10 amazing heli-ski adventures

In fact, regulations abound, especially in the U.S., making it difficult to start a heli-skiing operation in this country. There’s only one in Colorado, and the sport doesn’t exist in Vermont. But a few years ago, Canada relaxed their regulations and now has the highest concentration of heli-ski operators in the world. According to von Neudegg of CMH, British Columbia had 16 heli-ski operators in 1999. In 2007 there are 43.

Options abound outside the Rockies as well. SwissSKISafari, for example, can take you on a three-country heli-ski tour of Switzerland, Italy, and France in just a week, staying in luxurious hotels along the way. The Chugach Mountains in Alaska offer some of the steepest heli-ski terrain on the planet. Even Russia has entered the game, using military helicopters to take its nouveau riche schussers to new heights.

It’s also a year-round proposition: In the southern hemisphere, New Zealand and Chile both offer heli-skiing during the North American summer.

Still, the way you tackle this adventure can differ from place to place — even the exclusive world of heli-skiing has its velvet ropes. In Austria, the only place to go is the exclusive enclaves of Lech and Zurs, in the Arlberg, where Wucher Helicopters offers a pay-per-run option.

The more common choice, though, is a multi-day package deal, with a guaranteed number of runs and/or vertical feet included in the price. Telluride's Helitrax offers a three-day option with 18 runs and 12,000 to 14,000 vertical feet included.

More exclusive is the remote lodge-based heliski trip. Canadian Mountain Holidays operates 12 luxury lodges in 12 different areas (all complete with chef, pastry chef and two masseuses), and three- to 10-day trips with guaranteed vertical of almost 15,000 feet per day. And if you really don’t want any strangers along, just rent out the lodge and the helicopter for yourself (and 30 friends) for the week.

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At the upper end of the heli-ski circuit is staying on a heli-equipped yacht. One of the most thrilling options is to fly from the decks of the m/v Absinthe, a 201-foot megayacht, from the sunny waters off the coast of British Columbia up into the mountains. In a fast 15 minutes, you can be laying down tracks. And if the weather gets bad, just return to the lower-altitude sports of waterskiing, kayaking and hot tubbing with a glass of Dom Perignon. Sound expensive? It is — chartering the yacht for 12 people is $36,000 a day.

So save your pennies, cue the Warren Miller video, kick back and check out these amazing heli-ski adventures.

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