Our Northern Heliski Escape

The Central British Columbia region is well known for a plethora of heliski operations, after all this is where heli skiing was born.

But there is an area in mid-northern BC where moose and the ethereal white Kermode bear begin to replace the population. It’s also no coincidence that it is home to some of the best heli skiing the world has to offer.

We were booked in for a Total Heliski tour in late February. I flew in directly from India where I had hosted our Himalayas tour (stay posted). After the two days of travel from India to Canada, to say I was tired, and suffering from jetlag was an understatement.

With just a short internal flight from Vancouver or Calgary to Terrace, and a 30 minute drive to the Lodge however, this operator is one of the easiest to travel to, yet at the same time, one of the most remote.

We were booked in for a Total Heliski tour in late February. I flew in directly from India where I had hosted our Himalayas tour (stay posted). After the two days of travel from India to Canada, to say I was tired, and suffering from jetlag was an understatement.

With just a short internal flight from Vancouver or Calgary to Terrace, and a 30 minute drive to the Lodge however, this operator is one of the easiest to travel to, yet at the same time, one of the most remote.

We were met that Monday night at Terrace Airport and swiftly transferred to Cedar Lake Lodge, a quintessential Canadian Log Cabin to be our home for the duration of our tour. After settling into our cosy rooms, we congregated in the bar for apertifs and horsdouerves. The lodge was buzzing with guests and staff greeting each other. There was a sense of excitement in anticipation, as it was lightly snowing outside. The hint of an even bigger dump was ever present. But even so we weren’t worried, the Skeena mountains had already received well over 70 feet of snow so far. We were good to go!

Next morning, after our hearty breakfast overlooking scenic Cedar Lake, we completed formalities – signing the waiver and then the mandatory safety training which consists of tranceiver usage, tracking, probing, and digging up victims, should the unthinkable happen, plus the helicopter safety briefing.

And then, it was time to hit the hay! The Agusta (‘Koala’) machine used up here is a slightly larger, faster and more powerful bird than the B3, carries one more passenger, and offers the epitome of the small group heliski experience that Total Heliski recommends for our clients.

From our first landing, we were greeted by 2000m stunning alpine and glacier runs along with pleasurably open tree runs that never seemed to end. Our group was ecstatic at the

ecstatic at the conditions, terrain, views, and the strong sensation that we were in real wilderness. From the top of each run, I looked around in awe, imagining in my mind this view during each of the four seasons.

For safety reasons, we ‘buddy up’ when heli skiing and I was buddied with Rob, a very nice Canadian guy running a similar business to me out in Toronto.

The sensation of cruising down endless glaciers surrounded by the The Skeena Mountains, with their rugged peaks… the joy of effortlessly floating down a deep alpine bowl, face shots at every turn…the exhilaration of pounding through naturally aded trees, chasing Rob are experiences I will never forget.

On the second day, we were faced with some low cloud (and subsequently fresh snow), meaning we had to hit the backup snowcats instead, as a larger group. I was getting a real kick out of the fresh pow-pow tree skiing with the group, when the weather cleared and we were transferred smoothly back to the helicopter.

Back at the lodge that night, as always, when you heliski, there was a myriad of interesting people from all over the world. Of note, was Dave, the Vancouver businessman, an investor in the operation, whose 21 year old son and his friends were all loving their father’s generosity of him hosting their tour. Dave sponsors a rally driving team, (think Subaru) and Pat, the world champion Canadian rally driver, head of the team was here too. They had a penchance for partying, based on some well-tested logic derived from Murphys (or is it Sods) Law. They believed that the harder you partied whilst on a heliski tour and the later you stayed up, the better the weather and snow would be the next day.

On our 3rd day, in line with Dave’s groups partying practises, and with my jetlag now in check, we were blessed with a seriously bluebird day and a couple of feet of fresh powder on the ground. John the owner, guiding our group, led us into the depths of their terrain surrounded by the majestic peaks. This is the stuff of dreams I thought, as I pinched myself and hollered and yahooed as I skied until the very last metre.

And so, it was. Another epic tour, ear to ear grins that take weeks to wipe off one’s face, meeting a plethora of interesting people, and taking home treasured memories and the determination to come back next year, in fact come back every year.