April Heliskiing – Epic and Underrated

Each month in the ski season has its own unique flavour. December and January are stormy and deep. February is about cold smoke and crisp sunshine. March, often considered my many to be the best month of the year, has a bit of everything. The temps are a little warmer and the days a little longer. At most heliski operations, March is usually the busiest month and tends to get all the glory. But then there’s April. I love April skiing. Down in the South Coast of BC, April is all about corn snow and sunshine. But in Northern BC, April heliskiing can be all time.

At Last Frontier Heliskiing, one of the benefits of being so far north is that April can have all the elements of a perfect ski week. The days are long. Really long; it’s not unheard of to ski well into the evening. And the snow? Well last year I spent a week skiing in April at Ripley Creek and it was about as good as it ever gets. Knee deep, blower pow, clear skies and long, epic laps. April can have it all.

The snowpack is at its deepest in April, so the runs are long. The snow can be good from the high alpine peaks all the way down to the valley bottoms. Last year, our laps would start off with three thousand feet of knee deep powder and end with a couple thousand feet of perfect spring corn snow. It was warm too, so you weren’t in full winter layers, but in your spring getup; a light shell, light pants, light gloves.

Skiing in April is underrated. Sure, you can get challenging conditions, but that’s true in any month. In April, the chances if scoring sunshine and epic skiing are better than most months. And when you do, it’s absolutely mind blowing. We had a day last year, near the end of the first week of April where we skied 45,000 feet of perfect powder. We took off from Ripley at 8:30 in the morning and were the last to touch down, just after 7:30 in the evening. Every lap was better than the last. We even managed a few full-length runs, one of which descended almost 6000 ft. That was a good day!

So if you’re thinking of coming heliskiing, think about coming in April. Sure, the other months get all the glory, but April is all about soul. The days are long and the crew more relaxed. Yes, it’s all about the skiing, but there’s more to it than that. The afternoons are a little more chill.

Wanna ski ’til sunset? Sure. Wanna end early and go for a walk in town? Absolutely. Or maybe you want to spend the end of the day at a hot spring, soaking your tired legs under the endless northern sky. That can be arranged as well. After dinner, let’s watch the sunset and enjoy a beverage outside, under the stars. But don’t take my word for it. Come up and see for yourself.

Be safe, ski hard.