Heliskiing and heliboarding

Heliski (heliboarding) is a type of freeride, extreme mountain skiing, the core of which is running off with alpine ski or snowboard over untouched snowy slopes away from prepared routes, with lift to descent’s outset on helicopter. The concept "heliski" and "heliboarding" stems out of English words "helicopter" and "skiing / snowboarding" - "helicopter skiing". It is the use of helicopter for lifting to the difficult to access snowy peaks what differs heliski from other extreme types of skiing sport (backcountry, classic powder skiing) and allows us to find different kinds of descents in pristine, untouched by the invasion of human nature, where it is impossible to rise quickly in any other way.

Heliski escaped in the separate kind of active rest in Canada in the middle 50s of the past century, which is the prosperity period and glory of mountaineering, when all the major European and Asien peaks were conquered and won. Every year thousands of skiers and climbers went to conquer the majestic Canadian Rockies, that’s why the idea of the experienced emigre Hans Gmoser to use the helicopter for delivering fans of backcountry in the difficult to reach peaks became in an instant popular and successful. Several assembly hangars away from civilization and a couple of helicopters are what Canadian Mountain Holidays business started with, which is now considered the largest company in heliski program in the world.

In addition to Canada, which is considered the world capital of skiing, this extreme way of leisure activities is popular in Italy and Alaska, in New Zealand and Switzerland, Chile and Argentine. The famous French guide and traveler Sylvan Sudan tested even the Himalayan peaks for helicopter skiing. In some European countries such as Germany, Switzerland and France there are restrictions or prohibitions imposed on heliski advocated by conservationists, who believe that the helicopters harm nature and violate the peace of the Alpine peaks. There is a contrary opinion of experts on skiing safety, according to which heliski makes a useful contribution and development of the rescue services and increases the professionalism of the pilots. But the extremals of the countries where restrictions and prohibitions act - are frequent visitors to the Caucasus, where the most attractive place for the landing from the helicopter are the mountains of Kazbegi region.

With the constant development of heliski as the individual industry of mountain skiing, this kind of active rest becomes increasingly popular between beginners and professional athletes. Expansion of ski resorts infrastructure, the area of which is directly adjacent to the region of backcountry skiing, improvement of ski safety through the use of modern rescue and search equipment, exploration of new descents and slopes, the specialized touristic companies quantity increasing – these and many other factors annually attract fans of extreme sport. The heliski’s feature is the incredible freedom in movement and in the choice of route, because every time the helicopter takes you to the new unexplored snow slopes, and the next trigger will not be like the previous one. The most recent, but the very important factor - in order to enjoy this feeling of complete freedom and boundless joy of skiing, it is enough to have minimal skills of snowboarding or skiing, if you go to the mountains with an experienced instructor.