Its hard not to like heliskiing but was impressed with every aspect of this operation. Guides where fantastic , pilot was experienced and had been with them for a few years and had the last call on all flying safety aspects. lunch was fantastic. Also the terrain they offer can differ from other operators in the area
Not sure how this can ever be good ski-ing.
The views and helicopter experience wes great, but the ski-ing was terrible.
It snowed the day before, perfect sunshine weather, no wind - it was hard to imagine better conditions, however the terrain we traversed down seemed ice-on ice-off and VERY dangerous, at times we seriously considered our life safety.
Having ski-ed for over 30 years in all sorts of terrain in Switzerland, Japan, USA, France, Italy, NZ - this was fairly terrible dangerous stuff. Ripped a big piece out of my snowboard as really had no option in emergency going over rocks - costly as it was a rental. My partner damaged their knee ski-ing on the 2nd run trying to get out of danger.
At one point the track set was rocks on one side, ice drop on the other and 3 feet wide - very frightening to go along (this was where the knee damage occurred). Another spot had us crawling along a too steep rock-shale with ice on top before we could put our boards and skis on, look honestly this seemed a bit too life-threatening and unnecessary - we all started slipping and a slipping option was really to oblivion. Runs were very short and not much fun at all tbh. Only one was majority snow and not darned ICE, the others had ice all over them (and this was a really 'good' day.
My partner was injured, he struggled to complete the 4 runs we had organised for the day, we told the guide we could not continue after 3.
After lunch, the guide did then say "Look, would you like to just do another 2 runs after your last one today, as it would just greatly assist the logistics if we could - and he could find us some snow - not ice this time" , we do like to help of course, and we certainly don't want to be weak, we spent a bit of time in discussion and then just said "ok, but only if there was no more majority ice tracks, as we just can't do that, it is not fun. He did find us a good run (Hooray!). So we just asked if the 2 runs would be like that last one and asked if there was a cost if we did just do these last 2 runs to fit in with everyone else - there was no answer on the cost, so we asked again and were just told that was great as we were staying in this same place and otherwise they would have to reshuffle the helicopter and would not be as good for everyone else who had apparently paid for a 6 run package.
Anyway, next run was slightly to the right but.... ice all over the place again - darn ! , my partner really damaged his knee this time, and we definitely had to completely stop.
On return to town, we were informed we had to pay for the extra runs at $100 / person / run. A bit stunned and disappointed by this, ok maybe it was windy/noisy when we talked, but this seemed not good - reduced it to $80 pppr - but still left a sour taste, we ended up paying $1,700 for the 4 runs - no issue, we hired the special snow-skis $70 from Alpine Heliski (replacing the original skis we had on their advice - this was a big mistake too as the skis were heavy and we could no way handle ice with these, the powder is easy - it is the ice you need proper skis for ! - but again no issue, our mistake) but we almost had to pay an additional $400 to do extra 2 short runs that we really did not want to do, we thought we were "helping". Anyway I guess the lesson is we all need to be more clear in communication - but heli-skiing, we will never be doing again.
Probably struck it lucky with conditions - went up 2 days after a fresh snowfall. The temperature stayed low and we had deep fresh tracks all day. The snow quality was unreal and easily rivaled my trip to Colorado and Montana.
The team do an awesome job of managing the safety risks, while ensuring everyone can and still have awesome fun. They would provide tips for the best lines possible, ensuring we were able to make the most of every run. The rule for the day quickly became "Don't cross another skiers line."
There's nothing quite like being dropped at the summit of a mountain in a helicopter. This had been on my bucket list for some time. I had high expectations, which is reflective of the cost involved, and they were just blown away after the first run. I paid for 4 initially and we ended up doing a 6 run day.
Worth every cent.