JUST SAY HELI-YES

By Mike Calabrese

When Jon Shick bought High Mountain Heli-skiing five years ago, he’d already developed a connoisseur’s appetite for skiing untracked cold smoke. Shick had also filled a backcountry calendar that would drive any powderhound to distraction. 

"I think I went twelve years without missing a day of heli-skiing," he recalls. Shick’s fifteen winters as the company’s lead guide and avalanche forecaster suit him well as he steers High Mountain Heli-skiing into its 28th season.

Heli-skiing is skyrocketing, and there isn’t a skier anywhere who can’t grasp the reason: snow, fresh snow - and tons of it. Mountain ranges of it, to be more precise. "There is an increasing interest in the availability of powder snow," Shick notes, "and backcountry terrain requires very little snow to freshen it up and cover the previous day’s tracks."

Shick’s helicopters, state-of-the-art Bell 407s, convey skiers and boarders into some of the region’s finest forest and glades. Powderhounds can rack up 12,000 to 15,000 vertical feet in the stunning terrain of the Bridger-Teton and Caribou-Targhee forests, alpine grandeur that transfixes even the locals. The Snake River and Palisades ranges and portions of the Hoback, Teton, and Gros Ventre mountain ranges lure plenty of local backcountry enthusiasts, but few can reach the untouched vastness where High Mountain’s pilots transports its clients. And the choppers, faster, quieter, and safer than ever, offer a view that the earthbound can only imagine.

Each HMH guide, trained in outdoor emergency care, CPR, and avalanche hazard forecasting and mountain rescue, rounds out every group of five skiers. Because the terrain ranges from intermediate to expert, skiers and boarders should be at the advanced level.

But, thanks to fat skis, non-powder skiers can tackle terrain far more easily than in heli-skiing’s early years. "The Rossignol Haute Route (from the early 80s) really set the stage for shorter, wider skis," Shick recalls. "The new skis work better on a wider variety of terrain," he adds. Which means the learning curve is keeping up with the ventures into new ski country that High Mountain Heli-skiing affords.

Editor Mike Calabrese is also a teacher and musician who owns Noteworthy Music Agency, the region’s premier booking agency.

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