Dropped Into the Wild Canadian Backcountry!

It's the start of Heliskiing season in Canada.... not too late to book a trip

As the rotors started to spin and the heli first rose up, anxious chatter turned to excited smiles.  This is it! Into the vast wilderness chasing powder dreams. Canada doesn’t do small when it comes to wilderness.  From the air, the mountains looked untouched and boundless - no lift lines, no groomers, no signs of civilization.  Just sharp ridgelines, deep bowls, ice-falls, and forests dusted so perfectly they looked staged.  The heli dropped onto a surprisingly narrow ridge on top of the world with nothing but endless runs ahead – but here a ski run is not a narrow cut line, it's the whole side of the mountain.

We are instructed to follow the guide and lay our tracks alongside those of a group that went just ahead – first run is smooth, just make rounded arcs next those ahead or be more precise and link up perfect figure eights across the tracks your buddy just made.  Today’s start was not in bottomless powder, which we would hit at lower elevations, but on smooth wind-swept mid-calf, 4-day old, untracked powder on a glacier.  The quiet stillness quickly gave way to whoops and hollers from our heli group of 10 – men and women of varying ages and abilities that synced up into what may have appeared as a choreographed dance down the mountain.  You had better have done your stretching, because there are no warm-up runs, just a couple thousand vertical feet to your pick-up spot.  My thinking: you don’t have to be first, but don’t be last!  Our expert guide, Jeremy, had a sense for when the group needed a rest and would make frequent stops on this first run.  Each run felt completely different.  One moment we were carving down a sunlit face with views that stretched to the horizon, the next we were dancing through old-growth forests, snow whispering off the branches as we passed.  Between runs, we piled back into the helicopter, laughing and high-fiving like kids who’d just gotten away with some shenanigans.

I had the wonderful opportunity to arrange and lead this ski trip to the Purcell Mountains in British Columbia for a small group of skiers and snow boarders.  It was a combination of resort skiing and heliskiing as an action-packed, five-day weekend in late Feb 2025, my second hosted trim in three years 

The trip was designed around a 1-day heliski adventure provided by R.K Heliski, located in Invermere B.C, approximately 120 miles north of the Idaho border.  R.K. Heliski offers a variety of options, including private copters for groups of up to 8.  The 1-day package that we booked will mix our group in with others to fill a 10-passenger helicopter.

Is heliskiing extreme skiing ?  Not really: but it can be if you want it to be.  At a minimum, you need experience skiing (or boarding) in powder with the ability to ski black diamond runs in varying conditions.  You also need to be in decent physical condition with good stamina, as you will be at elevation and since you will be having so much fun, you will not be still for long!

Our day started with a basic breakfast setup at 8am, followed by avalanche and rescue training – an absolute must for back-country skiing.  Even though avalanche incidents are very rare, it is best to be prepared.  After training, we boarded the heli for our day out in what is approximately 1500 square kilometers (see map and video) of RK’s exclusive-use of untouched wilderness – we are only going to see a small fraction of that for our one-day trip.

After 3-4 runs, it's time for lunch.  It’s not fancy… it’s from the cooler they brought along with sandwiches, drinks and sweets, but with a 360-degree vista of gorgeous mountains and glades of trees, conversing among new friends, you will think that sandwich is awesome.  Come for the experience, not for the food.

We skied mostly above the tree line, which is much lower in this mountain range than I am accustomed to in the U.S. – we skied between 7,000 and 10,000 ft with the tree line at about 7500.  On our 2023 two-day heli trip we skied predominantly in the trees at lower elevation due to snow and low cloud conditions up top, so skiing the open, alpine expanses was welcome.  The standard package with RK is 5 runs, with up to 2 optional add-on runs (at a modest additional cost). Jeremy was great at explaining what the terrain was like, where the rocks and cliffs were, and noting to stay close to his tracks when passing crevasses.  The runs are long - your legs will burn, but the thrill won’t let you stop or slow down.  While you go at your own pace, you will likely have the pedal pushed to the floorboards because it’s too much fun.

Hear our guide Jeremy recap our day and the areas we covered.

Our trip started in Banff, Alberta – a beautiful Nordic-style town that serves as a base for Ski Big 3 for the three areas: Lake Louise, Banff Sunshine and Mount Norquay.  This is a wonderful ski destination on its own, sans the heliskiing.  A few days at altitude before the big adventure was a must. Some of the terrain around Lake Louise is as impressive and pristine as that in the heliskiing back country – a great intro for the one in our group that was new to Canadian skiing.

Final pickup of the day

As the helicopter carried us back toward base, the light started to fade and the peaks turned pink and gold beneath us.  I pressed my forehead to the window and tried to burn the image into my memory.  Heliskiing in Canada isn’t just a bucket-list adventure—it’s a reminder of how vast and untamed nature is. how wild winter can be, how small we are, and how powerful it feels to step into the unknown and carve your own way down.

Come for the skiing… you will leave with feelings much grander.