Imagine a holiday in a mountain-side resort, nestled in the Kooteny Rockies of BC. During the day, you and your closest three friends cut through the perfect powder of these peaks, reaching impressive speed levels and eating up vertical metres. In the evening, you return to the lodge, where gourmet meals await you amongst comfortable surroundings with all of the modern amenities. Outside the windows, you see the very same mountain tops you conquered hours before. Sound like a dream? There’s nothing fantastical about this at all. British Columbia’s elite heli skiing operators can make it a reality.
They make it all happen with a helicopter. Their expert pilots fly to the peaks of the Kootenay Rockies, close to the town of Golden, BC. Known as the birthplace of heli skiing, this particular part of the Canadian Rockies provides the best conditions for the sport due to the quality and quantity of yearly snowfall. Beautiful, uncut powder covers these mountaintops, and mild weather conditions mean there are hardly any no-fly days during the season.
When you book a BC heli skiing trip, you’ll be exploring the Selkirk and Purcell ranges. Selkirk has several peaks that measure over 10,000 feet, while the Purcell has three major peaks over 10,000 feet high. When heli skiing operators like Great Canadian stick to these ranges, they can offer unlimited vertical as part of their packages. Unlike the average resort that relies on man-made slopes and snow, Great Canadian Heli Skiing in British Columbia takes advantage of Mother Nature’s perfect runs, where nothing but time and your own skill as a skier can limit how fast or how far you go. In fact, depending on your skill, you may even go beyond the typical 43,000 vertical metres that visitors manage to clock.
You’ll do this without having to compete with anyone but your friends, as only small parties are taken up the mountains. That means you and your party have exclusive access to the powder, and you never have to settle for slushy, overrun snow. Time is also at your disposal, and you can choose how fast you race down the slopes. You may just want to stop a while and take in the breathtaking landscape that is the Canadian Rockies. Up there, where the air is clear and pure, you’re surrounded by some of the world’s most beautiful scenery — which would make for the perfect backdrop to a jaw-dropping selfie.
Once you make it down, you can snap a few pics of your accommodations and the in-house chef creations before you head for a peaceful night of rest. Heli skiing isn’t just a dream vacation. It’s an extraordinary downhill opportunity that can become a reality. All you have to do is book it.
