My first Heli-skiing experience
April 10, 2010
An amazing opportunity:
My dad gave me a an “early birthday present” in the form of a voucher for a 4 run day of heli-skiing (he had gotten it as an appreciation gift from Whistler Blackcomb for his 25 year length of service award).It was a beautiful bluebird day with 80cm of snow fallen in the past week. Spencer gave me a ride to the office in the morning where I signed out some S7 powder skis and met my guide Vlad. Turns out Vlad was a friend of both my parents and I told him I was studying to be a future guide. In a sense Vlad mentored me from that moment on throughout the day. I learned a a lot starting from watching him give a concise and easy to follow avalanche safety talk followed by an informative helicopter safety talk. He asked me to be the door person for the helicopter for our group and most of the day I acted as tail guide. Vlad gave me tips throughout the day on how to guide, what terrain to select and how to interact with guests. He pointed out several small avalanches in the distance and we even got a good look of a glide crack on one face. He even arranged for me to fly in the “guides seat” on the flight from the last run to the heli-pad. It was such a cool experience sitting in the front seat of the helicopter with the pilot communicating to me and Vlad on the headsets. The mentoring didn’t stop when the trip ended; when we met for the apres and footage viewing he told me some tips on my skiing, showed me the guest list and how it works and even said it may be possible for me to join the company’s fall training. I couldnt believe how helpful he was throughout the day. He really made the whole day an amazing experience.
Now about the skiing;
Picture a blue sky without a single cloud and untouched powder all around, 5 runs of epic turns and thousands of feet of vertical!
