Hey guys,
Yeah, father/son trips are pretty cool...we're seeing more of it happening. Cool for the kid cos he/she gets to go heli, cool for the parents because they can have quality family time!
Drail's comments are fairly spot on, though I do disagree with "guaranteed vertical", at least in relation to our operation. We offer Unlimited Vertical because it is the best option for our guests as we almost never have down days and we ski a lot! If we did charge for extra vertical, guests would be hit with a big bill at the end of their trip (as an example, in just 6 days of skiing, our AVERAGE group skis 141,000ft / 43,000m...and good groups can do MUCH more. So Unlimited Vertical saves them lots of money!). In fact we only average 2 in a whole winter! Last year when we got puked on by La Nina, we still got tonnes of skiing in with only THREE down days all winter. There are a number of reasons we have such an enviable fly day record; our lodge is in the middle of our terrain, we have awesome runs near-by (so if there's a clearing we can bomb out quickly), we have SICK burnt forests where we can get into steep terrain and the burnt trees give skiers and importantly pilots points of reference so we can fly when others call a down day. Another huge advantage is that we ski exclusively in Small Groups, so we can mobilise very quickly if the weather improves. We don't do snowcat backup because we just don't need it (and we still get tons f snow...about 46ft every winter)!
And there's no question, small groups are the way to go....... you don't see any new companies starting up that choose big groups over small groups! If its just you and your dad coming, you already make up 50% of the group (ie we ski in groups of 4). So it's easy to go at the pace that you want....you can bomb it, or take it a bit slower for your dad (he can ride the more open terrain, you can hit our pillows and mushrooms!)
Huckit35 and TWA - With modern skis people are floating a lot more than when people were skiing on 220s! So they don't get as tired. And again, because we are in small groups, it's easier to set a comfortable pace and get matched with others that want to go the same pace (best thing is to bring one of your buddies and his dad to make your own private group of 4!). Another thought, if fitness is a main concern, we offer trips of any duration....so you could come for say 2 or 3 or 4 days so dad doesn't burn out! You could do a few days with us and also a couple days of wicked resort skiing at Revelstoke or Kicking Horse.
Oh by the way, we've got tonnes of snow right now..... about a 6foot BASE!! Check our Facebook page for recent pix.
Any questions, send me an email!
