts in traveling through and assessing avalanche terrain, so you know you are in good hands.
When the day is done, take off the boots and kick back at the Tweedsmuir Lodge. This wilderness palace does not skimp on pampering despite its remote location. Hit the hot tub, get a massage, and send pictures back to your jealous coworkers via a sat-linked hookup (if you must). A seven-day package starts at about US$7,000 including lodging and some 100,000 vertical feet of skiing. If the skiing is so good that you have to keep going, you can buy extra helicopter time, or you can arrange for your own private tours for you and up to five of your closest powderhounds.
Alaska’s Chugach Range is a sea of unnamed peaks stretching for as far as the eye can see, and in few other places around the world does the skiing compare to that surrounding Valdez. Thanks to a low treeline, the peaks here aren’t huge elevation-wise, but these jagged summits come screaming straight out of the sea for 6,000 feet or more. That means big terrain even by Alaskan standards.
Dean Cummings’ H2O Guides (907-835-8418, www.h2oguides.com) provides access to a whopping one million acres of mountain terrain around Valdez and promises you can rack up as much as 20,000 vertical feet of swooping turns—each day. Groups are limited to five skiers or ‘boarders per bird, with no more than four groups sharing a helicopter each day. The result is a deck stacked with incredibly good odds that you’ll find great snow and great weather no matter what the skies look like overhead.
The company offers numerous camps for those interested in learning more about big-mountain skiing than just how to go down. Sessions like the North Shore Big Mountain Camp in Alaska teach ‘boarders and skiers how to assess terrain for avalanche dangers, ways to navigate around, over, and through obstacles, and the best means for picking out the surest lines. If you’re looking to go a little more global, Cummings also offers big-mountain trips to Las Leñas, Argentina, in the fall.
Packages including five days of skiing and seven nights of lodging start at $5,054 based on double occupancy.
Valle Nevado in the Chilean Andes, about 40 miles from Santiago, is one-part resort to three-parts wide-open terrain. With something like 25,000 acres, this area has “only” 23 miles of trails. That leaves lots and lots of room for off-piste freeriding. The best month for big-mountain skiing is August, late in the antipodal winter, giving you the perfect jump on the ski season back home.
Heli-skiing outfits operate out of this area, taking powderhounds up to as high as 13,800 feet, where a whopping 8,000-foot-plus vertical run awaits. If your quads aren’t quite ready to take on this type of punishment, sign up for a backcountry freeride camp. During these weeklong sessions, participants will learn how to ski and snowboard the variable conditions that you’re bound to encounter when dropping from such huge elevations. For the hucksters in the crowd, Valle Nevado also offers an Andes Snowboard Camp to help hone your super pipe, big air, boardercross, and backcountry skills. The website www.powderquest.com lists more information on these camps as well as others. Visit www.vallenevado.com for more on the resort and opportunities for big-mountain skiing. As summer is rapidly approaching in Valle Nevado, best to check back early next year for rates and dates for heli-trips and camps.
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