Heliski News 2010

It's been a full, powder-blessed winter and finally the boards have been hung up until next season - or possibly until Chile in September..! A big thanks to everyone who skied with us this season.

James Morland

The Mighty Himalayas - Himachal back in Business

There are few experiences on earth that can compare to skiing or snowboarding in culturally rich India with the mighty Himalayas as a backdrop. After a couple of quiet seasons things are back to normal in Himachal Pradesh. It had been 8 years since I last skied in India and once again I was totally blown away.

We have a very limited number of seats available for next winter so If you want to turn your dream of skiing deep Himalayan powder into a reality, please contact James as soon as possible: james@eaheli.com or +44 7900 241 591.

Prices start at €6,850 for our standard weeks and €3,750 for our helicopter assisted ski touring weeks. For more information click here.

Chilean Ski Safari - Hot springs, volcanoes and first descents in the Andes

We have just had three seats open up for this totally unique adventure in the central Andes of Chile. The quest starts in Santiago on the 28th of August and finishes 1,000 km further south in Puerto Montt on the 4th of September....Expedition-style heliskiing at its finest!

Due to a cancellation, the price of the trip has been reduced from €80,000 to €60,000 for a group of three.

We also have plenty of standard trips running from July to October with prices starting at €4,980 for three days or €6,500 for six days. ..So if you can't wait until the northern hemisphere winter for your next powder fix, wax your boards and hop on a plane to Chile this summer. All trips can easily be combined with resort- based skiing or other activities in or around Santiago.

Contact James for more information: james@eaheli.com / +44 7900 241 591.

Free Skis

Book any heliski adventure for four or more people before August 1st and receive a brand new pair of next season's K2 skis.

If you meet a Polar Bear...

Always have your car keys handy (if indeed you have a car) and always make sure you choose friends with guns over those with cameras.

WARNING: Don't watch the slideshow on the right if you are squeamish. If you are not, click the play button.

 

TGR Crew Back at Last Frontier Heliskiing

After an awesome trip to Bell 2 Lodge in 2009, Seth Morisson, Kye Peterson and Cullum Petit headed back up to Last Frontier's base at Ripley Creek. This zone, nestled on the border with south east Alaska, offers epic snow conditions to small groups of skiers and snowboarders and a huge 9,500 square km of mind-blowing terrain....That's 25 times the size of Les Trois Vallées In France (the largest ski area in the world). Click here for a sneak preview of some of the footage...

Kashmir  Barbed wire, guns, a bit of tear gas...and powder snow.

For a few years I'd heard stories about the bottomless powder and the empty slopes that have turned Gulmarg into an almost mythical phenomenon, so this year, along with Scott Flavelle, I decided to check it out myself and see what all the fuss was about....And arriving at the end of January to mountains that had barely seen a dusting of snow since November, I began to wonder.

To a large extent I was motivated to travel to Kashmir in order to meet Martin Jones, an entrepreneur from New Zealand who is looking to establish a heliski operation in the region - a handy thing when the gondola is shut much of the time. At best, it is unreliable, especially after a snowfall when you want it most. When it is open, expect to spend a significant part of your day drinking tea in a long queue watching other people shred your powder.

A small amount of snow before our arrival was just enough to make for some good turns. However, a totally rotten snowpack, meant that the avalanche danger was high and we ended up tiptoeing around with little confidence to venture into avalanche terrain - which most of the ski area is! Potentially this is a dangerous mountain, a point clearly illustrated by a large avalanche that struck just after we left, tragically killing 17 soldiers.

Despite the vast military presence, you do feel safe in Gulmarg. However, Kashmir continues to be a volatile region that periodically erupts into violence. We got a taste of this on our way to the airport, when we caught the tail-end of some rioting in which a child had been killed by a tear-gas canister. This created an incredibly tense atmosphere and there was a striong sense that things were on the boiling point of mayhem. A teenager was shot dead a few days later.

The British Foreign Office has the following to say about Kashmir: "...there remains a high risk of unpredictable violence, including bombings, grenade attacks, shootings and kidnapping."

Courchevel it is not but all in all we had a good time in Gulmarg and it is obvious that there's some excellent ski terrain, not to mention a very healthy vertical drop from 3950m back to the village at 2,700m... or even below in some cases. But to get the most out of a trip here, you need an avid sense of adventure, be prepared to walk uphill with skins and have a bit of time to spare...

If you would like any further information, please contact James: james@eaheli.com or +44 7900 241 591

K2  Skiing the Savage Mountain

Over the next few months our good friends Frederik 'Frippe' Ericsson and Trey Cook are in Pakistan attempting to climb the world's most notorious 8,000 m peak - K2....And if that wasn't enough, Frippe is hoping to be the first person to ever ski from its summit. Below is a recent update from Islamabad where the guys joined some high-class prostitutes for a few last nights of drunken, cocaine-fuelled mayhem before the months of sensory deprivation ahead - or more likely drinking tea and feeding each other ice cream!

This is an extract from Frippe's Blog, where you can follow their progress over the coming months. - Good luck guys! http://www.fredrikericsson.com.

31 May 2010 - Islamabad, Pakistan (457 meters)
After months of preparation and one long day of traveling, Fredrik Ericsson and I have finally arrived in the capital of Pakistan on the first leg of our adventure.

What adventure I hear you ask? Fredrik - or 'Frippe' as our crew in Chamonix calls him - will be doing everything in his power to become the first person to ski from the summit of K2. Yep, you read that right. This guy plans to not just climb the most difficult, dangerous and baddest 8000-meter peak on the planet, he wants to do what's never been done before by slapping on his skis and charging the 3600 meters (11,811 feet) back down to base camp.

Oh, and did I forget to mention that he plans to do it without supplemental oxygen? And without Sherpas or high-altitude porters? And no, he's not mainlining EPO or steroids or Red Bull or any other kind of performance-enhancing anything. It's just him, his skis, a ruggedly handsome and highly courageous ski journalist (that would be me) and one notoriously foul-tempered mountain.

Of course, you probably already know of K2's hard-won reputation as The Savage Mountain. That's the term of endearment she earned by slamming the door on many of the world's best alpinists and sending them home with their tails between their legs.

In his book "K2: Life and Death on The World's Most Dangerous Mountain" Ed Viesturs states, "I had previously climbed Everest and Kangchenjunga, the first and third highest peaks in the world, but I knew that K2 was in another league of difficulty and danger."

Indeed, the last time anyone made it to the top of K2 was in 2008 when 30 climbers from 10 different expeditions joined forces to make a summit bid. Around 18 of them are believed to have made the summit and in a terrible chapter in the history of climbing, 11 of them never returned.
The next year, 2009, the mountain brushed off all her suitors, sparing all but one precious life, that of Michele Fait, an experienced Italian ski mountaineer whose tragic death deeply saddened both the climbing and skiing communities.

But 2009 wasn't all bad. American ski mountaineer Dave Watson was also on the mountain last summer and skied down from the Bottleneck just 300 meters (1000 feet) below the summit. His effort confirmed others' belief that the impossible might actually be possible. One of those believers is Fredrik Ericsson. The other is myself, y'know the strong yet sensitive alpine journalist.

You'll be hearing a lot more about Fredrik, K2, our plans, and our ability (or lack thereof) to stick to those plans in our daily(ish) blog that's being posted by the adventure-loving fanatics at OutsideOnline.com. At any point along the way we encourage you to hit us with questions about topics we haven't covered, things you don't understand or anything at all about our expedition that you'd like to know more about. Taking the time to respond might very well be the only thing that keeps Frippe and I from strangling each other as the weeks drag on and the down days (and those annoying idiosyncrasies) begin to stack up.

In the meantime, we'll be in Islamabad taking advantage of our last two days in civilization to enjoy the simple pleasures of champagne-drenched, cocaine-fueled nights spent in the company of an endless stream of exotic, high-class prostitutes. Nah, just joking. Anyone who knows anything about Islamabad (or Fredrik and me for that matter) knows that simple pleasures at this point mean little more than a comfy bed, a hot shower, cold Coca-Cola and ice cream. Man, how we're gonna miss that ice cream.

As-Salamu Alaykum*, Frippe and Trey
*Arabic greeting meaning "peace be upon you."

Tragically, Frippe died in a fall on August the 6th while attempting the summit. When I spoke to him on the sat phone the day before, he sounded happier than I have every head anyone sound. His death was a huge shock to us all and he will be sorely missed.

Six good reasons to use Elemental Adventure

• We have more firsthand knowledge and expertise on worldwide heliskiing than any other company in existence.
• Totally impartial advice on the world's best destinations.
• All of our clients receive big discounts on K2 Skis and gear from The North Face.
• Booking with us will never cost more than booking direct with a lodge. In fact, it will often save you money.
• Excellent benefits to regular heliskiers.
• A professional service that will organise your trip from start to finish with minimum hassle to you.