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Travel Top to Bottom: Heli-Tour Morning, Heli-Hike Afternoon
It was a tour impossible to resist: float far above the Canadian Rocky Mountains in the morning for a helicopter's sky-high view of the daunting Columbia Icefield, then grab some gear and spend the afternoon heli-hiking some of the lower ranges we'd flown over. If you're going to travel in Alberta's magnificent glacier country, you'll need some perspective, and this is a great way to get it, from top to bottom. You'll see massive shoulders of ice and snow bearing the weight of millions of years, as fangs of rock curve upward toward the helicopter. Then, within hours, you'll struggle to get a toe-hold on tiny, green dots of lichen that grow on the rocks and provide a bit of traction as you hike past White Mountain Aven and other wildflowers. My wife Jackie and I went with Icefield Helicopter Tours. I'd shot some television footage previously with Icefield and they have an easygoing, friendly operation that I believe would be attractive to people taking a helicopter tour for the first time. The pilots and guides are well versed in the history of the region and the heliport's not too difficult to get to, given its cat-bird's seat location near the icefields, mountain ranges and alpine lakes. Travel from the mountain town of Banff in Banff National Park to Icefield Helicopter Tours, and you can take your time by enjoying a few hours of the Icefields Parkway, one of the most scenic driving tours in the world, linking both the Banff and Jasper national parks. (To get to the heliport, you'll turn off onto the David Thompson Highway, where black bears and other wildlife can be seen lolling by the side of the road). The aptly named Icefields Parkway passes within viewing distance of seven icefields (large, upland glaciers) and about 25 smaller glaciers. Tour Above Glaciers The centerpiece is the massive Columbia Icefield, which covers an area of about 200 square km (124 sq. mi). Mountaineers Norman Collie and Hermann Woolley recorded their view of the icefield on their ascent of Mount Athabasca in 1898. Collie wrote: "A new world was spread out at our feet: to the westward stretched a vast icefield...in those unknown valleys glowing with the evening light." When that world was spread out below us in the beginning of summer as we rode high above in the helicopter during our tour, it appeared to be almost miniature in size. And that is a common deception, said our pilot, Carson. Even when you are travelling 8,000-ft. high at 100 mph over beautiful, blue-green pools and 1,000-ft waterfalls, and rocketing between valley walls of scarred and striated rock, it often appears that you could almost reach out and scoop out a fistful of snow. If you've ever experienced an IMAX movie with its daunting camera angles, imagine being in a helicopter seat that puts you right in the action rather than a theatre seat, and you'll begin to understand how thrilling a ride this can be. The deft pitch of the helicopter as it pivots in crystalline air, the crackle of the pilot's instructions through the earpieces and microphone that you wear, the thrum of the aircraft that travels from the soles of your feet into your legs and the bubble-in-the-sky view makes the tour of six glaciers and alpine lakes adventurous as soon as you lift off from the heliport. When we fly over one of the ridges we see a great reveal, where a massive clump of snow and ice (luminescent with that peculiar green-blue glow) is disappearing within the jagged teeth of raw rock, as if it's being swallowed by the years. It was a beautiful, blue-sky day and everything was lit for us from above. Icefield Helicopter Tours offers three sightseeing tour paths: the Cline Glacier Explorer Tour (20 minutes), the Wilson Icefield Discovery Tour (25 minutes) and the Columbia Icefield Ultimate Tour (55 minutes), which is the one we took. We flew past the ranges where we'd be heli-hiking later in the day, and then across various creeks and lakes before turning through the Columbia Icefield to the Lyell Icefield and back toward Abraham Lake, where the heliport is near. Ralph Sliger, president and operations manager of Icefield Helicopter Tours is inclined to believe that his helicopter tours provide a special Rocky Mountain high. When he points out "look what you've been missing," he's referring to photo after memorable photo of jagged peaks, emerald valleys and flower carpeted alpine meadows that he's acquired in his years of flying customers into the strata of their dreams v and not a paved hiking trail to be seen. Heli-Hike Off the Beaten Path When it came time to heli-hike, we were provided a knowledgeable guide, Jennifer. If you want to get off the beaten path (and I mean, far enough off that you risk the path beating you to your knees so that you pray in humbling submission for the end to come swiftly), then heli-hiking can be an adventurous route for you. Let me be clear: you don't have to push yourself. There many ways to the mountain, and, as I was to learn, many ways up, down and around it. As with any challenge, it's a journey within as well, and the reward is often simply having done it (as well as telling others, perhaps repetitively and annoyingly, of your accomplishment). But bragging rights remain an obstinate feature of modern travel, and as places and experiences to acquire them diminish with the relentless reach of global tours, heli-hiking in the Canadian Rocky Mountains is one way to brag away with impunity. Jackie and I were set down along with Jennifer at The Repeater Site (the usual drop off for heli hikes) at 8,100 ft. We descended from this windy point as Jennifer described the ground cover in the area (lichens and mosses, our favourite of which was Reindeer Lichen), and then, over the course of a few hours, traversed some inclines that included pockets of shale before settling down further in the valley for a gourmet lunch. We never made it to our original destination, as Jackie and I lost stamina. We finally had to stumble upward to a makeshift pick-up point on a scrubby knoll where Ralph artfully settled the helicopter within just a few feet of us, as if he were backing a pickup truck into a suddenly available stall on a side street. Regardless, I continue to annoyingly claim my bragging rights. Heli-Tours Throughout Alberta There are heli-tour and heli-hiking operations throughout Alberta that provide a variety of experiences, from heli-fishing to heli-yoga. Find more tours and operators among website listings in the Resources section listed below. As well, you can use the search term 'heli' at the Travel Alberta website. -------------------- E-mail this article to your friend! HotelDirectory.ws presents direct links to hotels, apartments, hostels, motels, guesthouses,
self-catering accommodation and more. |
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