Heli-Yeah!

Dear beloved ones from far and wide…

I know there’s a good chance that you might hate me after reading this blog post, but you know what? Screw it! It’s my dream, I’m living it and I want to brag about it as much as possible! :-)

Ever since I was a little girl, I was about 3 years old – as small as fat – dressed in a red onesie with parrots on – wearing bright coloured plastic glasses, life in the mountains was the only thing I kept dreaming about! Mountaintops covered in a thick layer of fresh snow, blue bird skies accompanied by a little sunshine, trees with branches that are hanging down because they can’t take the weight of the snow any longer. It sounds like a dream, eh? :-) And although chances for a perfect day on the hill are rather small, due to the fact that we’re dependant on Mother Nature, I’ve never had a bad day of skiing so far!

Het knietje!

When I was little, the only thing I wanted to do was getting my little skis on and shred the mountains without spilling my energy on taking turns. As a kid, you just don’t think about the consequences and you know that you can make huge crashes without even having a minor scratch. Until 2 years ago, “Speed is your friend” and “Earn your turns” were my mottos for skiing on the hill (groomed, ungroomed, blue, green, black runs…or even just off piste).  On January 27^th 2012 a small accident changed about everything. That day my knee got broken on a couple of places…but, most of all, I lost my childlike naïveté. I now know that you do take risks when you go out skiing.. But I love it too much to quit! :-)

Het knietje! :-)

For almost 2 years now, I’ve been working really hard to get my knee strong enough for what I would like to call…my ultimate dream…heliskiing! And yeah – it came true on January 4^th 2014! :-) That day, Claire (colleague and my friend) and I were the lucky 2 from RK Heliski who could join a group of paying guests. I wasn’t even on the “Wanna Ski List” since that Saturday was a working day for me and my boss Laura really wanted to get out. But the evening before, she decided to give her seat to me so I could spend some time with Claire after working really hard at the company. Thanks again Laura, I had a blast!

The thought of going heliskiing with 4 paying guests, Claire and 2 guides kept me awake that night! Would I be able to do this? Skiing in the trees? Powder snow? Yikes! I’m glad that Claire felt the same way! :-) After having breakfast, we still had to finish some Safety Talks. Rod came in first to talk about the Guest Packs and how to adjust your transceiver holster. After that Nate taught us how to bundle your skis in the appropriate way, before Albin the pilot explained everything we needed to know about the Bell 204 helicopter. Last but not least, and maybe the most important thing, Nate explained us everything about our transceiver. By the time we finished the Safety Talks, I even felt more nauseous than I was before! And then it was time to take off! 

 

 

We skied 4 runs (Rosies, Pink Panther x 2 and Big Judy) before we had our lunch break. The 30 centimeter of fresh snow, the tree skiing, the little snowflakes falling down from the sky…DAMN! I’ve never been happier before! :-) Off course I fell down and hit a couple of little Christmas trees, but everything was good! I wasn’t even wearing my brace, so I think I can conclude that my knee is strong enough. And I can’t wait to do it again! I’m still editing my GoPro movies, but the pictures will speak for themselves.

Skiing Big Judy

Skiing Pink Panther

  

After going heliskiing, I have to admit that skiing on the hill is not the same anymore. Sorry Papie and Mum, I became a little spoiled brat :-)

Powder Happy!