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Seriously. Stellar won't even allow clients to ski with AT bindings since they ice up in the basket. I'm pretty sure Pulseline also strongly discourages it.Quote:
Originally Posted by zion zig zag
Back to the original question, all things being equal of course heli is more dangerous, but terrain selection and snowpack type will control the majority of your overall risk.
My best friend got married at Island Lake in the early 90's. We had two cats full of patrollers, instructors and some of the best skiers in town.
Rick, the lead guide, was on some of the earliest generation of Randonee gear. He was constantly futzing with his gear and basically skiing like a an old lady.
We rebelled and they replaced him with Steve Kugit, after the first day.
Aspen lost our most famous guide in a heli crash.
I'm in the "no way I'm skiing AT gear if I'm heli skiing" camp, the performance downgrade is just too big, even with better modern AT gear.
I will say that I kept my old alpine trekkers for weird circumstances like doing sled laps. If nothing else, I could walk out with them if our sleds died, but also companion rescue.
Fun story: I took my trekkers to AK on a heli trip many years ago. Being tight on the check-in weight, I put them in my carry on. I go through security and get pulled aside- they want to know what the hell those things are, hopefully not a bomb. So I do this whole pantomime thing with my forearms, trying to show how you could lift a heel and ski uphill with them. My buddies were dying laughing. Too bad it was from the flip phone era, otherwise I'm sure they would have an amazing video of that whole encounter.
I have done more than my share of heliskiing and a few snowcat skiing days. Just ask Summit. So, I can speak from previous experience. I have a little over 9 million vertical feet of heliskiing, with approximately 1,000 hours of flying. Obviously, heliskiing is more dangerous from the standpoint of transportation than snowcat skiing. I have never heard of a snowcat crash. There have been more than a few documented cases of helicopter crashes while heliskiing. In my heli time I have only had three close calls, Mainly aborted landings because of winds or last second white outs. Avalanche wise I have seen several of them, caused by guides doing ski-cuts. And I’ve seen a lot of naturals that happened or just happened. Here is a study about the safety of heliskiing and snowcat skiing. Sorry it’s a little old from 2019. https://www.sciencedirect.com/scienc...80603219300912 Here is an essay from my Heliskihistory.com about what you might want toknow as afirst timer. https://www.heliskihistory.com/evolutions
I did I mention I know an ex-guide with 1 arm ?
Did he kill Dr Richard Kimble's wife?Quote:
Originally Posted by XXX-er
8,000 hours of flying????? Hacksaw, I find that number hard to believe. That is like 333 days, 24 hrs per.
And it might be useful to separate the hazards of flying from the hazards of skiing.
I LOLedQuote:
Did he kill Dr Richard Kimble's wife?
I never watched "The Fugitive " so no idea but he lost it from a heli and i believe he got smacked in the head with a blade at the same time
Last I heard buddy lives in Atlin BC which you have probably never heard of, fun fact you can not get to Atlin from BC you gott drive thru the Yukon
Hacksaw's numbers are accurate. He's been at it a while ;)
Bunion, I have 71 weeks of heliskiing in Canada, then a week in NZ and a couple of days here and there (i.e. Colorado).
Skiing wise yes, there are dangers. Just read my heliski 101 essay on Heliskihistory.com . Your experienced enough to know most ofthe dangers.
Those heli numbers are impressive!! Guiding or client? If client that’s unreal!
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Those heli numbers are impressive!! Guiding or client? If client that’s unreal!
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2funky, mainly as a client.
Big heli numbers and big money if he’s a client! He did somethin right!
I remember meeting a guy that owns a fairly famous waterside restaurant (don’t remember the restaurant name but any Seattle peeps would know it) in Seattle years ago in Valdez. Super nice guy and the only one I’ve met that has heli trips anywhere near resembling those hours. I recall he was trying to launch a heli skiing website, don’t know if that ever got traction tho
That’s sick, hacksaw! Bravo man! What a super cool experience. Going to read your essay.
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@ Hacksaw, You are the one who knows the hours. Not being a dick but even with 75 weeks, 8K hours seems generous although possible. Good on ya.
Quick math: 8 hrs/day x 7 days/week x 75 weeks = 4200 hrs. And that doesn’t leave much time for skiing on those days.
Feel free to check my math.
Not to pile on but. Average heli week in AK is 5 hrs flying time. I think I saw some Canadian companies with 20 hr weeks. 8000 hrs divided by 71 is over 112 hrs. Nobody is flying that many hours. A commercial helicopter pilot may fly 800hrs a year.
I rode in a heli once to ski, and I got paid for it. They picked us up from royal gorge, shuttled us to Mt Lola, and took up back at the end of day. It was related to the debut of the fisher sbound skis. I got to ride shotgun in the little helicopter. Very windy. Pretty fun. Anybody want to touch me? :P
They are mechanical Cocaine.
A guy I skied with in AK called heli skiing hard drugs, and he's right.
best friend from undergrad still flies for the navy. told me birds were not meant to fly and not to get in one unless I had to. a lot of what he used to do as a heli pilot he now does as a drone pilot to reduce risk.
That’s basically exactly what my family friend in the army told me as well. He’s got close to twenty years w apaches and says it not flying lol
Was that perhaps Tim Firnstahl? He's a legit high mileage roller. If so, I met him and skied with him numerous times during his many trips (sometimes multiple weeks in the same season) to Last Frontier Heliskiing at Bell 2 Lodge and Ripley Creek. At Ripley one year he showed up in an all black ski kit; helmet, jacket pants boots, the works. We skied a first descent and called it "Darth Vader" after him. Nice guy. Tipped us with generous vouchers for dining at his restaurants in Seattle. Dunno if he ever got a website going but at one point he did write a book on heliskiing. I think he was a pretty fit dude for his age as well at the time. I remember one takeaway from a discussion on fueling the body for marathons...he was a molasses purist.Quote:
Originally Posted by mcski
That’s him. Super nice guy. We met at VHSG. Traded a few emails w him after but lost touch. He raved about LF as the best combo of terrain and stability and ops but I’ve never made it there. I think he was fifty when we skied together and he was def fit. Took a beater but so did pretty much everyone else. He had tons of good knowledge for sure. He was rockin the all black back then too lol
He’d be seventy ish now so would fit in well on the forum demo here now lol