Helicopter Skiing In
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Andrew Miller photo, courtesy SEABA
Tom Evans photo, courtesy Kenai Heli Ski
magine you’re a passenger in a helicopter, zooming through Alaska’s wild, majestic peaks. Your eyes fill with iconic ski terrain, the super-sized powder bowls and gargantuan chutes. You’re living in a skier’s dream with a broad spectrum of incantations, from mellow visions of powder runs to stark, ski-movie-style spines and faces. These five Alaskan heli-ski companies – each with its own unique twist – can deliver this skier’s dream to you. If you’re a strong intermediate skier who loves and respects the mountain environment, you have everything you need.
A peaceful landing zone in evening light; Kenai
Alaska Rendezvous Heli-Guides
“If you can ski Jackson Hole’s Hobacks, its Lower Faces and Rendezvous Bowl, you can ski the Alaskan Chugach,” Alaska Rendezvous HeliGuides founder Theo Meiners once said. Meiners discovered this from a lifetime of experience. The 33-year veteran of the Jackson Hole Ski School and 18-year Alaskan ski guide had strong ties to both places. He chose ‘rendezvous’ as his company name because of those roots. “Alaskan fur trappers still hold traditional rendezvous,” he said, “just as the fur trappers did in Jackson’s Hole in the 1800s. The name applies perfectly.” The newly remodeled Alaska Rendezvous Lodge sits in prime heli-ski country on Thompson Pass, 50 miles northeast of Valdez, Alaska. “We did a big remodel on the restaurant and bar,” Meiners said last summer. “We built a 14foot ceiling that mirrors the mountain landscape. We’re very proud of that.” That pride and joy will stay in the family as
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Theo’s daughter and son, Alexandra and Aidan, take the helm. Both have been fully involved in the operation for several years and are committed to its future, as are the outfit’s veteran staff of guides, chefs, and hospitality personnel. Theo Meiners drilled his guide staff with an intensity that has become his legacy. “Our impeccable safety record is a result of our extensive guide training, protocols, and procedures,” he once stated. “Staying safe is what the Rendezvous is built on.” Alaska Rendezvous veteran guide Dave Miller, who began his 9-year tenure guiding skiers on Thompson Pass as Doug Coombs’ first hire in 1993, said, “We’ve got a tremendous depth of experience with our guide staff – lots of senior guides and some younger ones with excellent qualifications and deep family roots.” The lodge and heli-base occupy a unique geographic position in the Chugach – the legendary Blue Hole. As storms clear from the north, the massive Mount Billy Mitchell adjacent to the
lodge is often the first to gather those blue skies. That gives Alaska Rendezvous Heli-Guides and their clients an early lift-off. Outside the lodge’s front door sit the ‘front nine’ – pyramid-shaped north faces and long slopes that provide 5,200-vertical-foot runs. In a week, clients ski about 40 runs and 200,000 vertical. Some of the biggest hits in the area are the Rendezvous’ patron mountains: Billy Mitchell, Happiness, and Fork It In. And, as everyone knows, Alaska gets snowstorms like Florida gets hurricanes. The average snowfall at sea level is 350 inches, and on Thompson Pass is 600-to-700 inches, with 1,200 inches in some years. After a day of skiing all that powder, clients can relax in the comfortable lodge. Magnificent chefs from Telluride and Jackson Hole prepare a delicious, diverse menu of Continental Cuisine w w w. f o c u s p r o d u c t i o n s . c o m