Serious Downtime

Endless powder runs are just one part of the Alaska heli-ski experience.

- Story and photos by Andy Cochrane

When you're heli-skiing in Alaska's Chugach Mountains, “landing” is a relative concept. On our first run of a weeklong trip with Valdez Heli-Ski Guides, our pilot, an unflappable Frenchman named Jean Louis, dangles the front of the helicopter's cockpit over a 2,000-foot cliff while perching the machine's tail on a precarious cornice. Before I have a chance to ask “Are you serious?” the veteran pilot casually motions to the great white outside. Alright then. I unbuckle my harness, drop a boot onto the one of the skids, duck my head and leap into one of the greatest experiences of my life.

Heli-skiing is addictive. Acres and acres of untracked, knee-deep powder provide a chance to star in your own TGR video. In Alaska, all the emotions-conquest, grandeur, solitude-are multiplied. You scout lines and draw lungfuls of frigid air while taking in the horizon. No people, trees, animals, signs of humanity. Just primal peaks towering over an otherworldly stadium of snow. Then the complete freedom that comes with carving long, swooping lines in hero snow, leaving plumes of snow smoke in your wake. Starting anywhere from 6,000 to 8,000 feet elevation, each run to the valley floor can take 10 to 20 minutes and cover 3,000 to 6,000 feet of vertical drop.