Helicopter skiing is for the adventurous, the brave-hearted, and most importantly, the thrill seekers. Some people may be hesitant to try heli skiing for the first time, or even at all, and struggle to imagine themselves staying on their skis, let alone flying through the sky to reach that fresh powder snow. But others who are more daring might jump at the opportunity to take such an uncharted path – through the sky and down the mountain.
If you want to do activities like these you have to be bold, but you also need some expert advice and guidance to help you along the way. If you’re interested in this epic sport, Pure Powder can help you make it happen.
About Pure Powder: Your Heli Skiing Partners
Pure Powder was first established in 1978 and has since grown to become one of the world’s biggest helicopter skiing specialists. Offering people mountain experiences all over the world, we have organised more heli ski trips than anyone else in the UK, and we do so with the utmost attention and care. When it comes to these kinds of adventurous sporting experiences, having a specialist to help you navigate an unknown mountain and a new athletic technique is vital. Fortunately, our service offers clients the opportunity to initiate, organise and implement a dream holiday focused on the pure magic of powder helicopter skiing.
This is not an average holiday by any means. We get you in and out of faraway mountains safely, and get you geared up and well-informed on best practices. There are a lot of people who aspire to do these kinds of once-in-a-lifetime activities, but some aren’t prepared to discuss some of the logistics and preparation that go into it.
As with any holiday, it can be time consuming to organise accommodation, meals, and trip routes, not to mention the added preparation required to get you the gear, equipment, and safety compliance you’ll need if you want to go helicopter skiing. Pure Powder makes all of this easier by offering a concierge-style service where we can help you plan, book, and actualise your holiday from start to finish.
Helicopter Skiing Preparation
For all of the fun and exhilaration that this adventure provides, the safety of the experience needs to be taken seriously. When travelling through unmarked terrains and remote mountainscapes, there are essential things that you’ll need to be aware of. This is where having a specialist comes in handy — our staff act as the voice of reason, providing nuggets of wisdom and expert information that will help to balance out your excitement.
When you just want to get going on to the fun stuff, it’s important to have an experienced service provider nearby to keep you safe. This way, you can keep your focused attention on the incredible task at hand while your guide provides full breakdowns of everything you need to know.
Here are some things to consider before embarking on your very first heli ski trip:
Gear and Clothing
Braving the winter air and deep powder without the right gear is not recommended. If you’re going to survive in the cold and the glaring sunshine, you’re going to need the appropriate waterproof, breathable outerwear clothing, goggles, gloves, and reliable ski equipment. This includes items such as helmets, ski boots, powder skis, and poles.
Additional accessories like balaclavas, face masks, and hand warmers will prove useful too if you want to be extra protected from the elements as you make your way down the mountain. You’ll also have to get familiar with avalanche safety equipment such as avalanche beacons, shovels, and probes.
Avalanche Safety Training
Avalanche safety training is incredibly important if you want to try this sport. Launching yourself into snowy mountains is a high-risk, high-reward scenario. Although emergencies and avalanches are unlikely to happen, being over-prepared for the unpredictable is far better than being underprepared.
Thus, Pure Powder’s operators will offer preparatory training on snowpack stability, the use of avalanche safety equipment, avalanche rescue techniques, and other medical evacuation procedures. Naturally, these formalities are only in place so that you can enjoy your trip in a safe but liberating way, free of stress and danger.
Insurance
Pure Powder will also brief you on the necessary travel and health insurance requirements that must be organised before you can be permitted to continue on your journey. We’ll advise you on recommended insurance plans for your expensive gear, your medical needs, and your travel arrangements. In case of an unfortunate situation where you might experience injury, gear damage, trip cancellation, or even medical treatment, you should be able to adequately resolve any problem with the help of sufficient insurance coverage.
These kinds of things are often the last thing that may be on your mind as you psych yourself up for the trip of a lifetime. In such cases, it’s good to have guidance from industry experts who can help ensure that the terms and conditions outlined are suitable to protect your specific needs during your adventure.
Physical Fitness and Skill Assessment
Naturally, this sport comes easier to the advanced and expert ski enthusiasts who brave the slopes year after year, but beginners are welcome too. If you’ve skied before, you’re likely going to be able to start helicopter skiing so long as you’re willing to learn from your guides and maintain your fitness and concentration. Likewise, if you’re participating in routine strengthening and stretching exercises, and you’ve done some warm-up resort skiing before your trip, you’ll be better prepared to go heli skiing without the risk of injury.
But don’t worry, if you’re unsure about whether you’re ready to take on the backcountry, then we will step in and conduct a skills assessment test to better understand your skiing capacity according to strength, agility, and endurance. After this assessment, our guides can place you in an appropriate group with a skillset aligned to your own, while also offering tips and tricks to keep your ski fitness high during your trip.
Weather Monitoring and Altitude Acclimatisation
Nobody wants to experience dizziness, shortness of breath, headaches, or nausea. But when you’re travelling in the mountains, you may have to learn how to adjust your breathing and prepare your lungs. Altitude sickness (also known as acute mountain sickness) can happen when you ascend heights without giving your body time to adjust to decreasing oxygen levels.
Learning how to prepare for this with proper nutrition, sufficient hydration, and routine sleep or rest can help make this easier. Likewise, it’s important to have somebody screening weather conditions so that you can fulfil your ski operation in the best environment, especially since weather conditions can change rapidly.
Travel The World With Pure Powder
Now that we’ve discussed preparation and service delivery for all of our prospective clients, we can get to the fun stuff! The Pure Powder team has a solid grasp on the small details of the safety compliance and preparation needed, naturally, but more importantly than that we also know a thing or two about the best ski locations in the world. From the Chilean mountains to the Alaskan slopes, we have all of the hot tips regarding the world’s coolest locations.
Depending on where your wanderlust is taking you, you can explore the North or South of the border at your leisure. Pure Powder will also answer any questions you may have regarding the terrain, sights, environment, and logistics surrounding the travel and sports in each faraway destination.
Pure Powder offers its services far and wide, allowing clients to take their pick according to their heart’s desire. Of course, each destination has its own attractions, but some will speak to you more than others. Determining factors are things like the terrain, the local culture, the scenery and environment, the resort or lodges nearby, the seasonal conditions, and the skill level required for skiing in that region.
Some regions boast perfectly groomed, scenic slopes, while others require you to navigate backcountry terrain that can be frightening but freeing. Some of our top locations are Canada, Alaska, and Sweden.
Canada: Canada is a renowned ski destination, known for breaking snowfall records, frozen lakes, picturesque mountain scenes, and world-class resorts. The powder in Canada is widely considered to be reliably deep, creating the perfect terrain for helicopter skiing.
Snowfall is high so there are very few days per year when you wouldn’t be able to get into the powder. In the interior ranges of western British Columbia, Canada, you will be able to enjoy a perfect combination of scenic beauty, Alpine, and pure powder. What’s more, in Canada you have an unmatched variety of options to explore.
Alaska: How do you feel about remote wilderness skiing? What about steep skiing? Alaska is one of those incredible backcountry adventures that has become the stuff of legends. The Northern Lights, meadows and mountain peaks, wildlife, and wilderness – this is what you can expect to enjoy and embrace during your trip. Alaska offers small, guided tours and deep powder snow to challenge your skills. If you want to pump some extra adrenaline into your trip, this is the place for you.
Sweden: The Swedish mountains are challenging to navigate but magnificent to experience nonetheless. With high-altitude glaciers, amazing alpine ranges, and great natural beauty, many Pure Powder clients have been blown away by this trip of a lifetime. Sweden has great, easy-to-access routes that accommodate smaller skiing groups well. Moreover, long daylight hours make the program flexible and fun. You can ski in the midnight sun, or even opt for long Alpine runs with epic views.
What To Expect From Pure Powder
If you’re pretty much convinced that this is something you’d like to invest in for yourself and your sense of adventure, then the next step is to decipher where you want to go and how you’d like to do it. Pure Powder offers a variety of different programs to suit different skiers and ski levels.
Depending on your fitness level and ski experience, we will consult with you on the best possible type of skiing to embark on, and the best aligned location to travel to. Thereafter, we will be happy to handle the rest of the endeavour, using our contacts and connections from in and around the world’s most incredible mountain ranges.
