and my rivals from the Central Di- vision of the US Freestyle Ski As- sociation. I see Hathaway yearly as he relocated his family to Spokane, but John and I hadn’t seen TK since 1985. Our crew spent the afternoon skiing with these guys reliving the old days and catching up on life each chair lift ride. Throughout the day it snowed another 6 inches. Tom and TK ended their trip that afternoon, but for John and I and the rest of our crew it was just getting started. There’s no better way to wrap up a fun ski day than a little apres. We slipped into Rockford, a bar/restaurant at the base of the mountain where we put down a few cold ones and enjoyed some appetizers. We called it an early night as the next day we were scheduled to fly with Selkirk Tangiers Heli skiing. >> Day 2 The next morning, we were greet- ed with some scattered clouds and sunshine. When we checked in at Selkirk Tangiers we were told the snow accumulation the previous day was 10 inches, and that was on top of fresh from days prior. The an- ticipation level was high especially for Andrea who had never been he- li-skiing. Our guide put us through the mandatory avalanche and transceiver training, and then be- fore we loaded into the A-Star, our pilot gave us a safety briefing. Selkirk Tangiers flies in the Sel - kirk Mountains with access to more than 500,000 acres of wilderness. They’ve been in business over 40 years and have more than 400 es- tablished runs. Their terrain varies from incredible tree skiing to glades, and on those bluebird days some wide-open glacier skiing with mag- nificent seracs. This is the ultimate in heli-skiing.
As we flew over the ridge tops get - ting to our zone, our eyes were the size of saucers as we looked out at all the untouched powder. The pilot landed the bird perfectly between the two flagging sticks in the Land zone. We unload and positioned our- selves into a huddle near the front passenger skid while the guide pulled our skis out of the basket. We gave Andrea the honors to get first tracks through the glades. Then we bounced by helicopter from one ridge top to another, each run seeming to get better than the last. We were able to get in several runs before we broke for lunch, which was hot soup and tea, some gourmet sandwiches and then some sweet treats for dessert. After lunch we loaded into the bird for a few more runs. As the day progressed, we kept moving into ter- rain with some features and steeps. We wrapped up our day with a long 3,000-foot vertical run to the valley floor. Talk about feeling those legs burn. What a way to wrap up an epic day. We made our way back to the ski resort, and we celebrated with an amazing dinner and drinks back at the Rockford Grill. For a Sunday night it was hopping. Fun times in a ski town! >> Day 3 The next morning, we packed up our gear and started the two- hour drive east on the Trans Can- ada Highway towards Golden, BC, where we would spend the next three days in the remote backcoun- try skiing with Chatter Creek Cat skiing. To get to the lodge you need to fly in by helicopter. Chatter Creek has some of the most visually spectacular terrain out of anywhere I’ve ever skied. Its tenure is nestled in the western
John Witt and Jeffrey Ridha drop through the old Forest Fire Burn at Chatter Creek.
tion gondola put us at the 5,500- feet level, where we clicked in our skis and made our way over to the Stoke chair, a high-speed quad that whisks you to the top of the moun- tain. The views are spectacular from this perch overlooking the Co- lumbia River and across the valley to Mt. Begbie. Earlier that morning, I found out through social media that two old freestyle skiing friends from the 80’s were wrapping up their five-day powder highway skiing road trip at Revelstoke on this day. Tom “TK” Kelly and Tom Hathway were John
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