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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Apr 2009
    Location
    Cordova, Alaska
    Posts
    157

    Whats up with the new Kenai Heli Ski Operation??

    Purely curious about this as I have property in Homer and own / operate PNH in Cordova.

    The web site has WPG contact info (they have no idea why) along with Selkirk Tangiers contact info (they have no idea why) and another contact number for some travel agent in Virginia (they have no idea why).

    I then go to the owners site and see a fella named Njord.

    He claims:
    Njord Rota
    Owner

    Njord is unique in the heli-ski community, in that he is the only professional ski guide and professional helicopter pilot in the business. Njord started his skiing guiding career in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, exploring the northern Alps and working as a Ski Patroller before eventually becoming a helicopter pilot in the US Army. He culminated his piloting career as an experimental helicopter test pilot with Lockheed Martin before returning to his guiding roots in Colorado. Somewhere in there Njord also managed to squeeze-in a career as a professional whitewater kayaker, publishing Kayak Magazine, competing, and teaching scores new paddlers. When Njord is not busy running Kenai Heli Ski, he’s teaching avalanche courses in the winter and high-altitude helicopter mountain flying in the summer. Njord speaks fluent German.

    This is not correct. Christian Cabinella needs to chime in here. He is and still is the only heli ski guide turned pilot in AK. Cab is the man. Currently flies for ERA and has worked for just about every op in AK as a guide.

    So anyhow, not to case or bag on Njord here but, I believe he is a member on this forum and curious his take on all of this.

    As stated, I am purely curious but if your are the one starting a heli op, at very least be honest with folks and do not claim things that are not even close nor should you have anyone else's contact info but your own on your site.

    I do wish you luck. Its not an easy business. Homer is a cool place.

    Kevin Quinn
    Owner / Points North Heli
    Last edited by PointsNorth; 07-09-2012 at 02:07 PM.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Apr 2011
    Location
    Salt Lake City/New Hampshire
    Posts
    966
    I'm also very interested in this. I stay in Kenai every year for a few weeks in January and we've been hearing rumblings from neighbors about the new heli op. Everyone wants to know whats going on considering we will be up there again this year and hopefully for many to come.

    All the points above are sounding sketchy. Especially the part about the fake contact info.

    Here is the website for anyone curious.

    http://kenaiheliski.com

    Best of luck to Kevin and the folks at Points North. I've had a few friends go out on trips with you guys and they've given rave reviews. You seem like a great group of guys.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Apr 2006
    Location
    Bravo Delta.
    Posts
    6,135
    One of the guides has the same name as a Lord of the Rings character...and kind of looks like him too...




    Tom Bombadill
    Guide

    Tom originally hails from Montreal, where he learned big-wave kayak surfing on the famous Lachine waves and ski racing on the rock-hard slopes of Mont-Sainte-Anne. His kayaking took him to the other side of Canada, where the steep rivers and the fluffy powder convinced him to give up his French (but not his accent) and relocate. That was 30 years ago and Tom continues to share his love for powder skiing with our guests. Tom has completed the prestigious Canadian Avalanche Association (CAA) Level II course and the Association of Canadian Mountain Guides Ski Guide certification. He spends his summers serving pancakes out of his ’73 VW Bus at Presidents of the United States concerts.
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Bombadil

    Quote Originally Posted by Socialist View Post
    They have socalized healthcare up in canada. The whole country is 100% full of pot smoking pro-athlete alcoholics.

  4. #4
    Hugh Conway Guest
    Oh, I love maggot on maggot callout threads.

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Dec 2007
    Location
    HATU.
    Posts
    430
    my new avitar!! great luck kids! cheap safe great !!!
    "I, the undersigned,
    shall forfeit all rights, privileges, and licenses herein
    and herein contained, et cetera, et cetera . . . fax mentis
    incendium gloria culpum, et cetera, et cetera . . . memo bis
    punitor delicatum!" It's all there, black and white, clear
    as crystal! You stole Fizzy Lifting Drinks. You bumped
    into the ceiling which now has to be washed and sterilized,
    so you get nothing! You lose! Good day, sir!

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Sep 2005
    Location
    S.L.T.
    Posts
    743
    Quinner has my vote. No idea of this other Operation. But I did hear that guy Bilek it the Shit! I will pay double to fly with that guy! (If I afford afford it)
    Quote Originally Posted by Conundrum View Post
    I'm the most extreme skier in my office. I'll see your III and raise you one level of radness.

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Dec 2006
    Location
    Colorado
    Posts
    195
    So I was just looking around on their website and a lot of the names look kind of fishy...Can't wait to go learn to ski the steeps with Johnny Huckgnar.

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Sep 2010
    Location
    Revelstoke
    Posts
    1,543
    This does looks kind of fishy. interested in seeing a response
    Webisodes, Blogs, Words and Photos all right here-------->www.chasingsnowflakes.com

  9. #9
    Hugh Conway Guest
    man, its like a list of bandwagon douches. fuck this place is stupid. You can PM the dude if you want. Or you can be a grandstanding douche and look like a douche PointsNorth. Assholes heliski and assholes runheliskiing. Now burn me again pointsnorth about how fucking great $2k for skiing in is AK.

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Oct 2005
    Posts
    11,737
    Looks like he changed his bio. Maybe just a bit over-zealous with his characterization of being the "only." Kevin, you may know who was the first, but how could you know who was the "only?"

    No denigration of either outfit, just my .02. As you were.

  11. #11
    Join Date
    Apr 2009
    Location
    Cordova, Alaska
    Posts
    157
    Quote Originally Posted by Hugh Conway View Post
    man, its like a list of bandwagon douches. fuck this place is stupid. You can PM the dude if you want. Or you can be a grandstanding douche and look like a douche PointsNorth. Assholes heliski and assholes runheliskiing. Now burn me again pointsnorth about how fucking great $2k for skiing in is AK.
    Wow...Really? Interesting. Betting you would not say that standing in front of me. Pretty easy to hide behind an avatar and claim BS. Maybe you could elaborate on your "Burn". My apologies if thats how you feel.

    I did send him a PM and spoke to Njord yesterday. Seems like a nice guy. My post was purley curious and the fact the site in questions had several remarks that left me in question, I addressed it.

    Hugh- Almost 12,000 posts here...wow. What else do you do??

    Your 2K comment? Its about as good as it gets.

    Who is Hugh Conway anyhow? Come out from behind that avatar...

    Quinner

  12. #12
    Join Date
    Apr 2009
    Location
    Cordova, Alaska
    Posts
    157
    Hugh- After looking at all of the bogus BS threads you have started on here, it all makes sense now. Betting your 12 years old and left at home all day.

  13. #13
    Join Date
    Mar 2007
    Location
    Glenwood Springs
    Posts
    887
    I took my Avy 1 with a Njord in Colorado a few years back. Musta been him, how many Njords teaching Avy courses can there be.

    Edit: Just looked at the page. I took my class with Njord and Chad. It was a good Avy 1 course. Not that it has any bearing on the heli ski operation.

  14. #14
    Join Date
    May 2002
    Posts
    33,440
    Anyone who's been around Tahoe for a while might remember the fraudulent debacle of High Sierra Heliskiing perpetuated by one Harry Vested. He did a website, printed hats and shirts, took payments for an unknown but presumably significant number of customers at $1,000 each and had no intent of ever flying. Shit, Vested even conned one of the DesLaurier bros into being part of it and got Sugar Bowl to cut him a $50K check on the promise he'd use the resort as a base of operations. I'm familiar with it all because I outed Vested in a Powder story and scared him into returning Sugar Bowl's $50K. We published Vested's mug shot with the article after he was arrested for that and a bunch of other shit he pulled.

    Maybe this is an echo of that particular heliskiing boondoggle for Quinner, because an operation like that can leave a bad taste for heliskiing with the general public, ie, people who would otherwise have no problem laying down the coin to go to any of the heli ops in AK or anywhere else. A funkyass Bilbo Baggins-laced website might seem cute to do while getting a safety plan and area of op squared away, but it does nothing for the reputation of serious heli operations anywhere. For these reasons, I can understand Quinner's concern.

    Here's a small piece of the High Sierra Heliskiing story:

    http://www.tahoedailytribune.com/art...GION/106050156

  15. #15
    Join Date
    Oct 2006
    Location
    Uber Alles California
    Posts
    3,933
    Isnt Happy doing some flying down there now?

  16. #16
    Join Date
    Apr 2004
    Location
    cordova,AK
    Posts
    3,688
    apparently they do not even know where they are located. Guaranteed 100,000'. I guess the people of Seldovia didn't embrace them warmly. Quick let's find an operation sitting idle due to a tragedy and rent it . We can be Chugach experts over night. $7500 for 4 days and you too can stand on top of some Chugach line with your guide for the first time. But hey guaranteeing 100,000' in 4 days.
    http://kenaiheliski.com/reservations/
    off your knees Louie

  17. #17
    Join Date
    Sep 2001
    Location
    Golden
    Posts
    6,383
    Quote Originally Posted by BFD View Post
    apparently they do not even know where they are located. Guaranteed 100,000'. I guess the people of Seldovia didn't embrace them warmly. Quick let's find an operation sitting idle due to a tragedy and rent it . We can be Chugach experts over night. $7500 for 4 days and you too can stand on top of some Chugach line with your guide for the first time. But hey guaranteeing 100,000' in 4 days.
    http://kenaiheliski.com/reservations/
    From what I hear, this pretty much nailed it. Run out of Seldovia, jumped into to Rendezvous's spot to compete in the Valdez scene.
    Drive slow, homie.

  18. #18
    Join Date
    May 2007
    Location
    Juxtaposition
    Posts
    5,733
    I met a guy who spoke a lot about this. Interesting to see the follow through.
    Life is not lift served.

  19. #19
    Join Date
    Jun 2007
    Posts
    180
    I'm from homer, and grew up skiing the mountains around seldovia. I have heard next to nothing about these guys. I haven't seen any of their heli's, nor do I know where their permit allows them to fly. There is some super cool terrain around seldovia, but what's new in Alaska. Almost all of the mountains in ak are incredible, and there is so much terrain just waiting to be discovered. I haven't found much spine type stuff over there, but I guess I'm a bit more limited hiking around. Lots of awesome steeps, just not quite as much snowfall as other areas in ak. Curious to see how they do.

  20. #20
    Join Date
    Oct 2006
    Location
    Uber Alles California
    Posts
    3,933
    Im booking private heli for a week. $70,000.00 no bigge. It says I don't need to bring my own gear!!! Thompson pass has jumped the shark.

  21. #21
    Join Date
    Nov 2002
    Location
    Eagle River Alaska
    Posts
    10,964
    I think they never got their permits, people in homer made a stink.

    Seldovia would be a cool place for a cat operation, if the snow was good.
    Its not that I suck at spelling, its that I just don't care

  22. #22
    Join Date
    Sep 2001
    Location
    JH
    Posts
    1,342
    Splat, Looks like vested is getting ready to strike again. A quick google search pulls up some interesting info. He is rolling around registering at 100s of forums. He is clearly trying to bury the negative press as well as the commentary here. He is listed as starting the gravity collection. I wonder who his next victims are going to be.
    https://www.google.com/search?q=harr...iw=768&bih=928

    Here is his seo copy for registration:
    Harry Vested Gravity Collection Community.......!!!
    Harry Vested Gravity Collection Community.......!!!Hi, friends I am new to this site but heard a lot for this site from my friends.
    I am here to communicate to make new friends with the members of this forum and i also
    would like to share my experiences with you all.


    All Thanks: Harry Vested Gravity Collection

    Splat, you should start an investigative story based on this info and see if You cant find the next watergate.
    "Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention to arrive safely in a pretty and well-preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming: Wow!!! What a ride!"


    "We been runnin' these goddam hills for dang near, huh?"
    Sturgis Uncensored

  23. #23
    Join Date
    Oct 2004
    Posts
    869
    Regarding the original post, there are a couple of ski guide/heli pilot types in BC. as well.

  24. #24
    Join Date
    Oct 2006
    Location
    Uber Alles California
    Posts
    3,933
    I've actually heard dude is somewhat legit but his op uses a smaller less safe heli. His claims for vert and whatnot seem suspect
    Hello darkness my old friend

  25. #25
    Join Date
    Apr 2008
    Location
    In the mountains
    Posts
    118
    You could just give me a call at (970) 315-0584 and find out what the real deal is...
    "I'm looking pretty good, don't you think?" - the other says "watching you ski is like watching a retarded monkey rollerblade on a gravel road"

    www.majesticheliski.com

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