Big Lee

Hiya everybody, If anyone of you are into snowboarding please have a look on

JackClark

That's one nice looking Forum.

How many people on here do ride a Snowboard?

CRAFT

Absolutely love to board, gets harder and harder to find time to do it though. I've heard they are going to build a snowdome near manchester, so it's a bit closer than tamworth. I'm off to this forum now, see ya there!

CRAFT

SeanG

I love snowboarding more than I love the Scoob!!! I've been riding for about 8 years. Try to get away a couple of times each winter and did a Chalet Snowboard summer camp one year too. Tend to go to USA or Canada these days as we have been let down too many times with French conditions.
Best time I have ever had was 2 years ago, my wife and I went to Valdez, Alaska for a weeks heli-boarding in the Chugach mountains..Totally amazing: 6 foot deep powder, fresh tracks every run and your own helicopter to take you where you want.Heaven.

Sean

andyp

Sean,

Hmmm....Valdez....*dream*..

..dare I ask how much this cost? I would love to go to Alaska! Did you sort the trip out yourself or go with a guided group? Is it easy to get around and stuff?

I would certainly welcome any info on places to stay and helicopter companies to use while in Valdez.

Cheers guys,

Andy

JackClark

Just got back from 3 days riding New Zealand, not too shabby. Favorite place to ride is Squaw Valley as some friends live there, means I can go real cheap and frequently.

Scoobys and Snowboards... nice.

As for indoor slopes, bit pants unless you're a park junky, I still go now and then as it's only down the road.

Sean, I'm green.

SeanG

AndyP,

It cost about £3K per person. That was an all-inclusive package deal: Trans-atlantic flights, Transfer flights from Anchorage to Valdez (return). Full board + lunches, 80,000 feet of heli lift, avalanche beacon hire and tuition on searching, guiding on a 1:1 or 2:3 guide to punter ratio, bus transfers from town to the heli pad. We took our own boards with us.

Mail me at scoobsean@hotmail.com and I can send you an article I wrote about the camp. I was going to submit it to SUK magazine but never got round to it. It describes everything we did in much more detail including contact details for the company. They are called Valdez Heli Camps.

Sean

[This message has been edited by SeanG (edited 19 September 2001).]

Keithp

Hi Everyone on this thread!

Im a snowboarder too, check me out on

Keithp

Hi Everyone on this thread!

Im a snowboarder too, check me out on

JackClark

Great profile Keith

Keithp

Thanks Jack!

Its good to see others with such good taste!
Maybe see you in Squaw as im planning on being in America a fair bit this season, Take it easy, Keith.

Big Lee

SeanG, 3K per person I`m in the wrong bloody job!!!!! What do you do & can I get paid for it too

JackClark

Keith, let me know when you're going to be there jack@californear.com I'll hook you up.

SeanG

Big Lee,

All paid for by saving for a year then putting the majority on the flexible friend. Took the next year to pay off!!
We thought it would be a once in a lifetime trip and therefore decided to screw the price and go for it. However, it was so cool we want to go back again sometime in the next few years. I didn't have the Scoob when we went so there is no way I can afford to go again now!!!!

Sean

JackClark

Fair play to you Sean, another season or two and I may be confident and fit enough to invest myself. Did you post your story online anywhere?

SeanG

Jack,

I only have web access via my office pc and so don't have a website or the ability to upload etc.
The story is below it is a bit long (SDB please feel free to delete if too long):

Having read articles about snowboarding in Alaska and watched the yearly offerings from the video companies I found myself wondering if I too would ever be able to access the untouched powder fields around Valdez.

Most of my riding time had been in France, but our usual riding group had begun to get more and more frustrated with the lack of powder in the Alps and so we decided the head for Banff and Lake Louise one year and Whistler the next. We managed to pick a fortnight in Banff that had even less new snow then France, however, the time we went to Whistler it dumped every night for the best part of a week and the conditions were perfect. At last we had experienced deep powder on a board…Or so we thought.

It came around to the time of year when I would start asking around my friends and find out if they wanted to come away riding that coming winter. I suggested a trip to Park City, Utah as they have a good powder record. As it turned out all the usual group were, through one reason or another, unable to come with us and so I started to think about looking around for a trip that would be a little more special for just myself and my wife, Karen

Whilst surfing around on the web I found a website for a heliski operation called Valdez Heli-Camps. Their website looked very interesting as they offered all inclusive heliskiing and heliboarding weeks. These weeks included accommodation, full board, and, more importantly a guaranteed 80,000 vertical feet of riding over six days accessed by helicopter and snowcat. The only worry I had (apart from the price) was that we would not technically be up to the task. We had been riding for about 6 years, but only perhaps for a week or two a year, with a few sessions at the Dome every now and then and only ridden in deep powder the one time we had been in Whistler the year before.

I voiced my concerns to the staff at Valdez Heli-Camps and, after going through our riding styles and experience with them, I hung up the phone reassured that we would be able to do this and so booked up a week there and then. This was in April 1999 and I had booked to arrive in Valdez in March 2000. It seemed a distant dream and, although exciting, did not cause us any sleepless nights for the immediate future.

The summer came along and we attended the Chalet Snowboard summer camp in Les Deux Alpes to brush up on our technique and get a few pointers off Martin Drayton and his team but still it was over six months until we were going and it seemed so far off.

Suddenly Christmas had been and gone and we had started counting down the weeks with real anticipation and quite a lot of trepidation. What had we done? What if we can’t keep up with the others in the camp? What if it is too difficult? I was starting to have real anxiety attacks about what we had let ourselves in for.

We started going to the gym twice a week to try to prepare for those inevitable snowdrifts and faceplants which would leave us trudging through deep snow with our board under our arms resigned to the fact that we were useless at snowboarding and had wasted all our money on a stupid holiday.
We had a quick trip back the CSB in Les Deux Alpes to catch some more icy hardpack at the end of January, and then just had to sit back and wait for the days to count down.

The day of our epic journey had arrived. To save a bit of money on the flights I had gone for a very roundabout route to get to Alaska. This involved flying from Gatwick to Anchorage via Houston and Seattle and after over 24 hours travelling we arrived in Anchorage at midnight local time. The next day we had a connecting flight to Valdez aboard a tiny, twin engined turbo-prop plane that seemed to only hold about twenty people. The flight over the mountains and Prince William Sound and into Valdez was both stunningly beautiful and incredibly nerve-racking as I could see first hand how huge the legendary Chugach mountains were. Whilst waiting for our boards in the airport we met the outgoing campers from the week before. They said that they had been blessed with blue skies all week and they all looked devastated at having to go home. Things were looking up.

We met up with our fellow campers; two Spanish guys (one boarder, one skier), myself and Karen (both British and boarders), one American guy (skier) and three German guys (one boarder and two skiers). The American, Jon, was from Boston and said that he had expected to be the camper who had traveled the furthest to get to Valdez, not the only American in the camp!

The airport is about a ten minute drive from downtown Valdez and we were all transported to our home for the next week in a converted yellow american school bus that the camp had acquired. As we pulled up outside the strangely named Downtown B & B, I looked up into the trees next to the car park and saw three bald eagles sat watching us arrive. It turned out that these eagles liked to sit in these trees overlooking the car park outside the hotel as the camp staff fed them every morning and afternoon on huge pieces of leftover fish from the previous nights supper.

The next day started early with a huge cooked breakfast and then transportation up to the heli base, which is a half hours drive back up the Richardson highway towards Thompson’s Pass, in the big yellow bus. At this point the skies were overcast and as we pulled into the heli base the chopper was still covered over. We spend the next hour learning how to conduct avalanche beacon searches and getting briefed on mountain and helicopter safety. The main aim of this briefing seemed to be to get everyone as nervous as possible and convincing us all we would probably not come out of this first day alive. It was pointed out to us that the best bindings to have are step-ins as these give you some chance of releasing them should you get caught in a slide. Karen and I looked at our traditional Burton Custom bindings and then at each other and felt ill.

Of all the heli operators in the town, Valdez Heli-Camps are the only one to have snowcats. This is a huge advantage on days when visibility is good enough to ride, but too poor for the chopper to fly safely. All the other operators would have to sit out the weather at base or in the bars in town whilst we had the opportunity of getting a few turns in.

By the time we had all finished our induction training the cloudy skies looked like they were starting to clear. The decision was taken to head off into the local mountains in the snowcat and assess everyone’s abilities, then if a weather window arrived pick us up in the chopper an hour or so later. The snowcat was a piste-basher that had the seating area of another school bus placed on top and so was now effectively a minibus on tank tracks. This was equipped with an effective heater and a loud car radio/cassette system that only seemed to play Silverfish and Led Zeppelin (which was fine by me).

We drove through thick woodland areas for a few miles and gradually as we climbed steeper and stepper the trees thinned out to make way for pure virgin powder fields. The Chugach mountains spread out in every direction as far as the eye could see. Eventually the snowcat stopped near a pretty gentle drop off that led into a huge powder bowl. We all got out, sorted out our gear and got ready to depart. This was the point of no return, the moment of truth that I had been both eagerly awaiting and dreading for the best part of a year.

As I dropped in I was amazed how slowly I was able to ride, even heading directly down the fall line. I looked down and saw all the spray that my front leg was snowploughing out of the way and shifted my weight more onto my back leg. At first I found turning to be pretty difficult and unstable, especially the transition from heelside to toeside. One of the guides, also called Sean, gave me a few pointers that included holding both arms out over the nose of the board. This made it much easier to initiate the turns and get a feel for the new type of snow conditions. After a few dozen turns it was starting to feel pretty good and I relaxed a lot.

When we eventually got to a flat section we all regrouped and waited a few minutes for the snowcat to drive back and pick us up. The whole group had huge grins on their faces and everyone was really stoked. We had a few more runs in the same local area, fresh tracks all the time, gradually increasing our confidence and speed and showing off our abilities to the guides who would be grouping us for the heli lifts.

We stopped for lunch and by now the skies were blue and it was getting hot. We sat around eating our packed lunches, that were supplied every day for us, when I heard the call on the radio that they were going to bring the chopper up and access some really high terrain in the afternoon. A few moments later we could hear the distant booming of the rotor blades approaching and we gathered together our boards, skis and packs and huddled down to await the arrival of the chopper. As the A-Star approached I thought how little snow was being blown about, at that point the rotor pitch angle changed as Bob the pilot hovered and slowly brought her down for a landing. Suddenly there was powdery snow blowing around everywhere. As we crouched it went down the back of our necks and into our faces and the blast of air was so strong that it was hard to breath in. The noise was incredible. It was all really exciting and exhilarating. Gradually the noise and snow cloud receded as Bob turned off the engine and joined us all for lunch.

The A-Star helicopter can carry the pilot and six passengers, four in the rear and two up front but it is a bit of a squeeze, especially when everyone is wearing large snowboard and ski boots and multiple layers of clothing. My group consisted of Karen and myself, the two Spaniards (Jose and Jose!) and two guides, Harlan and Sean. We climbed into the chopper, strapped in and prepared for takeoff. As soon as we were airborne we banked steeply to our right and headed off northwards across the Richardson highway and into an area know locally as Sheep Creek.

This was the first time in a helicopter for most of us. I’m normally a little nervous when taking off in a plane but, strangely, didn’t feel at all apprehensive as we sped away in the chopper. The views were fantastic and maybe this was enough to take my mind off any fears.

Within a couple of minutes we were landing on a very small landing zone (LZ) at the top of one of the numerous peaks in the Sheep Creek area. We all got out, unloaded the gear and huddled together as Bob took off and headed back the collect the other group who were still waiting where we had stopped for lunch. The first thing that struck me as the sound of the chopper faded was how silent everything was. We were riding in an area of hundreds of square kilometers and we were the only humans there. It was a truly awesome experience to feel so isolated.

Everyone clipped into their gear and got ready to depart. This was when I found out one of the problems of heli-boarding. When we had stopped for lunch the snow on my board had melted and formed small water droplets on the base. As we had made our assent in the chopper these droplets had refrozen and the base of my board was now like sandpaper and hence no longer slid over the snow surface. One of the guides came over with a scraper and cleaned off my base and everything then worked fine, however, every time we got dropped off at an LZ after then I would routinely scrape the ice from my board before strapping in. A tip worth remembering.

Our small group set off down a wide gully parallel with the side of a glacier. We took it in turns to ride certain sections for safety, but the width of the ‘safe areas’ was such that you very rarely had to cross anyone else’s tracks. We stopped for a breather at the tongue of the glacier and marvelled at the glowing blue ice blocks that had fallen away from the face. These blocks must have been the size of minibuses. After regrouping, taking photos and being told the next route to take we carried on down until we got to a long flat section. Bob was waiting in the chopper about a hundred meters away on a small rise. I stopped, unclipped and started to hike through the deep snow over to the chopper, but was told that there was no need as Bob would come to us. Sure enough after we had got our little pile of equipment secure the chopper made the short flight over and picked everyone up.

We did the same mountain again and then, as that side of the valley headed into shadow as the afternoon sun dipped below the peak we made a quick trip over to the west facing side and got a couple of runs in there too. As this was our first day it was decided to take it easy and head back to base, it was now about 4 o’clock and we had a long week ahead of us.

In the evening we faced the daily ritual of enormous meals made with the freshest seafood straight out of the Sound. King crab, oysters, clams, salmon plus steaks and chicken. Then equally big deserts too. The staff told us that everyone leaves Valdez with the famous ‘Heli-Belly’.
After supper it was round to one of the local bars, either the Pipeline or the Club Valdez, for a few beers and some games of pool.

The rest of the week followed a similar path. Unfortunately, due to cloud, we were unable to fly on two of the days out of our six. This was not too unusual as I had heard tales of 50% weather days on other trips to the Chugach. On both of these weather days we got a full day of ‘Cat Boarding in, so we didn’t miss out on any slope time. This was actually quite a relaxing way to experience backcountry riding. A typical run down from a chopper LZ would be 30 – 45 minutes, with a lift time back to the top of maybe two minutes. This didn’t leave much time to rest, apart from at lunchtime.

On the ‘Cat the lift time was about 20 minutes. This gave everyone much longer to recover and also allowed us to eat our lunch on the move and meant we could get a couple of extra runs in too. It was a good opportunity for everyone to have a good chat as the chopper is a bit too noisy to hold a conversation in.

On the fifth day it started to snow quite hard in the afternoon while we were still on the mountain. However, because we were in the ‘Cat we were able to ride for a couple of hours in the storm before the visibility became too difficult. The snow carried on falling all evening and into the night.

When we awoke the following day (our final day) the skies had cleared and we had a classic ‘bluebird day’. We spent the whole of the day in the Horstman Glacier area. The snow depth just off the first LZ was chest deep without a board on, as I found out when I dropped in the wrong side of an arete and had to hike back out. It had snowed 18 inches of fresh the previous day.

This was probably our best days riding. The snow conditions were perfect. The powder was light and dry- like flour, the skies were blue, all the mountains were first tracked by our two groups (ours was now only myself, Karen and Jon, plus three guides. A 1:1 client/guide ratio), the runs were incredibly long and we had been perfecting our powder technique for five days.

At the end of the day, I felt tired but so happy that we had come and experienced what can only be described as a trip of a lifetime. Bob could see we were sad to be having our final chopper ride back to base and so treated us to a roller-coaster canyon hopping flight home, which was right out of Apocalypse Now.

Back at base we found out we had clocked up 98,000 feet of vert with only four full days flying and 2 days on the Snowcat. As we had only paid for 80,000 feet we had to pay an extra $100 or so each, so remember to keep an eye on your tally if every day is a bluebird day. Also remember that you get charged for any vertical that your group makes without you - if you decide to take a day off or stop early one day.

In closing, I would recommend the setup they have at Valdez Heli-Camps to everyone I meet. If you can ride red runs and easy black runs in French resorts then you should have no problem riding in the Chugach. Of course there are extreme runs, but this camp is set up for people who want to experience backcountry snowboarding and skiing but who are not highly advanced riders. Of course if you are into extreme riding then they will find you steeps, chutes and drop-offs all day if you want.
I was able to ride my Burton Custom 55, with the bindings set back all the way, with little difficulty but a longer, wider board would be an advantage on flatter sections as I quickly lost speed and therefore stability, which sometimes resulted in a hike up the next rise.
This is a way for the advanced intermediate, two week a year, rider - who is reasonably fit - to access an unbelievable amount of awe inspiring terrain (and get the play in helicopters all week).

Our trip cost £3,000 each. This included return flights from Gatwick to Anchorage, a stopover at the beginning and end of the week in a hotel in Anchorage, return transfer flights from Anchorage to Valdez (about 45 minutes), Full board and lunch, transport, loan of avalanche tranceivers and 80,000 guaranteed vertical feet at the Heli-Camp.

Valdez Heli Camps can be contacted via their website

Adam M

Hi guys.

I thought I was almost alone here.
I love riding more than my car, and I certainly love that loads.

Only been riding for two years, but have did three weeks last year to make up for it. Doing another three this year.

Canada, italy and prob france again.

Need resort recommedations, canada will be whistler, and france hoping for three valleys.

druddle

I went mid last year to Breckenridge, Colorado to board. Excellent slopes. Only problem was i fell day before i was due to come home and broke 2 ribs !!

That will teach me for doing a black run after lunch and a few beers........

Breck is quite reasonable to eat and go out. Accomodation/travel wasnt a problem for me as best mates uncle lives there and runs a club (so ended up DJing alot to justify free lodgings and food/beer), and good friend work(ed) for Continental so cheap flights.

Dave

SeanG

Adam

Whistler is brilliant, but probably the most expensive/commercial of the Canadian rocckies resorts. Banff is also good as your lift pass includes Norquay, Sunshine Village and Lake Louise plus a free shuttle bus between the resorts.
This year we went to Fernie, very quiet as noone seems to have discovered it yet, highest average snowfall for any North American resort and very cheap for lift ticket and local food/bars, highly recommended.

Sean

chuckdog

*pah* Snowboarding is lame! Get ureselves strapped into a decent pair of ski's u hippies!
And don't get me started on the MY01 either!
Chuck

Big Lee

SeanG, After reading that £3k sounds like a bargain How jealous am I now?

Andy Mid.

I've been boarding since 95 and the best resort I've been to is Mammoth in California. Anybody going should check out June mountain nearby - it's a gem !

Never been to Whistler but hoping to do it next year (although I've been saying that for years !)

JackClark

Agreed RE: June, great accomodation available cheaply as well with an easy trip to Mammoth