Re: Heli-skiing
Posted: Mon Mar 27, 2023 5:41 pm
More than sounds like fun, on a good powder day, it is fun. Several of my long time friends from the West side have gone heli-skiing here. The rush they got as they told me their stories, was infectious. However it is expensive and many times here you will get marginally good conditions and ski over old tracks. My friends go to British Columbia now.
I get a simular rush skiing a lot of the same terrain without the extreme expense and get the exercise benefits of climbing uphill.
Over my lifetime of climbing to ski, I estimate that it would have cost over $300,000 to get that same amount of vertical skiing using a helicopter.
Oh and Ray, one of my close friends in the Valley worked as a heli-guide for decades here until he retired shortly after a critucal burial in an avalanche while Heli-guiding.
Sadly, industry wide guides risk, and in some cases lose their lives, in order to full fill their clients need for an adrenaline rush and internet status.
NWAC incident summary of that avy accident is at link and quoted below. Click on the incident on the NWAC page and the full 11 page report will come up complete with pictures.
https://nwac.us/accident-reports/
"3/4/17 Cedar Creek Drainage, Washington Pass area, North Cascades, WA A guided group was heli-skiing when the victim triggered a large soft slab in the Cedar Creek Drainage toward the end of the day. The slope broke above the guide, who skied the slope first, sweeping him downward. The clients searched and rescued the victim who was fully buried (critical) and sustained a head injury. The avalanche was 100 meters wide with a crown depth of 60-80 cm and ran approx. 200 vertical meters."
I should also mention that I'm so proud of two of the people that I showed around the mountains here who later became professional ski patrollers and then Mountain guides. One is part owner of a cat ski operation and has guided to the top of Mount Rainier 35 times. She's a power house.
The other guided on Denali but now mentors others in safe mountain travel.That's what we do here, its the Methow way.
Did you get what you needed Ray?
I get a simular rush skiing a lot of the same terrain without the extreme expense and get the exercise benefits of climbing uphill.
Over my lifetime of climbing to ski, I estimate that it would have cost over $300,000 to get that same amount of vertical skiing using a helicopter.
Oh and Ray, one of my close friends in the Valley worked as a heli-guide for decades here until he retired shortly after a critucal burial in an avalanche while Heli-guiding.
Sadly, industry wide guides risk, and in some cases lose their lives, in order to full fill their clients need for an adrenaline rush and internet status.
NWAC incident summary of that avy accident is at link and quoted below. Click on the incident on the NWAC page and the full 11 page report will come up complete with pictures.
https://nwac.us/accident-reports/
"3/4/17 Cedar Creek Drainage, Washington Pass area, North Cascades, WA A guided group was heli-skiing when the victim triggered a large soft slab in the Cedar Creek Drainage toward the end of the day. The slope broke above the guide, who skied the slope first, sweeping him downward. The clients searched and rescued the victim who was fully buried (critical) and sustained a head injury. The avalanche was 100 meters wide with a crown depth of 60-80 cm and ran approx. 200 vertical meters."
I should also mention that I'm so proud of two of the people that I showed around the mountains here who later became professional ski patrollers and then Mountain guides. One is part owner of a cat ski operation and has guided to the top of Mount Rainier 35 times. She's a power house.
The other guided on Denali but now mentors others in safe mountain travel.That's what we do here, its the Methow way.
Did you get what you needed Ray?