 Poster: A snowHead
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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parkesy, either the ESF or Evo2 have mountain guides and offer trips. If your working as a seasonniare you'll have plenty of opportunities to get to know them, La Rosiere isn't that big, if you're working for a TO try persuading your clients to book a trip you may be able to tag along.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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I have always used Val Heliski which totally sorted out a recent Bentley drivers trip i was recently on. They set up 5 years ago but have a Canadian Heliski background!!
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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Is it worth the money?
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Hmmm. You have to make sure you pick your day. And even then conditions might be against you. Bear in mind that you aren't in Alaska nor the Canadian Rockies, so it's not necessarily going to resemble your favourite Warren Miller film. But it can be excellent. Whether any more excellent than skinning up yourself, or just getting guided around on a great day, is up to you to decide.
Certainly, a helo is a rather cool way to travel. If going up to ski - rather than being brought down in pieces.
Doubt there'd be seasonaire discounts (why would they?) other than, say, you were bringing clients to them. But if you make good friends with a guide you can sometimes persuade them to come to an arrangement.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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Depends a lot on conditions at the time.
I heli-skied the Valtournenche area this March - 2 heli drops - and whilst really good, I would not describe it as epic.
I was with two intermediate boarders so the guide would have taken us to fairly easy terrain rather than anything too challenging, which was completely fine as it was good fun terrain.
I have heli skied in Canada (CMH) and cat skied in Japan (Niseko area) and those both knocked spots off the Valtournenche trip.
On a value for money basis I would say that there are better options out there if you are prepared to tour a little bit.
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AVOID VAL HELISKI - you will spend a lot to get very disappointed.
I recently did a heli trip with Val Heliski who operate out of Val d'Isere..and Southampton (so not really very close to the action). The plan was to do 2 long runs or perhaps a long and a short to be followed by keeping the guide to do a bit more off piste as we would have him for the day.
Sadly this is not what we got: first the guy meant to take us to the Heli was late, then we had to wait for the heli with lots of chat that we might be able to do 3 drops.
We eventually get picked up by heli but as soon as we are on the mountain get told there would be only one drop. We skied a short/half run...wait some more...then get told by the guide it was too dangerous to ski out, something he should have know before we had set off. This meant heli out...but not up the mountain for another run as we had hoped. Instead our group of 4 was split with a random extra joining our heli that dropped us on the edge of a piste. This mean waiting longer for the last member of our group to be picked up. Reunited our guide faffed around and waited for a third group to be collected before finally leading us in a much enlarged group to a restaurant.
More waiting and wasted time.
Finally we are collected and ski back on piste....by now it was late and skiing for the day was pretty much done. Throughout this the communication from the guide was poor/non-exisitent. All in all it was a very unsatisfactory day that was oversold and under delivered.
We obviously complained to Val Heliski who merely whacked the maximum charge on one of our credit cards with little apology (though claimed to be furious with the mountain guide). In response to texts trying to resolve the issue we were told to 'stop harassing'.
AVOID VAL HELISKI - you will spend a lot to get very disappointed.
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