History of Alaskan Helicopter skiing??

[Evil E]

Can someone point me towards some articles/books or other media on this subject? Im interested in the pioneers. Who started flying around and skiing these untamed peaks? When did this begin? There has to be some good stories there.

[joshbu]

There may be a couple magazine articles, but AFAIK, there is no definitive history.

Hell the names of the peaks, the runs, and the first descents isn't even written down anywhere.

But, I would generally start by emailing: dougcoombs@blissnet.com

He knows more about this than just about anyone else...

edit: If you do find out any kewl stuff, let me know. I'm pretty interested as well...

[Max Gosey]

The Hedonist had some cool stuff on the beginnings in the late 80's and early 90's. Well the beginnings of the business... Don't know when the pioneers spawned, but that's about what I do know.

[splat]

Check out the article I did in Powder about six or seven years ago on Chet Simmons.

As well as a letter Griggs wrote to Powder around the same time about Coombs and the goodle daze.

[Superstar Punani]

Gotta love Coombs' pre-fat steeze in Continuum when he's laying down the jump turns on 207 MSLs

[Evil E]

splat... I vaguely remember the article. Chet was toting shotguns and there was a story about him losing part of his foot right? Can you PM me a copy or give me advice where to find one?

[splat]

That's the one, but I can't do it now. I'm working overtime (posting) and headed to NYC shortly. Call the mag and ask for a powder intern and he could probly find it pronto.
\sorry, dude, I'm just fukkin fried.

[Baconzoo]

I went up to Valdez in 93 by myself after hearing about it from Stephen Koch and John Griber. I hitched a ride from the airport from a guy who had a bong in his center console. The guy was there to pick up Terry Kidwell who I had met on the plane. We stopped by the Heli roadside to see whats up. We got an immediate ride to "Berlin Wall" which was my first Heli ride and without a safety breifing.
Later that week while drinking fireside with some kid named Adam and Craig Kelly, Adam walks away and Craig says, "Later MCA"
I WAS LIKE WHAT??? MCA??? Holy shit! MCA!

Don't get me started....some of what happens in Valdez should stay in Valdez.

[gonzo]

Craig Kelly, Adam Yauch, Terry Kidwell, and Baconzoo...now that is a party.

[grrrr]

Cat skiing started in 83 or 84 (?) on the Kenai, before there was any formal heli ops. As I recall, they were using an early 70's Bombi and charged the outrageous $100 for the day. Lasted only 2 seasons.

Some folks had been heli skiing prior to that on charter ships, but for the most part it was hike in at Thompson, Turnagain or Hatcher. Boy, we had some qual-i-ty telemark gear then, too.

Unfortunately, I left before the heli craze got off the ground.

[Hicks]

Originally posted by Evil E
When did this begin?

Only thing I can confirm for sure is that Tsaina Lodge operations began 1991. When I was up there they just started up. However don't know whether they were the very first.
Can also confirm some stories about Chet's shotgun-a 1906 (?) rifle with short barrel. We did some trap shooting across the road traffic- these guys were weird.
Lovely memories !

[bad_roo]

Originally posted by Baconzoo
Later that week while drinking fireside with some kid named Adam and Craig Kelly, Adam walks away and Craig says, "Later MCA"
I WAS LIKE WHAT??? MCA??? Holy shit! MCA!

Were you drinking Brass Monkey perchance?

[Hacksaw]

There was an ad in the December 2001 issue of Powder for Chugach Powder guides. The headline on the ad is, "Celebrating 30 years of powder." Under this headline there is a photo with a small Bell Sioux model helicopter (same type as in MASH), with skiers waving from the airborne helicopter and skis on the side of the machine. The caption of the photo reads; "Girdwood, Alaska Helicopter skiing 1957, photo courtesy of Anchorage Museum of History & Art."

So, it would appear that heliskiing in Alaska actually started in Girdwood and not Valdez.

Cheers,
Halsted

[sarge1957]

Hacksaw, you are right. Heli skiing in AK started in Girdwood, with a few other odd excursions in the AK mountains, up to when the modern era of heli skiing in Valdez in 1991. Right around the time of the first extreme skiing comp.

Anyone have any specific questions, I was on the first big descent in 1991, and was active in developing the area over the next 8 years. There truly are some great stories. There are also a few myths out there.

[Eiger]

Heli skiing actually goes back a long way in Alaska. This is what I know in a nut shell.

There was some chartered heli skiing around G-Wood in the the 60's before Alyeska Resort was even there. I think most of it was scouting for the ski area location. There are some photos of this in the restraunt at the top of Alyeska.

Some of the construction boys would also go heli skiing around G-Wood in the fall and spring when they had a heli in to set lift towers and things of this nature. This was going on in the seventies and eighties from the stories that I have heard.

There was also some heli skiing at Hatchers Pass and this is the first that I know of that the public could par-take in. It was very simple and was on a per lift basis. It went on for a few years in the mid to late eighties.

The Juneau boys - Griggs, Sean Dog the Gutes - would also charter helicopters from Temsco in the late eighties or early nineties and fly in their back yard. I know some of these stories are classic because I have heard some of them.

The modern state of heli skiing in AK started in Valdez in about 1990. This was through Mike Cozad and Chet. This seemed to be the brain child of Mike and his desire to put AK on the map and fill up the Tsania Lodge which he owned with Chet and one other I believe. Mike succeeded in getting the World Extreme Skiing Competition established and with it came the skiing legends the snowboarding legends and the media. These were the good old days and it was also on a per lift basis ($25 bucks a ride at first). You could go where ever you wanted as long as you knew the name of the peak and you could convince Chet that you could get down. There were also a few renegade ships in the area as the hype grew - most of these ended up in a pile of reckedge and it is amazing that nobady was ever killed. This craziness went on for several years until Coombs started his guide business. From there heli ops in Valdez started popping up all over the place and with it came rules, regulations and more standard heli skiing prices.

Things went mad in Valdez for several years. Then Cordova, Haines and Girdwood all got going as well. Today Valdez is not as big of a player at least from a media standpoint.

We have a ton of footage from the early days in Valdez and we have been thinking about doing a documentary on the whole thing because it is an incredible tale.

[Odin]

As far as I know.......

In Vaaaaaldez it is (in order of opened buisness).....

ABA - Don't know owners
Tsaina/Valdez Heli-Ski Guides - Doug Coombs (guide: Theo Miners)
H20 Heli Guides - Dean Cummings

Doug Leaves the buisness, Heli-ski guides goes to Scott Rainer who leaves Matt White to pick up the buisness, Theo goes into buisness for himself right before Coombs leaves buisness (if I remember correctly)

Alaska Rendezvous Lodge - Theo Miners
Valdez Heli-Camps - Matt White (Co-Worker: Scott Rainer)

Era Aviation used to provide helicopters to all the companies until the insurance costs proved to high for them to keep this "high risk" buisness on the books. Now all the companies use contracted help.

Heli-Camps and Points North Heli out of cordova use the same helicopter company, Northstar Trekking out of Juneau.

Rendezvous uses........ Evergreen? Stall you know for sure?
H20 uses a lower 48 company
Heli Ski Guides uses theirs from Coastal possibly?

[Baconzoo]

Originally posted by Tap
no, I think we should get you good and drunk and then get you talking!

spill it, dude!

Oh those TGR boys...
What shit have the pulled up there? Hummm
If those motorhome walls could speak...

I remember on an exit from Diamond we ran into Micah wearing some bright fagbag, we were like, "What are you doing out here by yourself?" I forget what his answer was, but he busted some sick swish turns on the way down.
Micah has to tell the bubble chopper story..

Some of the shiz you see up there is bizaro...

[splat]

ABA was Tom Thibideaux and Doug (what's his name) I forget.

Doug Brewer?

[Hacksaw]

Originally posted by sarge1957
Hacksaw, you are right. Heli skiing in AK started in Girdwood, with a few other odd excursions in the AK mountains, up to when the modern era of heli skiing in Valdez in 1991. Right around the time of the first extreme skiing comp.

I have this vage memory of a film that freestyle skier Cork Ward (I think that was his name) and a partner doing heliskiing in the Talkeetna Mountains of Alaska, in the early 70's. I think the moive was part of the TV show American Sportsman, but I'm not 100% sure.

A couple of years back I started doing research on an article about the history of heliskiing.

What I found was the first use of a helicopter to move people around in the mountains was during WWII. The Gremans used a Focke Achgelis Fa-223 helicopter to carry alpine troops around the Austrian Alps in September 1944. The Fa-223 couldn't hold very many passengers inside it (but it could lift a large size howitzer cannon), so the Germans welded tractor seats to framework that exstended out each side, that supported the two three bladed rotors. There where 2 pilots and 4 troops inside and 8 guys sitting outside on the tractor seats. It had a nine-cylinder BMW engine that produced 1,000 hp. And it did landings as high as 7,600'.

But, there is no mention in the book "Helicopters of the Third Reich," of the mountain troops carrying skis with them in the helicopters. But, I don't think that it would have been to hard, for these guys to see the potential of mixxing helicopters and skiing.

Cheers,
Halsted

[iceman]

Originally posted by Eiger

We have a ton of footage from the early days in Valdez and we have been thinking about doing a documentary on the whole thing because it is an incredible tale.

Dogtown and Z-Boys ring a bell? Get off yer asses and do it, you morons!

"morons" was used in a friendly way, of course

[sarge1957]

Odin, you're close. Anyway it went something like this. Alaska West Air was the first to provide heli service to Valdez in '91 with Chet Simmons as pilot in a Bell 206. The following year they also brought in a Beaver for ski plane shuttles with Doug Brewer and Tom Tibideau (sic) as pilots. Chet and Doug were insanley good pilots in their repective fields. I think in about '93 or so AWA became ABA. In '94 Doug Coombs and his wife Emily (both World Extreme Skiing Champions) started Valdez Heli Ski Guides with Jackson local Dave Miller and Myself as guides, in addition to Doug. We guided by the run that first year.

Somewhere in this early time frame ('93 - '94) the soon to become TGR boys were pioneering lines deep in the undiscovered ares by flying in on the ski plane a squatting in a valley till they tracked it out. This is a serious undertaking since your exit is determined by the weather. It was also in '94 that Bill Heath of WME hired me to guide the Delauries for a segment. It was my first taste of guiding film crews and seeing the potential of that format. There was a moment in the heli, on that trip, where I sat in the left seat looking around at all the unlimited terrain and realized the potential and freedom we were all fortunate enough to enjoy.

I consider '92 to '95 to be the Golden Age in Valdez. So much exploration and craziness going on. Everything was new and bigger than life.

It was '95 when Doug got his own contract with ERA aviation to have more control of his air support and run day and week packages. Also, Chet had had a crash in the AWA 206 and was no longer able to fly anyway (thanks for all you did for us Chet!). These next few years were the fun times for Valdez heli ski guides as we sort of invented our own protocols for guiding truely steep terrain. Our clientel was as eccentric as our guide staff who by this time includes Dirk Collins, Todd Jones, and Steve Jones of the budding TGR. Theo Miniers a strongminded leader from Jackson. Dave Miller and Mike Fisher of Jackson also were there (picking up on the Jackson theme). Another pioneer with perhaps more first descents than Doug or I was Jerry hance of Bozeman Montana, the most instictual snow guy you will ever meet. Dave Swanwick, also a World Extreme Skiing Champ started second guiding for me in a private ship at this time also, which is ironic because Swany already knew his shit.

It was '96 when the TGR boys (and VHSG guides) worked a deal with Doug on some heli time. Also Adam Hostetter (Olympic snowboarder) and I were managing the Fila ski and snowboard teams and blew our entire years travel budgets shotting the continuum with Swany and Jeremy Jones (who was hard core racing boards at the time).

Slowly, over the years, the hard core dirt bags (no insult intended there - I'm one of you) started to disappear as the cost went up and everyone got thier taste of AK steeps. By the late '90's there were still hard cores there, but hard cores of means. This was also a fun period as these guys has budget to really explore and I had my best days finding new lines with many of these guys.

I parted company with VHSG in 1999. Miller, Fish and other had already left. Theo was soon to follow. Hard to run a business with so many strong personalities, I'm sure we gave Doug a few gray hairs. I started working exclusively with TGR when Steve Jones offered me the job at a club in the Hard Rock at the Vegas SIA show (yeah we we're both hacked).

During this whole period ABA ran its by the run and package business drawing heavily on Jackson locals for guides, including WESC champ John Hunt, Dave the wave and many others.

Not sure exactly when Dean started up? '97? or so (sorry Dean), and then came Valdez Heli Ski Camps who catered to those looking for a more traditional heli ski experince (Joey from "Friends" being one of his clients). Any in the early 2000's Theo started Alaska Rendevous Guides. About this same time Scott Rainer (sic?) bought VHSG from Doug and Em.

Other major players worth a mention are Mark Newcomb who really polished the VHSG forecasting process, and Hans Johnstone an Exum guide who helped polish our guide protocols.

As for the vibe there now, it's still Valdez, the terrain still rules. The mountains far overshadow anything humans will ever do there so it's still a cool place to be. It's also fun to take what we learned about exploring, terrain, and on the fly forecasting to other range with TGR.

Sorry for the length. I think I got it mostly right. Excuse any omissions or oversites.

[sarge1957]

Oh yeah , I forgot to two most important figures in the Valdez scene. Shannon Loveland and Mike Cozad who pieced together the first World Extreme Skiing Championships. And also all the folks in Valdez who put up with our junk show those early years. And you wouldn't believe what they had to put up with!!!!

[Xover]

nice insight JC!!