I had always wanted to heli ski… And this was the perfect time to check out that box of the bucket list. Jessi had just quit her job and I had just sold my company and we will be moving back home to Venezuela in just a couple weeks, so we decided to take a short trip to Jackson; Jessi to relax and me to do some skiing.
We were actually deciding whether to go either to Jackson Hole or to SLC, but at the end no availability in the Heli Skiing made me decide towards Jackson. This winter had been very unusual for the region; lack of snow at its finest, which for pow skiing is horrible, but for steep skiing terrain is actually safer.
We had stayed previously at the Aman in Jackson, but because it was presidents day weekend they had no availability, so we ended up staying at the Terra Hotel in the Teton Village. It is a very nice Ski in/Ski out Hotel with a panoramic small pool looking towards the mountain and a rooftop hot tub. Ideal for anyone looking forward doing some skiing in the actual resort (I actually kinda regret not having skied the resort to take advantage of the whole ski in/ski out and skis concierge thing).
HIGH MOUNTAIN HELI SKIING
Although advertise as “the only company offering heli skiing from Jackson Hole”, you do not ski in Jackson Hole. You actually have a 40 min drive from Teton Village towards Idaho to get to the base where they fly from – Teton Springs Lodge and Spa is the name of where we flew from that day. Looks like a great place to stay.
They tell you to get there at around 9am, (which was very nice because I had time to have breakfast with Jessilane at the hotel) then there’s a short safety lecture about avalanche and heli safety and at 10:30am you should be on your way on the first flight of the day. The cost of the Heli Skiing is $1675 for 6 runs – which is not the cheapest heli skiing option there is btw… alta and park city go for around $1250.
It is an amazing experience to do Heli Skiing, but to be a 100% honest, I prefer touring over heli skiing. There is just something very peaceful and satisfactory about touring that Heli Skiing does not have. Don’t get me wrong, it was very very fun and conditions were really good, but you just don’t get the whole “Earn your turns” feeling.
Our group initially consisted of another guy from Massachusetts, the owner of the heli skiing company, his girlfriend and the guide. Groups are made of 4 people + the guide, because the heli can only fit 5 persons + pilot. Surprisingly, after just the first run the guy from Massachusetts wasn’t felling ok and he decided to turn back. The owner and he’s girlfriend decided to follow him because the had to take a phone call at 1pm, so they sent a couple ladies who worked in the back end of High Mountain Heli skiing so I didn’t ski by myself with the guide. Group was great, snow conditions were pretty descent, having received 8 inches in the past couple nights made for some fun fresh snow.
Again, to add some base to my opinion stated above, I think Heli Skiing is too fast pace. They pick you up right away after your run… you barely have a couple minutes to catch a breath and drink water, then suddenly you get dropped off and are skiing again, and once you finish your run you have a couple minutes the most to gather yourself again and to get ready for pick up. There is little time to enjoy the views and nature, is just a super fast pace experience. Also someone explained later that they do this as fast as they can so the Heli can save as much fuel as possible and avoid down flying time.
In our 6th and last run, while skiing the best snow and terrain a major stuff carried me down 30ft-40ft. It was a pretty intense and scary feeling, definetily not looking forward feeling it ever again. I lost my left ski while being carrying down, but fortunately one of the ladies who was skiing with me found it after almost 40 minutes of searching around, just before the heli was about to land and pick us up in a kinda exposed face of the mountain. All I could think about is what a valid excuse I could find out to tell my wife about why have I showed up after heli skiing with only one ski and one pole..
We started flying at around 10:30 am and by 2:30 we were already back, so that’s kind of sweet…. no sweat going up, and six runs down of pretty awesome terrain is hard to beat.
I hurried back to town, picked up Jessilaneveryday who had a two hour massage at the hotel and we had a quick lunch at Teton Thai (greattt Thai food in the mountain).
SKIING MOUNTAINEERING at TETON NATIONAL PARK
Day started early at around 5am. Made a quick stop at the only coffee shop open in town at that time called cowboy coffee and had breakfast and coffee – It was also nice to see a lot of people coming in at this time before heading backcountry before going to work.
We met at Taggart Lake Trailhead at 6:30am sharp. Not more than 5 cars where there by that time. Not a lot of snow recently so it was nice for trying steep terrain this early in the season. We started traversing in the flat open until we hit the base of the mountains and trees started making us having to start making switchback turns. Cant describe how beautiful and peaceful it is to be climbing the mountains with no one around you at any times. My guides name was Chris Belinger. Honestly so far, one of the best guides I have had so far. Chris told me an analogy I really digged and found it very accurate.
TYPES OF SKIING VS. TYPE OF MUSIC
- Resort Skiing = Pop-Rock Music
- Vail and PC Skiing = Backstreet boys- Spice Girls kinda Pop music
- Side Country = Reggaeton
- Backcountry Skiing = Reggae Music with some Rock and Roll for not more than a couple minutes.
- Heli Skiing = Black Metal
Chris also explained to me the main differences in becoming a guide in the US vs becoming a guide in Europe. How straight forward and easy in terms of structure it is to become a certificate guide in Europe, versus doing everything on your own in the US. He told me, if I recall correctly that you theres even a type of college for becoming a guide in Europe.
It took us around 4 hours to get to the top of the line we wanted to ski. This line is called Moonwalk Colouir. Its that beautiful picture you see in the cover of this article. This was my first time rapelling down a line so I could transition at a safe spot and then ski the line. What a surreal felling this is. Cant believe this guys get to do this for a living. I mean, I do see the downs of the job, do not get me wrong, but the positives definitely outweighs the negative.
Once we had already transitioned we roped up and I started descending in a rappel. It was not that steep, but tons of exposed rocks where in between the place we had to transition and the place where we were walking, and the part after the transition, the line itself was actually indeed very steep, so to play it safe in the no falling zone we roped up.
I was supposed to go first, but felt quite intimidated by the grade of the slope, so I told Chris to please go ahead a couple turns in front of me so I could follow his line and then I could pass him once i got confident. So, that’s what happened… I saw him take a couple turns, he stopped, I followed his tracks and then passed him and had first tracks all the way to the bottom. He says he recorded everything in his GoPro, but a few months have gone by, and he still has not answered my messages asking him for any footages of pictures of that day hahah.
We got some very decent snow conditions on the way back, but once we were at lower elevation a lot of skiing skating had to be done, which was very exhausting to be honest after having skied those steep lines.
MiBiCi Adventures 