Avalanche Footage - Airbag Save - 3/14/14 - North Coast Heli Skiing BC

[powdork]

I can't get this question out of my head: if the operator offers partial refunds for too little vert, what do they do for customers caught in a slide?

solid point. does vertical you were carried in the slide count?

[Shadam]

the heli co's have been having a difficult season in these parts. high avy danger at all elevations is still a big concern, as it has been since the first flakes fell. a poor start to the seasons snow pack in every way. then on shity vis days, where can they ride? limited terrain options. we have so much big terrain we cant play on this year. if it aint got alota trees, it sketchy to say the least.

I can't imagine the pressure on guides and management at these op's ...

yesterdy I got a 360 degree avy. a big bowl, wall to wall ...

[stalefish3169]

When the rotor is turning the $$$ is burning.

Technically the rotors could be spinning while the heli is on the ground and the Hobbs gauge wouldn't be going up. It only goes up when the pilot pulls pitch. The company might pay a little bit for fuel while idling, but the clients probably won't. And most ops would rather keep the blades spinning on the ground rather than shutting down. Engine starts are really hard on the turbines and if the aircraft is leased they may only get a set number of starts per hour before surcharges are incurred.


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[pfluffenmeister]

^^^ was this outfit charging based on Hobbs hours?

That seems to be the way to go from a clients perspective.


@ OP: happy that your sister is okay.
Sounds like really poor slope management.

[stalefish3169]

I don't know about the company in question. Generally only advanced groups wishing to go big game hunting pay using Hobbs in AK. First timers are typically better off going by run or vert.

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[spook]

i think in addition to airbags they need to develop jet packs that allow the skier -- i mean, it seems 80-20 skiers/boarders getting caught in avalanches -- to outrun the avalanche.

oh yeah, and i couldn't see shit in the video.

[newbreak]

i think in addition to airbags they need to develop jet packs that allow the skier -- i mean, it seems 80-20 skiers/boarders getting caught in avalanches -- to outrun the avalanche.

Good idea until you release the hounds while off balance and go either deeper into the slide, decapitate yourself on a tree limb or go flying off into oblivion 1400' in the air.

[spook]

Good idea until you release the hounds while off balance and go either deeper into the slide, decapitate yourself on a tree limb or go flying off into oblivion 1400' in the air.

yeah but you still didn't get buried. of course such a setup would include automatically deployed wings and tail to send you up up and away

[NoBama]

Until that last day, I thought most of the guides were pros. But the owner/head-guide was a total JONG show despite supposedly being a guide for 30 years. That day, it was all about the money.

After the slide he left us in the debris field for 2 hours while the rest I the guests went skiing. After we finally made it back to the lodge the employees avoided us like the plague for 5 hours until we left for the airport. My father had been in the lodge with a sprained ankle and in the 3 hours between the avalanche and our arrival, he hadn't been told there was an incident. He asked the owner why he had to hear about it from a guest and the guy was a total a-hole. No checking in on the girl they'd almost just gotten killed, no explanation of what happened.

The owner was all money and no safety that day in my opinion.

[spook]

we need more decapitations anyway. you can't look away. you can never forget.

[DasBlunt]

Until that last day, I thought most of the guides were pros. But the owner/head-guide was a total JONG show despite supposedly being a guide for 30 years. That day, it was all about the money.

After the slide he left us in the debris field for 2 hours while the rest I the guests went skiing. After we finally made it back to the lodge the employees avoided us like the plague for 5 hours until we left for the airport. My father had been in the lodge with a sprained ankle and in the 3 hours between the avalanche and our arrival, he hadn't been told there was an incident. He asked the owner why he had to hear about it from a guest and the guy was a total a-hole. No checking in on the girl they'd almost just gotten killed, no explanation of what happened.

The owner was all money and no safety that day in my opinion.

WOW, this brings this down to the extreme Scary level…..

[old goat]

Is there any reason to think that heli skiing would be any safer than other backcountry skiing in similar terran? Sure--guide experience and the opportunity to observe the snowpack over time should decrease risk, but as multiple incidents have shown, experience and familiarity can also lead to overconfidence, and if you add in the profit motive and the pressure from clients who are ill-informed and have paid a lot of money, it seems like at best heli-ops would be at best no safer. Of course actual statistics would me more valuable than my wild speculation, but then who collects statistics and are all heli-op incidents reported, particularly those that don't involve death or serious injury?

[userA]

she got lucky
b

[theshredder]

anyone who takes money from people who are inexperienced, not physically fit, and not great at skiing to take them into terrain like that are definitely asking for trouble.

quit while you're ahead brah. You couldnt pay me enough to hang with you and your sis in the backcountry

[NoBama]

Care to elaborate on that? You have no idea what our experience is. My sister is an junior Olympian and a champion racer and can freeski with the best skiers in the world. I'm no slouch either -

I'm not going to get in a pissing match with some kook on the internet. I posted that video so people could be reminded to be careful out there and to show a rare save by a piece of new technology. Careful before you insult us - we did nothing but follow the guided - and i did question his decision to ski that slope.

[theshredder]

Relax. I'm not in the market for the heli-ski experience. You found out why, first hand.

You signed some waivers right? There's a reason - its because, just like pretty much every science, avi science is far from an exact science. Accidents happen to the best people out there. Just browse the slide zone threads for proof... extremely experienced guides at reputable ops get fucking killed sometimes.

That was a partial burial from a small slide. It didn't step down, or cause any sympathetic triggers elsewhere in the area. If I were the guide I would not exactly have been happy about having to take you all out on that slope that day, but hey, you paid big bucks and they wanted you to have a good time. That's the balancing act all heli ski ops need to maintain. Its a risky fucking business - and as they say, don't hate the player, hate the game. There was very little chance of anyone getting killed that day, and no one did, or even got hurt.

In my opinion you got exactly what you paid for - an experience you can share with the gran kids..

[Shadam]

heli sking is so last year ...

here at the ratbagger lodge we get pow n enjoy 2 sports ...

[XXX-er]

[QUOTE=old goat;4214878]Is there any reason to think that heli skiing would be any safer than other backcountry skiing in similar terran? QUOTE]

Load up the hell of a copter with a bunch of type A folks who have paid the big money, want the stuff they seen in the Warren Miller movie last fall, land on terrain they didn't ski UP so how do you know what you are skiing down? The guides don't really know either, not like if they had skied up it, aviy science is not an exact science but IMO heli skiing is MORE of a crap shoot

Winning comps or races is not back country savy its just sking really really good the one time we got mixed in with a heli op coming out of a BC hut I would say the heli skiers had the opposite of BC savy ... they just had the money to not have to ski uphill

Something a buddy was telling me last fall which i found very Ironic was that his work schedule this winter was gona be so good he wouldn't have to guide heli skiing, same guy has been heard to say heli skiing is like eating too much ice cream ... it makes you sick

That run would have been tlked about/planned and cleared in the guides meeting to ski so someone was gona ski it, in spite of the big aviy danger ... everybody who got on the chopper wanted to ski

[Kenny Satch]

glad your sister is OK but I have to ask why you didn't you b-line it to your sister's side ?

[NoBama]

Good question. I was a little closer than it appears in the video - fisheye lense or something. You can't hear on the footage but I could hear her plain as day. She was saying she was fine and the guys were digging her out. It was more just a relief that she was ok. I was looking at this giant churning river of debris trying to spot a ski or a pole - then all of a sudden she's

[NoBama]

fine and saying she's ok and I injured. Hard to describe. Adrenaline was going and I just had to take some breaths once I could see she was fine.