Recreation and Sports Info

Archive for the ‘Skiing’ Category

Heliskiing is an absolutely amazing sport. It takes all the beauty of skiing or boarding and can drastically amplify it. Everything about it is better, the powder is always fresh and untouched, there no crowds of people to deal with, and you are in a beautiful secluded part of the world. The feeling can be attributed to that of owning your own mountain, which can be a pretty epic feeling.

What are the origins of helliskiing? It is said that in the mid 1950’s the Europeans started the first helicopter ski trips by taking brave and world class skiers up to glaciers. Although it is known that Johann Wolfgang “Hans” Gmoser, a mountain guide from Linz, Austria is credited for some of the first trips up in the Canadian Rockies. Hans was a respected mountaineer and accomplished climber.  In about 1965 Gmoser’s friend and client, U.S. Olympian Brooks Dodge, had discussed the opportunity to start a helicopter service that could take skiers to the snowfields in the upper Rockies.

Hans, one to never back down from a challenge soon partnered with Jim Davies, who was known as one of the premiere mountain helicopter pilots at the time. The two of them began chartering helicopter ski trips for one week to the Bugaboos.

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