Arctic Heliskiing, Iceland, March 26-27, 2015

[TonyC]

After 10 days of Iceland weather I was not that optimistic about our time with Arctic Heliskiing March 25-28. There had been a deluge of overnight rain that washed away much of the snow in Myvatn where we stayed March 20-21. Despite new snow March 23 conditions were less than ideal at the lift-served Hlidarfjall area March 24. But after a down day March 25 with drizzle and occasional sleet at the lodge we had excellent skiing on March 26, by far our best day of the season. Yes, it’s the heli, but it doesn’t always turn out that way as evidenced by our time in Alaska last season.

Alaska is in many but not all ways the closest analogy to Iceland heliskiing. The mountains are treeless and offer big vertical runs. Terrain is less consistently steep but that offers more flexibility to ski the best snow most of the time. It’s very difficult to ski in bad light at this latitude, but Iceland’s weather is highly variable (the locals say if you don’t like the weather, wait 15 minutes) so multiday shutdowns are rarer than in Alaska. Terrain is vast, so often one sector will have good weather for flying while others are socked in. Arctic found good skiing on March 24 while we struggled with the flat light at Hlidarfjall. A 4-day package at Arctic includes the same 4 hours of heli flight time as a one week package at Points North in Alaska, so that says something about relative weather prospects. Customers are picked up at Akureyri airport, which is in the north of Iceland, a short flight or 4+ hour drive from the capital Reykvavik in the southwest. Ski terrain is mostly on the Troll Peninsula northwest of Akureyri.

Some maps:




The orange lines I drew approximate the ski terrain Arctic Heli can use. The red lines (northern one March 26 and southern ones March 27) approximate where we skied. The "Center of the Universe" X is at Akureyri and the nearby Hlidarfjall ski area. The "Sin City" circle in the southwest is Reykyavik. "Exit" is Keflavik International Airport.

For those who have not been to Iceland the orange area I marked may look small, but I can assure you it's vast. Having that large an area is important to maximize clear weather options. Terrain looks good everywhere; the key is finding decent visibility for flying and skiing. In our case we also needed to get above 2,000 feet for good snow, though sometimes the snow can be good all the way to sea level.

Closer view Google Earth map.




Orange and red lines same as before, pins for Hlidarfjall lift service and Arctic's lodge.

Arctic owner Jokull Bergmenn (JB) guided our group March 26, along with New Yorker Jamie and his 16-year-old son Michael. This was their first skiing this year, though Jamie had skied 4 times with CMH between 1989 and 1993 and Michael is a high school wrestler in excellent shape. Arctic is based in a valley south of Dalvik at the family sheep farm where JB grew up. We first flew down the valley past Dalvik.








Our landings this first day were generally between 4,000 and 4,500 feet. Temperature on top was -7C. There was sometimes wind up high but not much once we skied down a bit. Partway down the first run JB stopped to dig a pit. There had been 30-40cm new snow since the big rain March 21. There was some wind effect near the landings, but typically we would ski into more sheltered areas where softer powder had been deposited. JB and Liz partway down our first run.





Liz near our tracks farther down:





Around 2,000 feet the snow got heavier so I made more forceful turns to carve through it. But then it turned to rain crust and I took off like an unguided missile and eventually crashed. So I was forewarned for future runs to slow down as I approached lower elevations.

JB on our second run:





The terrain flattened near the landings, so the rain crust could be traversed with little difficulty.





Heli pickups need to be flat so it’s not uncommon to have some variable snow at the bottom of runs. But here it was only 15% or so of a 2,500 vertical run. And some of the later runs had pickups above the rain line so nearly all of the skiing was in powder.

Here’s Liz below the top of our third run, with the heli dropping the other group above.





More from third run:








The first 3 runs were south facing but the sun is not yet strong enough to affect the snow, and of course the visibility is better. Our fourth run dropped off the north side of where we had been skiing before:





JB and Jamie





Fifth run:








At the top of the 6th run we were met by some snowmobilers.





We posed for the view of Hrisey Island in the Eyjafyordur.





Arctic will also ski in the mountains across the fjord above Grenevik if weather is good there but not on the Troll Peninsula.
This was a long run down to lunch. Here JB puts tracks down the smooth center of a gully.





Here JB directs the heli to our lunch spot.





The other group on the long runout to lunch:





We ate lunch between 1 and 2PM, having already skied over 16K vertical since our 10AM start. Michael wondered if we could stay out as long as daylight lasted, which is about 8PM, though my guess at this time of year (based upon my first time in Alaska) would have been more like 6PM.

Our first run after lunch, Killer Sheep, had perhaps the best snow of the day.








Lamb is the primary agricultural product of Iceland, so many runs in this area have a sheep theme.





Here’s our 8th run, and it’s starting to get overcast.





The 9th and 10th runs were still good, but at 4PM JB decided to call it a day at 4PM as the light was getting flatter and posed a particular challenge for our last pickup in the rain crust.

We flew out from the lodge, but the other group flew back while we were picked up in a van near Dalvik. Dalvik has its own ski area with 2 surface lifts.





We finished the day with 24,100 vertical, about 2/3 of that in powder. This was new ground for Liz, more skiing than both days combined at Points North and 3x the vertical of her snowcat day at Wild Horse in 2013. I remarked that it was my 4th highest heli day out of 28 lifetime, and JB responded that often they ski much more. If snow is good to low elevation the runs can be 3,500 – 4,000 vertical instead of the 2,500 vertical runs we were skiing to stay in the best snow.

Later in the season there is a recurring group from Stowe.




They have skied as much as 82,000 vertical in a day.

[mrwaffles989]

Images are messed up, or my browser is. Can see the first couple. You tease. Wanna take one of those boat skiing trips down there sometime where they drop you off on the little dories.

[TonyC]

My apologies about pictures. I took a dinner break when some didn't load properly. I loaded the rest; most worked but a few did not. After careful inspection I finally found my typos and corrected them.

I'm not sure if Arctic ever uses boats to drop off/pick up ski touring groups. I know that is done by Lyngen Lodge at the northern tip of Norway. Up there much of the skiing is done on mountainous islands in the fjords.

[TonyC]

We got out half an hour later on Friday March 27 and skied the mountains closest to the lodge. It was slightly colder, -10C on top with more wind than Thursday. The lower terrain looks sketchy this season because most of the storms have come from the south with low elevation rain. Last year there was so much snow in the valley in March that the road was buried and guests had to be brought to the lodge from Darvik in the heli. What we couldn't see from the lodge is that these mountains go up to 5,000 feet, higher than the ones NW of Dalvik that we skied Thursday.

Today we skied with French Canadian guide Stefan. Our first 2 runs started on this long face on the east side with excellent snow.





The terrain mellowed out lower down but was still great skiing.



We crossed to the west side for our next 2 runs. Overview while in flight:



Liz and I wait while Michael skis some powder first. The vertical rock at upper right was a lava flow into a fissure that later crumbled away.



Powder tracks from 2 groups lower on third run:





Our 4th run had blown-in powder earlier in the week, but the wind was now strong in our faces, so Stefan had us picked up after only 1,500 vertical. We moved back to the east side of the valley, but the wind precluded a high landing so we were dropped at about 3,500 feet. Here’s a pic from low elevation not far from pickup.


The rain crust from Thursday was more supportable now and could be skied fluidly as long as visibility was decent. With sun and about 10 degrees warmer temperature this would all be corn.

The 6th run to lunch at 2PM lunch was similar. Upper section of that run:



Lower down there were scattered snow chunks, but enough room to avoid them.



We skied a similar 7th run after lunch but light deteriorated so we skied to the lodge and were done just after 3PM. Total for the day was 16,600 vertical with the early higher runs being at least ¾ powder but the lower later runs about half.

Jokull Bergmenn (JB) worked for Selkirk-Tangiers Heliskiing in Revelstoke for many years. It was run by the Swiss and had many European customers. In 2008 the new Revelstoke Mountain Resort bought Selkirk-Tangiers. The emphasis has shifted more to day skiers, though multiday packages are still available there and those skiers are separate from the day skiers. At this time JB returned to his family farm in Iceland and opened a ski touring lodge, adding heliskiing within a couple of years. The lodge accommodates 16-20 skiers, with a mix of heli and ski touring in March. We had 2 heli groups and 2 touring groups the first 2 days and a 3rd group of heliskiers arrived Thursday night for a week. Touring groups can be driven to trailheads or can pay for a heli drop into more remote terrain.

JB recruited other guides like Stefan from Selkirk-Tangiers, and Stefan works at both operations as Selkirk-Tangiers’ demand slows in March, which is the “early season” in Iceland. Arctic Heliskiing’s peak season is April/May with longer daylight and better weather, and they are still skiing higher elevation terrain in June. They tout their corn snow and big vertical, and can get powder on north facing and corn on sunny exposures at the same time. The lodge is usually filled with heliskiers in April/May and the ski touring then operates out of a second lodge near Darvik.

The lodge has a hot tub and sauna, and the family-style meals were excellent. We particularly enjoyed the fresh local lamb and fish. Overall Arctic Heliskiing was a memorable experience that we highly recommend. Customers are about 60% European and 40% from North America. Iceland is a 4 hour flight from the East Coast, at least as accessible for easterners as western Canada and far more accessible than Alaska.

We were in Iceland 15 days and there are numerous other attractions to see. On March 28 we skied 2 runs from the lodge that were constrained to low elevation by weather, followed by a hearty lunch of the Icelandic hashed fish. Then JB let us borrow a car to get to Akureyri airport early so we could start our marathon 2 day drive around the east and south sides of Iceland.

[spankthepow]

I'm not sure if Arctic ever uses boats to drop off/pick up ski touring groups. I know that is done by Lyngen Lodge at the northern tip of Norway. Up there much of the skiing is done on mountainous islands in the fjords.

Great TR! I actually skied with Stefan from April 5-9 on a boat trip. Looks like ya'll had way better conditions than we did. We experienced anything from rain to 60mph winds....I'll post a TR of my Iceland trip up here eventually.

Artic Heli Skiing = Bergmann Guides so yes, they do run boat trips out of the Western Fjords and Troll Peninsula

[LightRanger]

Very cool TR. Totally unaware that there was a heli op there (which makes sense because it sounds like it's pretty new).

Thanks for sharing.

[smmokan]

That's fucking awesome. I was in Iceland last summer and it's easily the coolest place I've ever been. To be able to heli ski there in the terrain you guys accessed is incredible.

[TonyC]

Great TR! I actually skied with Stefan from April 5-9 on a boat trip. Looks like ya'll had way better conditions than we did. We experienced anything from rain to 60mph winds....

It seems to me that touring groups should be willing to exercise the option of a once a day heli drop into a sector with better snow/weather, then skin/ski laps at higher elevation before descending into the sometimes more variable snow lower down just at the end of the day. None of the touring groups did that during my week, so I don't think they had great skiing with a prior rain/snow line ~1,500 feet above where they started climbing. Of course, they still were able to ski on the no-fly day.

[SILENCER]

Gorgeous, love it. Endless turns, and mountains that certainly have a unique look to them, unlike anywhere I've seen. Added to the (endless) bucket list...

[spindrift]

Very cool TR. Totally unaware that there was a heli op there (which makes sense because it sounds like it's pretty new).

Thanks for sharing.

JB runs a great operation at Arctic Heli. He pioneered heli skiing in Iceland and IIRC touring trips out on the Troll as well. Been doing it a while. I first skied there in 2012 & he'd been operating a while. Arctic Heli is just special. My favorite place. The farm is a great and friendly base of operations and the terrain is unlike anything else I've seen. JB and the guide crew are great - lots more guide/client interaction than most other places I've been. Even down days have crazy cool uniquely Icelandic things to do.

A couple newer operations have been trying to spin up -- but for a variety of reasons I'd strongly favor Arctic Heli.

I thought I posted some of this here, but did not readily find it using the fine local search function.... Here is a TR from epic posted after the 2012 trip.... http://www.epicski.com/t/112281/icel...mid-april-2012

The season after that I wrecked my knee and had to cancel on a repeat visit. Thus I missed a first that may never be repeated. Now the top of my skiing bucket list. ... My spouse wisely kept her seat.... On her last day, the stars aligned and they did what they called the "grand tour" and ran south to the interior mountains. They skied some seriously cool stuff. Notably Herdubreid and Askja. I damn near cried sitting there in my brace when I saw the pics come through. Here is a description and some images in a bucket list thread - again - at epic http://www.epicski.com/t/120634/ulti...0#post_1594365 And here's a video she put together...



I managed a return visit last year. I don't have access to most of the pics at the moment - but here's a boot selfie taken after skiing down to the Arctic Ocean. That's the north end of the Troll out over my boots. The arctic circle is about 20 or 30 or so miles to my right.



Like Tony said - the scale of terrain they fly is just huge - even "just" on the Troll. When they get over to the Gold Coast and Hidden Land on the next peninsula east, it is just massive.

[TonyC]

Impressive reports by spindrift, especially that amazing "grand tour." I think spindrift may have the right idea, scheduling in April for more daylight/better visibility. Our timing was determined because we were in Iceland on a tour that included a flight to the March 20 total solar eclipse. http://betchartexpeditions.com/europe_iceland2015.htm

[garyfromterrace]

Thanks for posting TonyC! Who knew?