MoneyCrashers set out to find the 10 best places to go heli-skiing in North America - and put Valdez Heli-Ski Guides on the list. Their framing is refreshingly blunt: heli-skiing is not cheap, but few experiences on Earth deliver the same rush.
The ultimate luxury adventure
As they describe it, a helicopter drops you on a mountaintop in open country - terrain often measured in millions of acres - a private guide skis with you, and the machine collects you at the bottom. Nothing beats it for untouched powder, pristine runs, and the chance at a first descent. The open expanses of British Columbia and the United States hold the largest heli-ski areas in the world, and MoneyCrashers is clear that this is not the vacation to budget-hunt: it is the one you spring for, and remember forever.
No. 8 - Valdez Heli-Ski Guides, Alaska
What earns Valdez its place: the authentic Alaska experience, and the terrain behind so many extreme ski films. Big mountains, big lines, steep and deep. The Chugach Mountains around Valdez average nearly 700 inches of snow a year, and their coastal position makes that snow moist enough to bond - the stability that lets skiers commit to seriously steep slopes.
They highlight our formula: big mountains, small groups. Four guests per helicopter, accessing Alaska’s famed spines and iconic lines. Our Eurocopter A-Star B2 sets guests down atop runs averaging 3,000 to 5,000 vertical feet - the kind that turn your legs to jelly. And when the flying is done, the Tsaina Lodge serves gourmet dining with the Washington Glacier out the window.
Note: the package prices quoted in this 2020 article are no longer current. See our booking page for this season’s memberships.
