Mica Heliskiing, 1/7 – 1/10/2012
I had a truly epic tour with Mica Heliskiing in early January. I was supposed to go last year, too, but knee surgery kept me away. No such problems this season thankfully. The lodge, food, and staff were excellent; precisely what we’d come to expect from many years at Island Lake Lodge. The boarding was out of this world. Mostly when someone asks me about it just giggle…
We did 80,196ft of vertical over the four day tour, 33 runs total, and an average run length of 2,430ft.
Our first two days were excellent, with low clouds obscuring the high alpine. We had lots of excellent tree runs. All very long, with minimal regrouping along the way and lots of leeway from the guide. With just four of us in the group, all long-time riding partners, it was easy to keep together. The snow was light and deep the whole trip.
On the third day we got shutdown a little bit due to low clouds, wind, and icing on the helicopters. Nevertheless we once again got some excellent tree riding in again.
The fourth day was mostly clear with some high clouds. We finally got a look at the alpine, which looks glorious, and rode in it a bit. We also got some nice wide-open runs in the sun which were absolutely perfect.
The four days at Mica were hands-down the best snowboarding I’ve ever had.
Here’s a short video that shows a little bit of riding and heli action from the third and fourth days.