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…

Revelstoke 11/23/09

So when you’ve done a bunch of cat and heli trips and are constantly researching where to do your next cat or heli trip you end up on a lot of email lists. And when the places you’ve visited or inquired about get snow, they’re more than happy to share that info with you. Thus for the last week or so I’ve been bombarded with emails describing epic early season conditions in British Columbia full of pics and links to videos designed to get you to reach for your wallet. My favorite of the ones I’ve received recently is this video from Kicking Horse Resort in Golden, BC which was actually sent by Great Canadian Heliskiing which is located just down the road from Kicking Horse and is now planning on opening early if they can induce enough powder fanatics like myself to come up on short notice. The Kicking Horse video  basically describes my greatest fantasy (at least of the ones I can discuss in public) – having an entire beautifully gladed ski area to your self and a few friends – is that too much to ask? Then yesterday I got this link from Canadian Mountain Holidays with a video from their Revelstoke operation (and where the photo on top of this post is also from) showing some typical BC tree skiing. Yep, things are looking good in BC.

Colorado, on the other hand, is experiencing a little bit of an early season drought. While Boulder has gotten three decent storms already, the mountains have not fared so well with traditionally snow blessed resorts like Vail having received only 37″ total to date.  There are rumors that the weather pattern is going to change starting this weekend (keep your fingers crossed) but until then I guess I’ll keep on watching these videos and saving my pennies for my next trip up north…

You don't have to star in a movie to get this kind of powder - GCH 2008

Just got back from seeing the latest Warren Miller movie – “Dynasty” – the 60th anniversary edition. While I usually just go for the free ticket (early/late season midweek Copper, Winter Park or Steamboat or 2 for 1 during mid season) it once again reminded what a good production budget, excellent camerawork, strong editing and good music will do for you. Also seeing it on the big screen makes a tremendous difference – so while Warren Miller is hardly cutting edge, a live show packed with hundreds of enthusiasts makes for a really good time. That and and all those powder shots which immediately go straight to the pleasure centers of my brain and remind me why I spend so much time trying to chasing the snow. My name is Brad and I am a powder addict. Speaking of which, as I walked out of the show I guy handed me a small flyer titled “Powder Addiction” which contained this link to a new cat operation near Berthoud Pass. I think I may have to do some hands on research on that one…

they're not the only ones with a heli

Warren Miller is doing their annual movie tour and while they’re certainly not the most radical movies out there, it is fun to see the powder porn with a crowd and more importantly get a free lift ticket for your efforts. The ticket is usually only good for an early season day (0r two for one mid season) at Copper Mountain or Winter Park/Mary Jane but it means you’re basically seeing the movie for free and I find it handy to have a non season pass for an early season poach days at one of those hills.

Also here’s a link to a crash highlight video they’ve put up online if you like that kind of stuff.

sunrise lasts till mid morning in January

the Columbia River in BC