Heli Skiing! Helicopter skiing in Canada with a helmet camera - CMH Helisking in the Bugaboos

Short clips of my heli skiing trip with Canadian Mountain Holidays (CMH) the best heliskiing operation in the world. Bugaboos, Monashees and Gothics. Good helmet camera footage of helicopter loading/unloading (www.helmetcamera.com).

Category:

Sports

Tags:

• heli
• skiing
• heliskiing
• heli-skiing
• helicopter
• helmet
• camera
• extreme
• monashees
• bugaboos
• gothics
• cmh
• canadian
• mountain
• holidays
• crash
• leigh
• haugen
• wipeout
• pain
• disaster

[DorkVader26]

@kdmmcorp haha that makes sense I had read that they provide skis but from my understanding you cold use your own guess i was wrong. I remember one year my brother thought it would be funny to loosen the setting on my bindings (the mechanism that's supposed to make your ski pop off to keep you from breaking your legs). I was going down a black diamond both skis popped off about a 1/4 of the way down. Are you required to ski with poles? I don't really like to use them they just get in the way.

[kdmmcorp]

@DorkVader26

Actually you cant use your own skis, every lodge has their own set of powder skis to use. Two reasons for it both centered around keeping their guests happy; they don't want to be dealing with anybody's equipment problems on the mountain when everybody is paying top dollar to ski, and they also have a 'five minute rule' meaning that if you lose any equipment in the powder we search for 5 min. then move on and chalk it up as a gift to the ski gods - hard to do if it was YOUR skis!

[DorkVader26]

@kdmmcorp Then again maybe it's because I wasn't thinking happy thoughts. Knowing me I was probably going O shit this is bad I wish I had it on video. What I was told happened was 2 kids got in front of me I speed up to get in front of them couldn't slow down before the lip (20 foot long 15 foot tall table top) over shot the landing by 40-50 feet and went face first into flat ground. Lost all the skin on my face broke my nose and was knocked out for 2 hours or so. I don't remember any of it

[DorkVader26]

@kdmmcorp I'm going to have to try it one of these years maybe next winter depending how my business is doing. I've got to get the skis for it though. I'll have to make sure my life insurance policy and will is in order before I go. LOL I got a little to over confident in my abilities one year and tried to be super man. Didn't work out so well for me. The worst part is I don't remember what it was like to jump 3 stories in the air. Only thing I remember was waking up in medics arms puken blood.

[kdmmcorp]

@DorkVader26

The Monashees is their 'elite' area. Steep & Deep! When I went the whole group was triathletes and/or marathon runners - kicked my a** every day! At some of the lodges you actually have to be flown in by helicopter so if you get hurt that is your only way out. The lodges are spectacular, 5-star with gourmet chef's preparing fantastic meals - most with climbing walls and rooftop jacuzzi's! It's expensive but you're right, relative to the cost of what you're doing it's a bargain!

[kdmmcorp]

@DorkVader26

CMH has 11-12 different lodges. Usually groups of 44 people come in for a week of heliskiing and they break everyone up into groups of 11 based on how experienced you are and how hard you want to ski. In the avalanche training the 1st day they tell you if you are holding your group back you will fly back to the lodge on the next fuel run for the helicopter and stay there for the afternoon.

[DorkVader26]

@kdmmcorp one last question. How do they deal with the different experience levels of the skiers? Lets say I want to go down some really steep stuff but there are a moderate skiers in the group that can't do that safely? I'd be really irritated if I spent that much money and couldn't hit some of the steep stuff.

[DorkVader26]

@kdmmcorp and I'm dieing to do this. Fresh powder like that and be able to go places no one has ever been that's untouched by man but be amazing.

[DorkVader26]

@kdmmcorp But considering the cost of an annual (maintenance for a plane or chopper) and fuel that's not half bad. I've charted jets and turbo props (king air 500) those ran about $1750+ an hour in the air for a turbo prop). I was talking to the owner of the planes and maintenance costs were insane annuals started at 2-2.5 million and went up. What happens if someone gets injured and has to be taken the hospital? I'd assume it ruins the day for everyone? I've been skiing since I was 3 years old

[DorkVader26]

@kdmmcorp A week of heli skiing for $7000-8000 isn't half bad honestly. Operating choppers isn't cheap and experienced pilots are hard to come by. I was looking at a company in Alaska and it depended on the time of year and what all you wanted involved (camera men so on) they had individual packages that ran around $1000-1500 a day (you'd be grouped with other people). If you wanted it to yourself it for a private group it started at $7500 a day and went up.