“It’s just very wild and remote,” says Beat Steiner, co-owner and chief executive officer of Bella Coola Heli Sports, who opened the area’s first of five luxury lodges in 2003.
Amid such vast terrain, guests can expect to ski or snowboard down an average 37,000 vertical metres of snow in a week. First descents are not uncommon, and of the tenure’s nearly 1,000 mapped runs, Steiner says his clients have named at least 300 of them: Maserati, Addams Family and Spotted Dick, among others.
Film director Eric Crosland, co-founder of Sherpas Cinema, in Whistler, B.C., has captured that magic in stunning heli-ski films. An ace big-mountain skier, he describes the ideal heli-skiing experience as “the finest delicacy in the world. It’s just so decadent.’ Industry legend Wiegele, who passed away last year at the age of 82, was an avalanche expert first, fearless heli-skier second. He received a Governor General’s Award for his mountain safety advocacy, and the avalanche research course he initiated at the University of Calgary is taken by all operators.