The Great White North
I recently had the tremendous good fortune to spend five days heliboarding at Great Canadian Heliskiing located near Rogers Pass in my favorite Canadian province, British Columbia. While I have visited GCH numerous times before, this was my first trip there in three years and an excellent reminder of why I keep coming back.
As any skier/rider who lives in the US knows, it’s been a bad year for snow in the lower 48. As a result, I wasn’t exactly in mid season shape when I started this trip. However there’s nothing like a helicopter to really get your legs cooking. Fortunately the exhaustion I felt by the fourth day was easily overcome by the adrenaline that the terrain and snow quality sent coursing through my veins.
You’ve probably also noticed that there seems to be an awful lot of teletubbies on the hills these days thanks to the ubiquitous GoPro cameras that you see perched on everyone’s helmet. I personally prefer the Contour HD which is the round tube you see attached to my googles in the picture above. I did however have access to an extra GoPro which I convinced those riding with me to strap on their heads backward so I could work on my form. Check out the video below for the results
As you might be able to tell from the video, it was an incredibly good time. I can not count the number of times I thanked the gods, the guides and my own good fortune to have been there. I will post more about the trip in coming days, as I accumulated enough footage and photos for a small miniseries. Fortunately the weather seems to be turning down here in Colorado so my local friend reading these posts won’t hate me…
January 16th, 2012 at 12:08 pm
Amazing, amazing video. I haven’t seen someone go downhill that quickly since Herman Cain wandered on to the presidential slopes.
January 16th, 2012 at 12:10 pm
Brad. Thanks for sharing your video. It is awesome, I like the following POV. Glad you hit it. January is always so consistent up here for good ol bc tree riding. Appreciate you dispelling the no snow anywher myth of this year. We are looking forward to your next visit.
Best GP.
January 16th, 2012 at 1:00 pm
Epic. Was the vid shot entirely with Go-Pro cams?
January 16th, 2012 at 2:02 pm
No – all the follow stuff (skiers) was shot with a Contour HD. All the foward facing stuff (snowboarding footage) was shot with a GoPro. Some of the side stuff and the big jump was shot with video off a still camera,
January 16th, 2012 at 11:23 pm
incredible. Just incredible.
I said to Paul, “now that is unadulterated joy” …and that kind of joy don’t come easy. So glad you’re getting (taking) the opportunity to fly with the wind.