Heli Skiing or not to Heli

Heli skiing. We dragged ourselves out of our comfy beds to meet up with our group for the buffet breakfast which was both very European and very homemade Canadian at the same time. You could cut off a big chunk of dark whole grain bread and slather it with butter and locally made jams. They served wonderful unfiltered juices made from real fruit, imagine that!
We headed downstairs for our safety briefing and heli familiarization talk. We learned how to use our air bag backpacks and we practiced with our transceivers. I did a totally bonehead thing, I packed my ski clothes and Micah’s in a checked bag that didn’t arrive. Note to self, everything needed for skiing needs to be in carry on. One of the partners of the heli operation, Tim, was and angel and went out to the airport to get my back, but by then the weather had socked in a bit and it was snowing hard, so when I got our gear we headed out to Silver Star to ski for the rest of the day. Always fun to ski a new ski area and have that option so close by when you can’t fly. It ended up being perfect for Micah cause he got to ski around on his Gotama Jrs and get a feel for having a wider and longer ski on his feet. We skied, had hot chocolate, and skied some more till they shut the lifts. We had après up at Silver Star before heading back to heaven at Sparkling Hill. A spa tub and a glass of wine later we met friends for a light dinner in the bar. Matt Devlin, the co owner of Kingfisher and I met teaching skiing years ago in Portillo and two other Portillo mates came out to hang with us. We reminisced about the old days and common friends from the ski world till it was time to get some rest for our big heli day. The forecast was for the snow showers to stop and it was supposed to be sunny later in the day.

more info:Heli Skiing. Skiers board the helicopter and are carried to a landing zone on the mountain. Skis, snowboards and poles are generally carried in an exterior basket loaded and unloaded by a guide.^[3] Snow conditions on the mountains vary considerably over the course of the winter as the snow is subjected to sun, wind, temperature variation, and new snowfalls. Snow conditions change almost every day. Heli Skiing Risks include those of back country skiing, such as avalanches and tree wells, plus those of helicopter flight. Heli Skiing Risks are mitigated by using experienced pilots and certified guides, avalanche transceivers, avalanche air-bags, and radios