TR: It's gone bluebird, call in the whirrly bird.
Hot damn the skys turned blue and the planets aligned with some fresh snow on a bomber snowpack. What else were Van_skier and I to do but cash in the heli day. I was lucky enough to win one day for two people with Whistler Heli-Skiing back in December. We've been waiting for the right day to book our fly time. In January we had a nice high pressure but no fresh snow, other days have looked good but at the last minute the forecast would change. Some days the forecast looked like crap but turned out bluebird. After reading postmans thread of some fresh snow in Cerise Creek and sunny skys forecast today I pulled the trigger yesterday after work.
Just as forecast the morning was clear. We watched a great sunrise on the Sea to Sky on our drive up from North Van to Whistler this morning. After signing some waivers we wondered over to Moguls to see bigtrubs and grab a coffee. When we got back to the Whistler Heli-Skiing office the gappers had started to arrive.
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I kept saying "Please don't put us in a ship with gappers. Please don't put us in a ship with gappers."
First drop was going to be a jump run to get us outta the hanger and onto a near by run. Guides picked Rainbow. There was going to be three groups flying out of our Bell 405. We were 3rd to launch, so we had some waiting around time. Learned a few good things. Our flying partners were another young couple from Whistler and some guy that had been doing a couple days recently. So we didn't get any gappers. Turned out the first group to launch was Montel Williams and some buddy of his.
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Hey look it's powder11's place :)
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Top of Rainbow with our group.
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Van_skier first run of the day.
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Conditions were cold low density boot top pow on a firm base.
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Yeah for new heli friend not being a gapper.
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Dude even took time to read the skier666 tutorial on photoslutting.
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Yeah they get you really close to some gnar terrain. Van_skier asking the guide for some gnar gnar.
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It ain't gnar on Petterson, but it sure is pretty.
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Yep pretty stoked our heli mates were not gappers. Petterson was so nice we hit it for two runs.
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Van_skier works a little spine.
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Apres some lunch it's back in the bird. This sure beats touring.
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Our great guide Steve even asked us what we wanted to ski after lunch. The group voted in unison for steep. So Steve set us up on Tsunami.
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Who said it was all going to be lame meadow skipping?
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Tsunami was not super long, but it was super fun. Oh and there was zero powder farming. Our one group of 5 plus guide pretty much destroyed Tsunami, about 5 minutes before another group set down on it.
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Yep still happy that our new heli friends were not gappers.
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Van_skier "I wonder if we can get the heli to drop us on the north face of Waddington?"
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Hey this isn't Waddington. But it's cold and powdery.
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It's not a bad day when the guide stands at the top lets us have our way with the terrain. It's also not bad watching two cute girls rip up some pow.
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I can almost see the grin on Van_skiers face.
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Did I mention what I was pretty stoked our fellow ship mates were not gappers. Kat ripping one last final turn of the last run.
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Luke taking to the air.
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This thing beats skins hands down.
Yeah today did not suck. The package I won was for 6 runs and we plunked down the 95 dead loonies of our own for a 7th run. Weather was perfect, guide was cool, and our ship mates ripped. we couldn't have asked for a better day. Tomorrow back at work now that is going to suck.
