Tourfolio

“If you don’t do it this year, you’ll be one year older when you do”, as famously stated by Warren Miller, legend ski and snowboard filmmaker. This quote cemented my decision to finally pull the trigger on booking a heli-skiing trip within North America. A few months of research through on-line blogs and winter industry related magazines, I finally stumbled upon the highly rated Canadian Mountain Holidays.

These are my notes from my trip with my co-worker John.


Day 1:

1. We arrived at Bradley International Airport at around 5:00am (EST), giving us about an hour before boarding began, which is normal protocol for this less-traveled airport. In about ten minutes, we both checked our luggage and made it through security, only to be greeted by the dreaded phrase, over the microphone, when you have a connecting flight, “Your flight has been delayed due to maintenance, as a part needs to be flown in from Logan International Airport.” In summary, we missed our connecting flight from Chicago, IL to Calgary, Canada.




2. “You can either select a mini-van, pickup truck, or small economy car.” the rental car attendant asks me after about 19 hours of travel through Hartford, CT to Dallas, TX to Calgary, Canada. My frugal side kicked in and reminded me that if we selected the two gas guzzlers, it would be painful on the wallet while driving into the mountains for about 5 hours. The voice of reality slapped my sleep deprived mind around a bit and let me know that I had no idea what type of roads or conditions I would be driving through. Ford pickup truck? Check. A few cans of Red Bull? Check. That just left the dangerous threat of avalanches on Roger’s Pass and the steep drop-offs of Kicking Horse Canyon in our way.




3. The first day of this vacation ended with the following statistics; 2985 miles via plane, 258 miles via car, and 8.5 hours sitting in airports. This gave us about 25 hours of travel to make it from Hartford, CT to Revelstoke, British Columbia, Canada.


Day 2:

4. “Bryan and John! You better be driving up here now! We have a bluebird sky up here! We will give you all the rescue and helicopter training and then get you into the mountains around lunch.”, said Claude in a heavy French Canadian accent. When the general manager of the lodge tells you that today was the first day that it has been sunny for the entire season, you just can’t pass it up.




5. We drove north on Route 23, which ran parallel with the glacial blue green Columbia River for about one and half hours before reaching a metal shed, which our crudely drawn map directed us to make a right onto a logging road. I’m happy that I listened to the voice in my head and picked the pickup truck.




6. After a few introductions to the housekeeping staff, a 30 minute avalanche training, and some real-life practice using the transceivers, it was time to suit up. We got into the pickup truck of a helicopter pilot and drove back down the logging road and onto Route 23. The goal was to reach a refueling depot, get picked up, and then dropped off on the top of a mountain peak with a pack of heli-skiers staying at the lodge.




7. To be honest, not many life experiences can challenge the sound of the helicopter blades cutting through the mountain air, as you put your goggles over your eyes and jump out of a helicopter after it has landed on a snow covered peak. To say that I was in pure rapture as my eyes gazed over the Selkirks and Monashees, as tiny pieces of ice and hard-packed snow pelted my face from wind produced by the helicopter’s rotary blades would be an understatement.




8. It probably was the nervousness of being in a helicopter or the chance that I didn’t get that much time to ski some powder on the East Coast, as I performed about 5 front flips, 2 somersaults, and spent about ten minutes digging for a ski that was eaten by the powder. It took me a few more runs, but I finally was able to reposition my body so that I wasn’t leaning back so much. I have to admit that John picked it up pretty quickly, which I was a bit jealous, as I think my body was physically destroyed at that point.




9. Once I was able to readjust my terrible habit of leaning back, I finally could enjoy the feeling of hopping through the powder for a few runs before we had to head back in. The accomplishment of making for a few runs without falling and cursing to myself was well worth it.




10. In a modified reenactment of the movie Top Gun, our helicopter pilot performed a low level fly-by of our home base, the Gothics Lodge. To my surprise, the outside desk of the lodge was filled with the other skiers, snowboarders, and lodge staff, in what could be classified as a ‘beach party’ with a bar made of snow. Skiing, Cold Kokanee Glacier Beer, and Bikinis. As spoken by the late big mountain skier Shane McConkey, “Today was a good day.”


Day 3:

11. The next morning started off with a bell ringing throughout the lodge, as a method to wake up everyone for stretching class, than breakfast. The only confusing part of the morning was why they woke us up an hour early. We finally figured out that as the heli-skiing company operates various lodges within the Mountain and Pacific time zones, it is easier for radio operators to use a single time zone for responding to emergencies. Let me just say that it is very strange to know that your in Pacific time, but forced to use Mountain time.




12. It’s time to switch up the groups! As we walked out of breakfast for what was planning to be another sunny spring-like day up in the mountains, John and I noticed we were placed in a new group of skiers. The new group consisted of a British couple (Mark and Caroline), an Italian father and his daughter (Mario and Fredricha), a wine importing CEO from British Columbia (Rob), three Austrians (Hubert, Johanna, and Michael) and a software company CEO from Chicago (Avi) who only skied one or two runs with us.




13. We bought some suntan lotion at the local lodge clothing and repair shop, only to find a huge community dispenser of “suncream” for us to all use. Go figure.




14. I’ve become strangely addicted to the strange sports drink mixture that has been placed in little flasks within a crate, near the helicopter door. You’d be surprised how dehydrated you get from powder skiing in the mountains, even though we weren’t in high altitude.




15. Endless Journey. Dream. Ego. Starlight. These runs were a bit ‘windhammered’ due to the warm temperatures the day before, the freezing overnight, and a bit wind at the top of the mountains. This resulted in a crusty layer of ice that we had to break through for most of the morning, but most of it melted away by late morning. Each of these runs were pretty long and made my calf and hamstring muscles a bit sore as it was almost non-stop from top to bottom for about 1,200 vertical meters per run.




16. This day ended with me walking into the drying room, which is a sealed off room with PVC pipes sticking out of the wall, that continuously pumps warm air onto the gear placed at the end of each pipe. Now imagine a bunch of sweaty gloves, jackets, hats, and the worst of them all, ski boots. Not much can be done to prepare a person for that nauseating smell.


Day 4:

17. Woke up for my last day of skiing without ability to feel a single muscle in my body. The both of us have reached about 11,000 vertical meters and only had about 2,000 vertical meters left before we reached our limit. Think we went over by the end of the day? Of course!




18. One of the pilots mentioned how fueling cycles work when dealing with three groups of heli-skiers and how to balance the weight of everyone along with the fuel. For those statistic lovers out there; the pilot told us that they burn about 100 pounds of fuel every ten minutes.




19. Crème De Le Crème (or Crème De Le Crunch), Poacher, and Sibley Creek. The room for error was a bit small today because of tree wells (windblown ditches that surround a tree), steep drop offs, frozen waterfalls, and avalanche debris. You really just had to throw all fear out the window of the helicopter and trust your ability.




20. Have you heard of a ’sun dog’? I didn’t know the term until I looked up and saw a massive halo surrounding the sun. One of the guides, James, let us know that natural phenomenon means the weather was changing and that the bluebird sky that we’ve enjoyed the past few days would soon be ending.




21. Sitting on the bottom of my powder skis, I bit into a delicious roast beef sandwich and a massive chocolate chip cookie while staring at the majestic mountains surrounding me. In the distance, you could hear a thunderous noise, which was avalanches occurring nearby, but thankfully not near us. The refreshing sounds of nature were finally unsettled when cheering could be heard in the far distance. The noise seemed to come from over a hill near by, so I fixed my eyes in that direction to spot the source of the noise. Within a few minutes a bare chested guy named Avi came down the hill along with all the young female staff members without a jacket or shirt on (and yes, the girls did have sports bras on). Awesome.