Trisha Shanks
Arrow Lakes News
Skinet.com is a consortium of sorts — comprised of four different publications in addition to their various social media outlets: Warren Miller, NASTAR, SkiMag.com and Skiing Magazine. They boast a quarterly readership of 50,000. Recently they sent a journalist to heliski with a tour group at Nakusp’s very own Canadian Mountain Holidays (CMH), K2 Rotor Lodge.
Crystal Sagan is a Colorado-based ski and backpacker journalist whose resume includes apps and digital production. She has written for backpacker.com and skinet, among other outdoors publications. Sagan has reviewed ski hills and tour operators in the USA and Italy.
Perhaps because of the madcap K2 influence, she wrote about expecting some kind of college co-ed activities complete with drunken late-night parties and was surprised to find a quiet, family-friendly establishment actually focused on skiing instead. She described the village in her article, “Located in the West Kootenay region of British Columbia, the town has been a heli-skiing hub for more than 25 years. It’s quieter and lesser known than its neighbour to the south, Nelson, and it’s safe to say that its 1,500 residents aren’t there for heli-skiing or après.”
Reviews were hugely positive for the skiing, and the views. Sagan wrote, “Every line in sight looks as enticing as if it were pulled straight out of a snow globe. Everything in my world was perfect and exactly as it should be, and I couldn’t imagine it could ever get any better. But, of course, it did. Snow that deep and that soft just makes you feel like the best skier on the mountain.”
She loved the calibre of the food, “best ski picnic I’ve ever had,” and the company of her fellow skiers, “special bonds, unbreakable by the laws of powder days, are creating relationships in a dreamland.” But mostly, she was effusive about the tour operator, CMH, which she described, “the godfather of all heli-skiing operations had found its niche, and ruled the industry for 50 years. With 11 lodges and a license of operation encompassing more acres than any other tenure in North America, it’s no wonder they are also the single largest employer of guides in the world.”
To read the full article, visit www.skinet.com/ski/article/all-heli-family.