Tuesday March 27, 2012
Seriously, I have no idea how I go back to an everyday life after today. Cross the last thing of my winter checklist, I am the happiest person alive. Today I went heli-skiing. I can’t believe there was even an ounce of nervousness about doing it. It is the greatest thing I have done up until this point in my life. Such an unequivocally amazing experience. I went with a local outfit here in Revelstoke called Selkirk Tangiers Heli-Skiing. They assisted me in Living My Dream. I decided just a few days ago to try to get into a group, I thought it could be a great ending to the trip of a lifetime. I thought correctly. Todays experience was the perfect exclamation point to this entire winter. I am going to start driving toward home tomorrow, there is no sense in even trying to do anything else this winter. Game, set, match…it’s over Johnny.
The day started out with a yummy breakfast, meeting some of the other people in my group (bunch of celebrities), and orientating with the guide. Dave was our guide, but there were 2 other guides that came along. 3 guides and 9 passengers made for 12 in our group. The first stop was somewhere along the side of the road that looked like we could have easily been raped and left for dead in the middle of nowhere Canada. It was time to learn and familiarize ourselves with avalanches, procedures in case of problems, how to use our avalanche beacon, and finally starting an avalanche with only the power of the mind. Seemed odd, but Dave wanted us to know how. After that was helicopter safety and orientation. In total it was about an hour and a half, maybe 2 in safety training and instructions. It was all quite interesting actually, either that or I was just too excited about the upcoming activity to know any better. After all the instructions we were then moved by van from highway rape area number one to potential murder site number two. This was to be the pickup point by the helicopter for my group.
We were taken to a little place known as “I Have No Idea Where I Was”. All I knew was it was at the top of a mountain. We did a total of 4 runs. The routine was dropped off at the top then ride down to a flat area the helicopter could pick us up. After the third run we ate a nice lunch on the mountain. The scenery was gorgeous snowy mountain scenery for as for as the eye can see. The terrain was the perfect mix of extremely steep to moderately steep, perfect for cruising. There was one area that was a giant bowl, then the next time we were going through trees. The variety and assortment of terrain was just perfect. We would all stage up at the top of a downhill and Dave would lead the charge. Then we took turns dropping in about 5 seconds apart. There was nothing but the most pristine, virginal untouched tracks. We were supposed to ride next to the others tracks so we could stay in the group. One time I was the lead guy after Dave the guide. I saw someone hit a tree so I looked over to give myself a good laugh. It’s fine, she was laughing so I knew nobody was hurt. When I looked back Dave was gone. In that split second I lost him. Luckily the guy behind me noticed, called out, and got me back on track immediately. Thanks Paul from Never Summer. It couldn’t have been too bad, it all goes downhill, and I’d have seen him eventually :-). There is only one thing that could have made it better, and this goes for almost everything fantastic, more of it.
I filmed the entire thing, but unfortunately the crappy first person perspective does not really translate the brilliance of today. I did get my new friend Jeremy the Kiwi to wear my helmet for one run and tape me. Because of the way we had to space out it’s not that great, but I truly appreciate the Kiwi efforts.
Our entire group was so diverse and everyone was great. There was a local, me from The States, 2 young siblings from Portlandia, a Kiwi from New Zealand, two ladies from Deutschland, a Vancouverite named Paul, and John pronounced Yon from Holland. Everyone had a great time. Amongst our group there were a couple celebrities, I don’t want to say who they were, so I’ll just say Liam Neeson and NPH.
I’m sure I’ll have more to write about today after I come down from this high.