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Whistler Heli-Skiing
Category: Hotels & Travel Ski Resorts Ski Resorts [Edit]
4545 Blackcomb WayWhistler, BC V0N 1B4
(604) 905-3337
3 reviews for Whistler Heli-Skiing
3 reviews in English
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Review from Frank V.
4/18/2011
The best phone call you will never get...
On the morning you are scheduled to fly, you will receive a phone call between 7:45am and 8:am if you are not going to fly that day. Luckily for us that call never came.
After meeting at the main office we met our guide, John at the warming hut just a short walk from the Whistler base area. Shortly there after we were on a 10 min van ride to the heli port. There we were all issued avalanche transceivers and basic avalanche rescue techniques along with helicopter entry and exit procedures plus do's and do not's.
We chose the 6 run ultimate package. Two of my friends and myself (snowboarders) were joined by another well experienced snowboarder plus our guide. We were sharing a A-Star with two other groups. The helicopter ride and the riding was unreal I don't have to sell that part. However it was well worth the extra $$$ to have a smaller group of more experienced riders in a smaller faster heli. All told for the day we made 9 runs and 18,000 vert feet for the day. Some of the runs were shorter and while we did pay for one more run we feel we got our moneys worth. Having to wait for each individual person to go down separately (to reduce the possibility of multiple people being caught in a slide) our waiting time for us to continue or riding at a faster pace was reduced significantly, vs.a 10 person heli.
The office staff, guide and pilot everyone was friendly and professional. While expensive you do in this case get what you pay for.
Just hope you don't get that call the next morning...
one more tip: book your flight early in your trip so if you get bumped you have other days to fall back on. -
Review from Pete S.
Vancouver, BC
6/17/2010
I have flown with Whistler Heli two times over the past three years, and while i had an amazing time (it's heli-skiing after all), i wouldn't say that whistler heli is your best option in or around Whistler. Whistler Heli is owned by Whistler-Blackcomb, which means that it caters to mostly non-locals who want to drop a lot of cash for the 'full mountain experience'.
Whistler Heli flys an enormous Bell 212 birds that fit 10 people. this means that you have a big group size and you need to ski at the level of the slowest skiier. We were in the expert group and the terrain was never challenging whatsoever.
My one other beef is that both times i flew with whistler heli, i was skiing in the spearhead range, which one can reach as an easy day-trip from blackcomb. i would have liked to go exploring somewhere far off where i couldn't easily get to myself.
other than that, it's heli skiing. you get tons of vertical, great snow, panoramic views and a shit-eating grin that won't leave your face until two days later.
if you're a punter in town for a week with a bunch of cash to drop, give whistler heli a go. if you're a local or a ski bum who has been saving all year for the ultimate day in the pow pow, do a heli-drop on rainbow mountain of check out the locals deal at Coast Range Heli. -
Review from Mischa I.
3/2/2009 1 photo
If you're thinking about it, du it. If you ever thought about it in the past, du it. And if you think you might think about it, possibly, in the future - get'er done.
The crew is great. We started off the day with basic avalanche training, everyone gets a beacon and they basically make sure you know the do's and dont's in case something happens. Next up we spent ten minutes talking about helicopter safety rules; since we mostly did hot-pickups I advise one pay particular good attention to those.
Within 2 hours of meeting up, we were on top of our first glacier. Nothing but sky, infinite snow, sun, and absolutely NO tracks of any skiers and riders ... anywhere.
One of the best experiences of my life. Period.
