Snowboarding Variations - Heli Boarding

Most snowboarders love Powder Snow condition and many have, in one way or another, experienced this:

It is the evening before your anticipated pleasurable day of Snowboarding. Glancing outside, and to your excitement, you see snow falling... hard! Promptly, you adjust your alarm clock with the hopes of being one of the first on the slopes so you can ride some fresh powder. You then jump smugly into bed and wake up as planned. After gearing up, you made your way to the slopes as fast as possible - only you head on to a major disappointment. The fresh powder is gone (as 100s of tracks run down the slopes). Once again, you were too late. Your powder dreams became just that - a dream.

This common frustration, and the urge of many snowboarders to ride infinite untracked powder fields, have led to one of the most exciting forms of Snowboarding: Heli Boarding. Heli Boarding or Heli Skiing as expected, requires a Helicopter. With this, an increasing number of agencies now offer Heli Boarding packages that include helicopter transportation to the top of great slopes and pick up at the bottom. In this way, you can enjoy full days of unlimited fresh power runs as you are dropped off at slopes that are unreachable by normal transportation. Once you have finished your amazing run you will be simply picked up by the helicopter and then brought to the beginning of another great run.

As you can imagine, having a helicopter and pilot at your disposal will not be cheap. Still, the costs are often lower than you would expect for this rare luxury. Different operators offer various packages that differ in:

Duration - the number of days you go
Number of Runs - the total number of runs you are going to make
Vertical Meters - the total amount of vertical metres you are allowed to descend
Accomodation - quality of accomodation
Meals - quality of the meals included
Luxoury Perks - private guides, chefs, physical therapists, etc.

A single Heli Boarding day will cost between a couple of hundred to a couple of thousand dollars. We definitely recommend that you to take a good look around before booking such a trip. If you are going to spend a lot of money on what would definitely be one of the most exciting trips in your life, you ought to do your homework. Make sure you are going with a trusted agency. Ask for references to people who have gone before and try to check up on testimonials. Ensure that you are well prepared - good agencies will give you list of the equipment you should and should not take with you. Finally, be sure that your skill level in powder Snowboarding is high enough to get a good value for your money. Advanced Intermediate to Expert snowboarders are more likely to get the most of their Heli Boarding trip. As a beginner it will be a waste of money if you end up stranded in chest deep powder.

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