subject: Why Is Heli-skiing One Of The Coolest Sports Around? [print this page] Heli-skiing has changed the way people skiHeli-skiing has changed the way people ski. There are many reasons why its possible to ski in dream conditions, and why its gradually becoming more and more popular. Helicopter evolution has brought these vehicles down in price, while weather pattern and GPS technology allows pilots more freedom than ever before.
When someone returns from a ski trip, there is one question that gets asked before the rest: how was snow? Snow is the one variable thats hit or miss, and it can determine the quality of the experience. Sometimes, even on remote mountains, there isnt very much snow at all, and theres even the possibility youll be skiing over barely covered patches of rock. When it snows a lot, and its a good light powder, it normally brings out a ton of people, and the runs get crowded. There is only one way to avoid all of this, and thats with heli-skiing.
When a helicopter takes you to a virgin peak, you know the snow is going to be ideal! Its impossible for it not to be. You are literally being escorted to the best ski conditions imaginable, where nobody else is, impossibly remote and serene. It is a skiers dream. Heli-skiing outfits only operate in the middle of snow belts, as they dont want to have to take you super far on the helicopter, so you are guaranteed to get the best powder. Also, you wont be following in anybodys tracks! Each turn you make will be in new snow. Youll likely be in a small group, the people who you shared the helicopter with, and thats who will be on the mountain with you. You dont see a chairlift shuttling people up the mountain, not are there reckless snowboarders or snow-plowing children slowing you down. Its just you and the mountain!
This enables you for the kind of communion with nature you dont get in any other kind of skiing. Its impossibly quiet and remote, and every turn involves a certain amount of discovery since every trail is new to you. Its not like going down the same runs youve done in years past. Heli-skiing is more like what people had in mind when the concept of skiing first began, but they didnt yet have the technology or the will to get people there. When people dream about skiing up in the mountains, they dont have a busy resort in mind, but for years thats been the only option.
Heli-skiing has been around for a couple decades at least, but its not just for fringe extreme people anymore, as more skiers are taking it up. While you wouldnt do it if you were just beginning to ski, you dont need to be an expert skier to have a go at it. Any reasonably experienced skier can do it; you just have to make the effort to arrange a different kind of trip. It takes a certain intrepid spirit to take skiing up to the next level, but its an incredible thing to do and nobody regrets doing it once theyve been up there!
