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Heli-skiing in Chile!
Monday, October 06, 2008
I just returned from a 3 week training camp in Chile that I attended with Challenge Aspen Competition Program. As far as training goes, nothing all that unusual happened, but we did get to go HELI-SKIING!!
Heli-skiing has been something that I always hoped I would get the opportunity to do, so when we saw that there was heli-skiing in Chile for half the price because it was the end of the season, we all jumped on that opportunity. A total of 5 monoskiers went along with our 3 coaches headed up to about 12,000ft and skied over 4,000m of vertical. It got off to a rough start, the weather wasn't perfect and they weren't sure if we were going to be able to go, but it cleared up enough for us to get one run in (we would have gone up for a second, but the wind starting picking up and it was too dangerous for the helicopter to fly). We needed 3 helicopter flights: 2 with 4 people each in them and then 1 whole helicopter with equipment (our monoskis).
The first 1/3 of the run was pretty choppy and very firm. It wasn't so much fun, but as we skied further down, the snow became more like butter and became a lot more enjoyable. The run was wicked long. As we watched the guide go down, we didn't think it looked that long, but when he finally stopped we were all amazed at how long it took him to ski what looked like a usual length run. Then when we all skied it, it was like skiing a wicked long downhill twice!
It was a lot of fun and so worth it. I definitely will be going again!
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