So I have not seen much on this forum on Eagle Pass Heliski so I thought I would share my impressions of our recent 3 days skiing with them in late December. Our trip involved the day skiing operation as opposed to the all-inclusive lodge operation.
Background: My two sons and I had never been helicopter skiing but we have done several snowcat trips in the past. We cannot compare Eagle Pass to other heliskiing alternatives aside from the impressions of others I discovered in my extensive pre-trip research. I am in my late 50s and my sons are in their low to mid 20s. The early season conditions in Utah did not permit us to ski ourselves into shape enough. I had exercised regularly leading into the trip, but my lack of ski shape became an issue for me and, to a much lesser extent, for my kids who are young and active. I would take this aspect much more seriously if I am able to return.
This trip was supposed to take place last year before Christmas and include 2 days skiing at Chatter Creek and 2 days at Eagle Pass. Covid intervened. We could not rebook Chatter Creek on dates that would work for our schedules this year, so we added a day at K3 catskiing and an extra day at Eagle Pass. We stayed at the Ramada Revelstoke in a room that contained two queens and 1 king in a separate room. It served our needs well though nobody would mistake it for a deluxe hotel. The included breakfast buffet was decent and filling.
The Experience: The day base is a 5-to-10-minute drive west of Revelstoke on the south side of the Trans Canada highway. The first day you are taken through mandatory avalanche rescue and helicopter safety training. If you book multiple days, you can skip that training on subsequent days and show up approximately an hour later.
We were in the helicopter and flying around 9:15 on the first day and a little earlier on subsequent days. Eagle Pass has a huge tenure. We experienced different terrain pods each day. Depending on where you ski that day, the shuttle out or the shuttle back to the base may be in a van. We used a van back to the lodge on the second day (which happened to be the best day).
It had snowed in the weeks preceding our trip but there was very little snow during the trip. What we did have is frigid temperatures, mainly clear skies for 2 of the 3 days, and the ability to fly basically anywhere they wanted to take us.
Let me just cut to the chase and say that the guides do great job of finding fantastic terrain and good snow for the group. They also appear to take snow safety very seriously (though I am far from an expert on that subject). Our guide, Nick, was seemingly always studying the terrain and snow while skiing and in the helicopter. He would stop and reassess anytime he found something he was not expecting.
This was the best 3 days of skiing in my life. I have had a fair number of better runs than many of the runs we took but never previously experienced entire days like this. At the bottom of one run, which was essentially a moderately steep open bowl of 2,500 plus vertical feet of sustained skiing which fed down into another 500-1,000 vertical feet of lightly-gladed skiing, my oldest son popped out of his skis and announced that it was the “best run of my life”. Nobody disagreed.
There were a number of times on the trip where I had to pinch myself at how fortunate we were. It is truly a special privilege to be dropped off at the top of a mountain many, many miles from anywhere and stand on what appears to be the top of the world with mountains as far as the eye can see. Tears of gratitude were shed.
Random Thoughts:
Eagle Pass has a seemingly endless supply of outstanding terrain. Its reputation is that it has more steep, difficult terrain than the heliskiing operations in the surrounding tenures. I suspect this is true based on what I saw. If the snowpack cooperates and you have a compatible group, I cannot imagine anyone being under challenged here. While we were not over terrained we certainly could have been and my lack of conditioning affected my ability to effectively ski through some of the tight trees at the bottom of some runs. Again, I will take conditioning more seriously if there is a next time.
Eagle Pass flies A Star Helicopters with 4 guests and a guide. You will share the helicopter with 2 other groups. I feel this is a big advantage to the operations where there are 10 or 12 guests in each group.
I won’t bore everyone with all the details surrounding the hassle of traveling outside the United States/to Canada with the ongoing pandemic other than to say flights kept getting cancelled in the months leading up to the trip, connections were missed, connections were cancelled, and rental cars were scarce. One thing I will emphasize is that there is currently no place in Revelstoke to get a rapid antigen Covid test necessary to get back to the United States. There were two locations in Kelowna 2 ½ hours away (and hopefully where your flight originates) but the more convenient airport location closed early. Plan and book this early.
Some Pictures:
Background: My two sons and I had never been helicopter skiing but we have done several snowcat trips in the past. We cannot compare Eagle Pass to other heliskiing alternatives aside from the impressions of others I discovered in my extensive pre-trip research. I am in my late 50s and my sons are in their low to mid 20s. The early season conditions in Utah did not permit us to ski ourselves into shape enough. I had exercised regularly leading into the trip, but my lack of ski shape became an issue for me and, to a much lesser extent, for my kids who are young and active. I would take this aspect much more seriously if I am able to return.
This trip was supposed to take place last year before Christmas and include 2 days skiing at Chatter Creek and 2 days at Eagle Pass. Covid intervened. We could not rebook Chatter Creek on dates that would work for our schedules this year, so we added a day at K3 catskiing and an extra day at Eagle Pass. We stayed at the Ramada Revelstoke in a room that contained two queens and 1 king in a separate room. It served our needs well though nobody would mistake it for a deluxe hotel. The included breakfast buffet was decent and filling.
The Experience: The day base is a 5-to-10-minute drive west of Revelstoke on the south side of the Trans Canada highway. The first day you are taken through mandatory avalanche rescue and helicopter safety training. If you book multiple days, you can skip that training on subsequent days and show up approximately an hour later.
We were in the helicopter and flying around 9:15 on the first day and a little earlier on subsequent days. Eagle Pass has a huge tenure. We experienced different terrain pods each day. Depending on where you ski that day, the shuttle out or the shuttle back to the base may be in a van. We used a van back to the lodge on the second day (which happened to be the best day).
It had snowed in the weeks preceding our trip but there was very little snow during the trip. What we did have is frigid temperatures, mainly clear skies for 2 of the 3 days, and the ability to fly basically anywhere they wanted to take us.
Let me just cut to the chase and say that the guides do great job of finding fantastic terrain and good snow for the group. They also appear to take snow safety very seriously (though I am far from an expert on that subject). Our guide, Nick, was seemingly always studying the terrain and snow while skiing and in the helicopter. He would stop and reassess anytime he found something he was not expecting.
This was the best 3 days of skiing in my life. I have had a fair number of better runs than many of the runs we took but never previously experienced entire days like this. At the bottom of one run, which was essentially a moderately steep open bowl of 2,500 plus vertical feet of sustained skiing which fed down into another 500-1,000 vertical feet of lightly-gladed skiing, my oldest son popped out of his skis and announced that it was the “best run of my life”. Nobody disagreed.
There were a number of times on the trip where I had to pinch myself at how fortunate we were. It is truly a special privilege to be dropped off at the top of a mountain many, many miles from anywhere and stand on what appears to be the top of the world with mountains as far as the eye can see. Tears of gratitude were shed.
Random Thoughts:
Eagle Pass has a seemingly endless supply of outstanding terrain. Its reputation is that it has more steep, difficult terrain than the heliskiing operations in the surrounding tenures. I suspect this is true based on what I saw. If the snowpack cooperates and you have a compatible group, I cannot imagine anyone being under challenged here. While we were not over terrained we certainly could have been and my lack of conditioning affected my ability to effectively ski through some of the tight trees at the bottom of some runs. Again, I will take conditioning more seriously if there is a next time.
Eagle Pass flies A Star Helicopters with 4 guests and a guide. You will share the helicopter with 2 other groups. I feel this is a big advantage to the operations where there are 10 or 12 guests in each group.
I won’t bore everyone with all the details surrounding the hassle of traveling outside the United States/to Canada with the ongoing pandemic other than to say flights kept getting cancelled in the months leading up to the trip, connections were missed, connections were cancelled, and rental cars were scarce. One thing I will emphasize is that there is currently no place in Revelstoke to get a rapid antigen Covid test necessary to get back to the United States. There were two locations in Kelowna 2 ½ hours away (and hopefully where your flight originates) but the more convenient airport location closed early. Plan and book this early.
Some Pictures:
