So where to start? Adam and I are back from Bella Coola and largely bummed out about the trip. Let's address the "Not for Snowboard" first. They sell Hestra gloves there that have their logo on them. They also come with a tag (from Hestra) that says Not for Snowboard. It's (obviously) elitist advertising aimed at skiers, but it seemed to be the credo upon which their business operates. The two guides were very anti-snowboard in their attitudes throughout our stay.

Their website "promises" that you ski/ride on your arrival and departure days, so a 3 day trip that we booked is really 2 half days and 2 full days. What they don't tell you is that the airline has about a 50/50 chance of getting into Bella Coola due to weather. Since it needs to get in before it can leave, there's also a matching 50/50 chance of getting out via airplane. Helicopters can fly in slightly worse weather than airplanes, so you can extract your own odds on what the chances of flying/skiing/riding are versus sitting in the lodge. Bella Coola airport does not have an IFR approach for airplanes.

The back up plan is to land in Anahim Lake and drive via bus, which is about a 2 to 2.5 hour ordeal - see the pics below for shots of the bus chaining up. It's a pretty insane road down into the valley. This wipes out any opportunity of getting turns in on your arrival day. Which is what happened to us.

The weather can't be controlled, but the people in the marketing department could be a pinch more honest. The same people informed us there was lots of trees to ride on bad weather days. There wasn't. They'd gladed only one area that lasted 8 people about 2 hours. Then, that was it. The snowboarders (us) wanted to ride some of the non-gladed stuff and were told it was too tight. The trees around Bella Coola are unique to say the least. The snow line and tree line don't get along very well, so the trees with snow that isn't slush are very small. The big old growth trees lower down simply don't get cold enough snow to be usable.

This leaves virtually nothing to do but to wait for the weather to get good enough to fly with reference to the alpine. There's some very rugged stuff around, so the heli pilot is working harder than normal, but he manages, but then you're dropped off on a large alpine run in low light. Doesn't make for a fun run.

There was lots of other things, but who wants to hear complaints about a heli trip, right? They're all epic and I should be happy to be able to go. It was better than working and even better than riding a resort, but it could have and should have been so much more. They flat out refused to take us to other faces with more interesting terrain (we saw only one cliff the whole time and we got forced to repeat it 6 or 7 times! - see pic below), better light or ocean views. The last one I'm pretty bitter about. One of the unique things about their tenure is that it's on the ocean. You can see the ocean from some of their runs, or at least that's what you see in their marketing photos. All I wanted was a pic of me riding above the ocean. So did several others. We didn't care if the snow was crap like the guide claimed. The real reason was the longer flying time to get to that part of the tenure. They'd rather make profitable laps beside the airport.

One final complaint, and it's a big one. They tried to fuck us on vertical. After Day 1 (which was really day 2) they posted vertical and it was almost 30% higher than what we'd actually ridden. Their package includes 42,000 feet and after that it's $38 per 1,000 feet. Day 1 they claimed 16,200. My Suunto watch said 12,580 and my hand held GPS with barometric altimeter also reported similar. Adam and other guests also had similar numbers. 12,600 is what they corrected it to after I squawked. That's 3,600 feet (x 8 guests) = 28,800 feet, which using the $38 per 1,000 is almost $1,100 in revenue they attempted to steal! Steal is a strong word, but I see no other potential reason for the inflated vertical. Like every other heli operation I've been to, they record altitude and temperature each time the guide gets into or out of the heli. It's simple math to do.

Some of you might be thinking, well maybe they just transposed the digits - 12,600 is almost 16,200. If I'd gotten caught stealing, I would have used that excuse, but instead, the guide first tried to tell me the runs were 1,800 feet each (they weren't). Then he said he'd go check his numbers. He came back, apologized and said that the helicopter pilot forgot to reset his altimeter at the top of each run. I just let it slide because they already didn't like us snowboarders and if I made him look stupid in front of everyone, it would have went from bad to worse.

The only place a pilot is going to "reset" his altimeter would be when he knows the elevation or when he overflies an airport and obtains an altimeter setting. So our pilot (a former military rotary and fixed wing pilot - he was a member of the Snowbirds at one point in his career) would set his altimeter when leaving the airport as that's the only place he's certain of the actual correct elevation. There's no other airport within miles of Bella Coola and since the weather was crap all day, the pressure would have changed very little, if any during the 2 hours we were flying. Plain and simple, they got caught with their hand in the cookie jar and didn't want to fess up. We wound up with 52,000 feet over 5 days (we extended our stay in the hopes that a ridge of high pressure would arrive - it sorta did, but not really) Imagine that same 30% theft applied to even a modest vertical like 50K.... or if the weather was good and you bagged 100 or 150K That's over $1000 per guest - full helicopter of 12 and that's $12,000 stolen!

I think I said the same after the Mica trip, but this will be my last heli trip unless the upcoming 1 day private bird at RK turns out to be downright fucking amazing. Splitboarding and picking your own lines is so much better.

I'm still patiently awaiting the pictures from my Chimo's descent. I got on standby ($300 + 5% GST) at Powder Cowboy last Monday. Decent day overall. Epic snow, but a couple of weak links. Steep when they sat out, not so much when they didn't. 8 runs and about 10,000 feet (short day due to beacon practice in the morning) Way better than my first standby trip there, but I still wouldn't pay full pop for this place. Terrain is nice, but vertical is short. Lots of loading/unloading = wasted time and less vertical.

Google earth data is here

Adam and I are off to Bella Coola tomorrow. They've been getting pounded with snow and the 5 day forecast calls for snow/rain everyday. Rain's usually a dirty word, but the weather is from the town, which is pretty much sea level and their terrain is 5,500 to 9,500 feet, so up high that rain is snow.... the problem with 5 days of snow is the potential for down days though. Speaking with them, they are riding today with over a meter of fresh. I'm hoping the snow keeps us in the trees!

On a more somber note, my condolences to the family of the pilot. Much like the paying customers on board, he knew the "risks" associated with the helicopter. It's probably safe to say that he died doing what he loved. Every pilot I've met, rotary or fixed wing, positively loves their job. It's really not about the money for them. I also hope the staff are both ok. I can't recall his name, but the son of the owner of Purcell Heli was my guide a few days at Mica. He was a great guy and made the best of a very shitty Mica trip for me. He's the guide showing the yanks how to walk down through the powder in the video!

Life is full of risks - avalanches, heli crashes, and even random stuff falling from the sky. Don't forget falling shit too! What are you going to do? Live your life in fear? Or live your life to the fullest? Everyone dies, but not everyone fully lives.

I'm going riding, what will you do?

Seems everyone was injured, lazy or away today. I had ridden yesterday with Adam and Jeff at Castle. Almost two meters of snow in the past week made for epic inbounds conditions. It also made for super long lift lines. Connor and Kristjan made the trip down from Calgary and it seemed like everyone else in the city came too. I regretted not having the splitty there.

Today I slept in as I wasn't really sure if I was going out riding. Finally talked myself into going out and splitting at Castle solo. Planned on sticking to mellow treed terrain. Avalanche conditions are considerable and riding solo is sketchy. I made it out there for 11ish. Decided not to buy a lift ticket - I would skin from the parking lot.

I avoided the area boundary by heading along the x-country trails then started climbing. It was slow going as I was breaking trail the whole time. Finally reached the top of the chair and ran into an older skier who was also touring solo. We ended up climbing together with me breaking all the way - the skin track was drifted over in lots of places. Gained a ton of beta from him on the way up - he's been touring here for almost 25 years! We climbed right to the entrance of Chimo's. We talked about stability and then I decided to put a couple cuts into it. Felt really good. He wasn't going to follow me unless the need arose...

I dropped in and made a few tentative turns while picking my way through the little trees up top. The rest of the chute came into view quickly. I was getting ready to point it when the snow became a bit thin. I could hear the rocks scraping my base. I could also hear my heart beating too. Suddenly everything became perfect. The sun was poking through the clouds, the rugged cliff wall filled my peripheral, and the light, dry and abundant Rockies powder glistened as I carved through it. Not wanting to be exposed longer than I had to, I quickly picked up speed. Made a couple peeks over the shoulder, but all I could see was my track. Feeling ever more stoked I picked up more speed.

Slow down and enjoy it - I threw in a few turns and was greeted by the best white room ever.

Next thing I knew it I was done. Stood and admired my line and really regretted not having brought a camera. (The last time out the humidity generated from skinning had gotten the camera soaking wet. Some of the buttons don't work anymore)

The only "proof" I had was the gps data. Plenty of proof but having a photo would have been perfect. I changed into ski mode and skinned 5-10 minutes to the Cinch traverse where I came across a snowboarder building a massive cheese wedge. His name was Travis and he told me I was the first one down Chimo's this year. He also had a camera! Sweet! I posed for a couple of triumphant shots. I'll post them and the gps data when I get back(and when he emails them to me)

I've had a couple of amazing days and there's still tomorrow too. I found a cheap standby spot at Powder Cowboy. Should be epic given how much snow has fallen in the last week.

Edited to add link to Google Earth data