Photo Epic: Pinkbike's 2023 Whistler Heli Drop
Earlier this month during Crankworx, the Pinkbike team and industry friends checked out Whistler's only sanctioned heli-bike trail.
This new trail from AlpX Expeditions (powered by Blackcomb Helicopters) has been the culmination of 5 years of consultation with the Province of British Columbia, Lil’wat Nation’ Land Referrals Committee, Squamish Nation, resource organizations and local user groups. The new trail consists of 13km of freshly built singletrack, spanning over 1600m (5,250ft) of descent, including a 3km black diamond descent from the peak, feeding into beautiful alpine lakes before a 1.2km climb trail, and an intermediate blue trail of 9km to finish. This final section follows an alpine ridgeline down through old growth forest to open terrain with a mix of singletrack and bike park style flow sections, and a healthy about of steep corners to keep the heart rate up.
The trail work was completed by Howler Contracting, a Whistler-based trail building crew lead by Zander Strathearn. You can learn more about the build process here.
Environmental impacts from heli-biking aren't insignificant, but for context, we're told each heli-drop burns slightly less fuel per person (around eight litres) than a Tacoma driving one-way from Vancouver to Whistler. Blackcomb Helicopters also offsets 100% of their operations emissions (flights, vehicles, infrastructure etc.). Whilst this doesn't undo the carbon emitted from their operations, it’s a step in the right direction, and as a company they are committed to further advancing their sustainability and moving towards to a lower-emissions future in the aviation industry. Thanks for having us, guys.
Trish loading bikes on safe and securely. Gavin and Keith on patrol were making sure everyone unloads and rides down safely.
Pilot Pierre gave us a ride up top, where an alpine black diamond rated trail feeds down into subalpine terrain.
Heli-biking (and tourism) is a very small part of Blackcomb Helicopters' current operation, with the majority of their fleet out fighting wildfires that are heavily impacting BC & Alberta this summer. Tourism is a year-round product that allows Blackcomb Helicopters to keep their pilots employed full-time, whilst being ready for other more essential flight programs. Blackcomb Helicopters also fly for Search and Rescue & Medevac, hydro-electric powerline construction, and various other industries in the mountains for our local workforce.
No, we didn't spend our podcast money on buying a heli.
We got a ride up to Ispoot Mountain on a Eurocopter AS350 B3 (or more recently known as the H125).
Keeping a safe distance and letting the patrollers do most of the work, since literally everything on a helicopter can kill you.
We require our sales team to be matchy-matchy at all times.
Rock features and steep chutes aplenty on the upper black section.
Trail pull.
The trail eventually feeds into a lower blue section, which has its fair share of steep terrain and tight corners. Dark blue, if you will.
What's an alpine biking photo without fireweed?
EWS (errr EDR) pro Dan Wolfe was on deck running social media for us during Crankworx this year, and didn't mind one bit when we asked him to come along.
Views for days.
Just a bunch'a nerds.
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Not using it in the summer for fire ops is a good point, but from what I know of that, there is a whole lot more than just the helicopter itself to use it for fire fighting. Multiple support vehicles, equipment, specific air and ground crew, insurance etc. its not as easy as "hey lets just fight some fires as long as we have this thing"
Is that at least 500m higher than Top of the World?
Person 1: People are gratuitously emitting carbon dioxide..
Person 2: But people *want* to gratuitously emit carbon dioxide, in a variety of ways
Person 3: Emitting a bunch of carbon dioxide to arrive at a destination and then ride a bunch of times (with only marginal emissions for each additional run) is morally equivalent to emitting a bunch of carbon dioxide for one ride.
Is that about the shape of it?
I *was* trying to make the point that, writ large, we as a sport (MTB - and heck let's add skiing too) collectively burn millions of gallons of fuel getting to our venues every year, then there's a bunch of screaming about a heli. But ebikes are also bad because motor "and I'm pure muscle".
And yes, I drive hundreds of miles to go fishing then complain about what the climate is doing to the rivers, so I guess I'll go f*** myself.
If nobody took the heli-ski then they wouldn't have a helicopter hanging
Virtue signalers are hilarious.
It's not all or nothing. You just lie to yourself because it's good for your peace of mind...
And to those who tries to compare Heli and car, the fact is those in the heli drives cars too : it's not heli or car, for them it's heli and car.
(Rich) people are really slow to change their minds, because thay dont' want to touch to their holy liberty of doing whatever they want when they want. Their american way of life...
It's so sad, but you just need two or three more years of great forest fires. Then one day, you will understand. Too late for your children.
So I guess fire it is.
I live near a small forested park surrounded by prairie. It last burned in 1885 and should burn every 70 years or so. It is far from a healthy forest, with lots of blow down and dead standing trees because it hasn't had a fire to clear it out. Unfortunately, with the amount of development in homes, Parks, ski hill and bike trails, we are to the point where it can't be left to burn, but there are also concerns about logging it from the various stakeholders. So it just sits, getting more unhealthy and more fuel on the ground year after year.
Logging, although not a perfect substitute, at least removes a lot of the surface fuel and trees and allows the forest to restart. But it is not easy to get anyone to agree to harvesting near tourism or residential development because it isn't nice to look at cuts. But it also isn't nice to look at your house burn down...
"So let's just do nothing and let's enjoy the disaster to come!"
5 minutes later...
"its not all or nothing"
So when it comes to criticizing others, its all or nothing but when it comes to defending your own actions, well...... there's a bit of wiggle room there. LOL
You probably use a car, consume meat, heat your house, consume products, etc... like the rest of us.
But it's so easy to feel good about yourself and blame people online for participating in one infinitely small part of what the problem is.
You're not constructive about the issue of climate change, you just like giving people shit online
"
I like your way to be constructive. And to project your preconceived ideas onto me.
1) What kind of land are these trails on? More specifically, public land that I'm allowed to ride on?
2) Is it possible to access these trails without a helicopter? How?
This winter, we were skinning up a trail frequently used by a cat skiing operation. It had been pretty windy overnight, and there were big drifts on a steep part of the cat track. While we were skinning up that section, the cat came up behind us on its first lap of the day, full of lucky bastards who had paid $600/seat to be there.
The cat passed us, and went up the trail to the first of those drifts. Then, a magical thing happened. The cat spent about 5-minutes trying to get through the drift. Plowing forward, getting stuck, backing up, trying again. Then, as the heavens parted and angels sang, the cat operator gave up and backed down the mountain the way it had come.
In that moment, as we kept skinning up the trail through the drift and waving at the retreating cat, I felt a joy like I had never experienced before.
In reality, our ski down the (untouched by cat skiiers) mountain was only OK. But it was made so much sweeter by both being the only ones there, and having not spent $600.
I'm not sure I'll ever recapture that feeling, but making my way independently to the top of a trail that usually requires $2K and a helicopter might get me there.
www.trailforks.com/trails/rainbow-s-end-99182
To access without heli, you'd have to hike a bike a long way. Most of the access trails are hiking only.
You can access sans heli but it's a hike from the point where you park.
And yes, it's very like the (unwritten) rules re cat skiing ops. You can access their areas but be nice about it; sounds like you were!
www.strava.com/heatmap#14.41/-122.93102/50.29396/hot/ride
In terms of access…you’d have to push/ride up the descend trail so yea it’s doable but not really.
Congrats to all for a great experience
Also labeled on OpenStreetMap here: www.openstreetmap.org/#map=16/50.3091/-122.9407
I thought "Lord of the Squirrels" was my backcountry target next time I was in the area, but I think I've got a new goal.
Alp-X is cool but its not dissimilar to Top of the World then combined with some up-and-down trails accessed off Whistler peak which you can access for $ 42. Not knocking it but there's a lot of alpine accessible rides in this region
It goes something like this, if a cat op puts in a cat road (using the snowcat op example) that you respect their efforts by not doing something like driving or sledding recklessly up and down the road or putting sled tracks in all over the place where there clients might ski after you've used the road to access terrain. It's not always followed of course.
Run by nice people, but not particularly tremendous terrain. The two areas they ski are sort of our backup choices for backcountry laps. A lower angle area we ski when we're not comfortable with the avy risk on steeper terrain, and a short gladed area that's a bit steeper. There's some good stuff in the area, but the cat can't get there.
I heard a rumour that Schweitzer was kicking them out this coming season though, and with the new Ikon ownership of the resort, if they decide to run their own cat, I'm sure $600/seat will be nothing but a fond memory.
I organized a group and booked out a whole cat so everyone knew each other and was motivated. Plus it snowed approx 80cms on us at - 15 C do conditions were great. Therefore my impression was favourable
but: heli biking or skiing: just environmentally wrong.
we consumers have the power, and if we don't consume a product or service, it will no longer be offered, simple as that.
and as much as I love the helicopter as a machine, this thing is best stood on the ground and admired when really needed: you know, like wildfires and rescuing riders etc...
AKA:
* 1 Day of Heli-Skiing: 0.62 tCO2e/ skier/day
* Taking a flight from New York to LA: 0.64 tCO2e/ passenger
* Flying from Vancouver to Paris :0.78 tCO2e/ passenger
* Driving from Seattle to Whistler 4x per year in a 2015 Toyota Tacoma: 0.76 tCO2e
Do you take an international vacation? Go on roadtrips? Drive to the trailhead a bunch? You're emitting as much CO2 as someone going heli-skiing.
It's great to try and minimize your CO2 footprint, we all should. But we should do it on the basis of facts, not "getting upset and rich people doing things we'd like to do."
You act like others comments are hurting you. As you say…STFU.
A good starting point would be to ban absolutely all commercial passenger air traffic. A one-hour commercial flight will cause emissions far greater than what an average family of four will emit in an entire year (by heating their home, driving their car, using electricity, etc.)
This is why posts like this, that document a few ignorantly privileged individuals taking a helicopter to the top of a mountain for fun, are especially infuriating. Because it's literally one of the worst possible offenses in terms of contributing to the global climate emergency.
Since this is a biking forum...how do you (and @Muscovir) suppose professional sport changes in the future? North American athletes never compete in Europe and visa-versa?
p.s. the new bike thing was a joke (I'm not buying a new one cause I don't need it).
Amongst other factors, sh*t like this is the reason why like half of Canada is on fire currently. But you do you I guess.
I think its time for a Gamers Nexus review of Pinkbikes reporting accuracy.
www.pinkbike.com/news/carbon-frames-produce-more-emissions-than-alloy-and-more-key-points-from-treks-sustainability-report.html
Yes.
Is ceasing Heli Skiing Operations or not going to have any beneficial impact on climate change? Nope.
Has Anyone actually put the nuts to India, China, etc to truly clean up their part of the act orrrrr do we turn a blind eye to feed the consumer machine as cheaply as possible.... Thought so.
While I wholly believe in doing everything one can to minimize their own individual impact on the planet, we are far beyond salvation and our sphere is well and truly f*cked. And its only going to get worse.
So until my time ends, Im gonna enjoy the ride in whatever form it takes. XC, Trail, Enduro, DH, Lift, Shuttle or Heli... I aint care. Im gonna Ride.
Can't believe that you were able to type that with a straight face.
I'm definitely not an economist, scientist or environmentalist, but I don't think it's as simple as "putting the nuts" to countries trying to build their economies now while the start of the issue commenced with the industrial revolution (essentially Europe and the United States). Are you not also willing to put the nuts to the G7/8 to pony up and pay for the damages they've caused (and are still causing) while profiting (and are still profiting)? What's good for the goose is good for the gander? Pot gets let off the hook but kettle pays?
Just a very grey discussion I think.