September 29, 2009

US & Canada | Canada | British Columbia

Raising Heli

By Doug Black

The godfathers of heli-skiing are back. And they want to beckon you to the “Iron Road.”

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Approaching the 9,000-foot summit of British Columbia’s Mount Nimbus, you’re presented with an endless expanse of rocky peaks once reserved for the most rugged mountaineers. But thanks to Canadian Mountain Holidays and their Via Ferrata (literally “Iron Road” in Italian), it’s available to anyone who can scale a ladder (and stomach the dizzying altitudes).

The recently expanded climbing course employs convenient metal loops and fixed cables that make a jungle gym out of treacherous ascents. And it’s just one of a growing list of adventures at CMH, all of which expand on the same base ingredients: a Bell 212 twin-engine helicopter and 3,800 square miles of pristine alpine wilderness.

Forty years on from pioneering the heli-adventure, CMH is still finding new words to attach with “heli.” Each summer, they run two plush lodges in eastern BC (think: hot tubs and in-house massage therapists) from which choppers whisk you to a slew of different adventures across the Canadian Rockies. The much-heralded heli-hiking program has been on our radar for some time.

But now your whirling chariot can shuttle you to such spots as Vowell River for a zipline tour over the rapids, and top it off 80 feet above the spindly pines on a white-knuckled high ropes course.

Perhaps the perfect antidote to the din and gale-force winds of helicopter travel is the heli-yoga program launched from CMH’s remote Bugaboo Lodge. The three-day retreat uses a private yoga master to lead meditation sessions from a remote mountain perch. And if you like your yoga coupled with heli-hiking and female companionship (not to mention hard-to-stomach nicknames)? CMH has you covered with Bodacious in the Bugaboos, a gals-only trip balancing body massages with vertical ascents.

Never satisfied, the mad scientists in the CMH laboratory are still experimenting with new adventures, like a cross-glacier journey on an actual icefield that’s sure to stoke even the most jaded thrill-seeker. Specific details and an official title are in the works, but we’re fairly certain it will involve the prefix “heli.”