Word: heli
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...crude oil into Prince William Sound - is also your gateway to great powder and exciting ski terrain. But Valdez has been a mecca for big-mountain skiing since the early 1990s, when Emily Coombs and her late husband Doug, two of America's most experienced backcountry adventurers, started Valdez Heli-Ski Guides (VHSG), valdezheliskiguides.com. They sold the company to its current owner, seasoned heli-ski guide and avalanche forecaster Scott Raynor, in 2000. (See the best travel gadgets...
Unlike glitzier heli-ski operations with their five-star lodges, gourmet food and masseurs on call, VHSG is rough and ready. A down day in Valdez is likely to involve checking out hunting rifles at the Prospector hardware store, not having a Swedish deep-tissue rubdown. Basic motels are the order of the day, though local restaurants serve excellent sashimi...
...competition for your fresh tracks. It's there that the beautiful Tara River runs through Europe's longest canyon, and there are 20 peaks over 6,500 ft. (2,000 m), overlooking 18 gorgeous lakes, so it is not surprising that discussions are under way to set up a heli-skiing operation...
Rogoff Moraga's husband prefers a more active - and if you ask me, scary - type of vacation. While she's in Mexico, she says, "he goes skiing in Chile, heli-skiing in Telluride - any kind of extreme ski or mountain bike trip." Which is not to say the two don't stay in touch when they're far away. "We call or email a lot to share what we have been doing - maybe to the annoyance of the other people we are traveling with," Rogoff Moraga says...
...truly intrepid can consider Russia's Kamchatka region (Vertikalny Mir, www.vertikalny-mir.com, is an experienced operator) or the Himalayas (try Himachal Heli, www.himachal.com). But wherever you choose, think long and hard, and amass plenty of funds, before you step into the chopper. The heli-ski beast is a hungry one, and will need feeding for life once unleashed...