Heli Ski: Winter Thrills

Winter passes every time of the year, thousands of people climb out of helicopters on mountaintops descending to thousands of feet of pristine snow with their skis or snowboarding equipments. Gets back on the helicopter, fly to the top and do it again.

Though heli-skiing is not an extreme sport, it is not for beginners or faint hearted skiers. A lot of skiing experience at intermediate level is required by heli-ski operators. Heli-skiing involves moving through deep, light, untracked powder fallen on an incompact base.

Good spots to go heli-skiing are those places of remote areas such as United States, Canada, Europe, Asia, New Zealand, and Chile to heli-ski. In most areas, the heli-ski season runs between December and March or April. In Alaska, the season goes from February to May and to most, depends on the weather conditions.

North Cascade Helicopter Skiing has been in business since 1988, has a permit for 30,000 acres in the Okanogan National Forest. Ski runs in the area start at altitudes of 7,500 to 9,000 feet and offer 1,500 to 4,000 feet of vertical-foot drop.

Before planning a heli-skiing trip, make sure that skiers are in good health, can handle dangerous situations (such as injuries, avalanches, etc), willing to spend a lot of money to go heli-skiing (which will cost $1,100 and increase to as much as $9,500 for a week) and it’s a must to be a good skier.