One Of The Fastest Growing Sports Is Heli Skiing

By Pete Malcolm


Downhill snow skiing is one of the recreation activities that has been and still is popular with active people. It can simply be described as a leisure activity that involves using skis to travel over snow that has accumulated on the slope of hills and mountains. Most skiers enjoy the sport at ski resorts that have ski runs or areas where people take turns coming down the slopes and return to the top via ski lifts or gondolas. But there is a variation of snow skiing that brings the sport for those that have some experience to exciting new levels.

First introduced in 1965 in Canada by Hans Gmoser heli-skiing has become more and more popular every year. Mr. Gmoser was the first man to start using helicopters to transport skiers who wanted the opportunity to ski in the Rocky Mountains. The first participants were professional athletes who were in training. Due to advancements in technology and evolution of helicopters, using them as transportation for skiing to remote natural locations has become simpler these days. With the help of trained guides and helicopter pilots, a skier can enjoy the ultimate rush of the adrenaline and skiing conditions.

It was first introduced in 1965 in Canada by Hans Gmoser. He was the first man to start using helicopters to transport skiers who wanted the opportunity to ski in the Rocky Mountains. The first participants were professional athletes who were in training. Due to advancements in technology and evolution of helicopters, using them as transportation for skiing to remote natural locations has become simpler these days. With the help of trained guides and helicopter pilots, a skier can enjoy the ultimate rush of the adrenaline and skiing conditions.

Heli skiing started in Canada and this country holds about 90 percent of the global market share. The mountain topography and the snowpack are some of the other factors that have made heli skiing popular. The actual snow conditions that can be experienced vary from powder or the corn snow to the most complicated snow such as the breakable wind crust. Hence, an individual who wants to heli ski in Canada should know that these conditions vary from run to run due to the wind, the solar effects and the time of year. Every year more and more people are taking part in the incredible opportunities that heli skiing provides. Most practicing lovers of the sport find that once they have tried heli skiing that is the only kind of skiing they ever want to do.

A large part of the popularity of this sport is that heli skiing has a large environmental component. Skiing down natural mountain terrains let the skier experience diverse conditions all of which are entirely natural and located in remote mountain regions that have rarely been visited. The runs differ from glaciers to alpine bowls, steep slides to gladed trees. In some occasions you will find the heli ski run that might be near to 10.000 feet long and the sometimes go up to 3,000 meters in vertical relief. However, the average runs that experienced skiers make are up to 2,000 feet or 700 meters. And that is still a skiers' ultimate dream run.




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