TLH Heli-Skiing
Words By Riley Leboe

I woke up to the smell of freshly brewed coffee; it was just after 6 am and the breakfast buffet was in full effect. As lavish and extensive as the meal display was, no one’s eyes were on the food. It was blue bird and everyone was looking out windows at the sun rising over the peaks at TLH’s Tyax Lodge.

A few days earlier I had received a call from filmer extraordinaire Mike Benedek inviting me to join Chris Winter and Darryn Shewchuk on a 3 day heli trip into TLH’s South Chilcotin mountains. The morning of the trip I was picked up in Squamish by the TLH Bus and we started the adventurous ride to the middle of nowhere that is the Tyax Lodge. Mike and Chris got the royal treatment with a heli ride from the Vancouver Harbor to the lodge with some amazing views of the Squamish River Valley and all the peaks in between.

After a bus ride on some exciting roads going North of Lillooet we arrived at the amazing Tyax Lodge. The Lodge was a sight in itself being built with some of the biggest timber I’ve ever seen and only footsteps away from the heli pad. We settled into our rooms and then headed upstairs to meet the staff and sit down for our safety briefing. After the safety briefing and a delicious 5 star, 5 course meal, everyone made their way to bed anticipating the morning to come. Personally it was like being a kid again on Christmas Eve knowing there was a heli on the pad and one of the largest tenier in the world waiting to be shredded!

The next morning I woke up to some bad news. It turns out some dense cloud had rolled in and the group would be on standby hoping we could fly. While waiting we took the chance to get to know Keith- our guide and Mike Watling- General Manager and our personal tour guide. We soon found out that many of the guides have worked in this area for years and the knowledge of the zones and snow pack was very impressive. It ended up being a down day but was not without its fun. The guides took the guests snowmobiling and a wicked soccer game of Canada vs. Europe got very heated. Once again we stuffed our faces at the dinner table and headed off to bed in hopes of a sunny start to the morning.

So this brings me to where I started the story- Faces staring out at the blue sky and very stoked about the new snow our down day brought. We threw on all our gear and rushed out to the heli pad to start our day. With the powerful 407 spinning on the pad and the smell of jet fuel in the air, we made our way into the heli and lifted off. As we were flying out to our first run the guests were coming up behind us in the 13 passenger Bell 212. Taking shots out the window it felt like a scene from Apocalypse Now.

We landed at the top of our first run. The snow looked great and the sun was on our faces. Chris took the honors and started shralping the steep and deep slope. Darryn and I followed and the run was absolutely awesome. The new snow from the night before was dry and we even got to play in a bit of slough on our way down! Our next few runs would be just as great, skiing all sorts or terrain from wide open glaciers to nice lines beside massive ice formations! The highlight of the day would come when we skied a run beside some huge blocks of ice with the heli buzzing just above our heads.

The day was a great success, banging off run after run in some great snow while working on our goggle tans. The fun didn’t stop there. We got back to the lodge and had glacial ice in our cocktails and started doing jagerbombs to celebrate the awesome day. The partying continued well into the night with more jagerbombs and some scary flaming shots of 151 Rum. After an awesome evening with the staff- sans guides- we stumbled down to our rooms and passed out…

There is no cure for a hangover quite like the smell of jet fuel in the morning. Lucky for us it was blue skies again and we were off to another great day. We started off right with our first run being on a pretty dramatic peak with a nice open face and a bit of rock and pepper throughout. The top was nice and steep and slowly mellowed out toward the bottom. I let my skies run out the bottom and it was a sweet first run of the day. In the heli on our way to the next drop we found out that the run had yet to be named. We thought in honor of the shots the night before that 151 would be a very fitting name.

Chris and I had been scoping a line with some exposure off of both sides making it look like somewhat of a finger running side angle down the side of the peak. We got dropped at the top with Keith and waited for the ok to drop. As I skied through the middle of the line I could hear the sound of the chopper buzzing right above me. This was definitely my favorite run of the trip. The snow was great the whole way down, fast and smooth. What made it so special was to everyone’s knowledge it was a first decent, making it a first for myself. The rest of the day would consist of chutes, bowls, and even a couple backflips of some wind lips. After skiing alpine for the whole trip we finished the day off with some tree skiing and even Ride Guide Mike set the camera down for enough time to make some turns! It was a great finish to the trip and even with the first down day, we got about all the vertical our legs could handle in 2 days.

The terrain at TLH was really mind-blowing. They simply have everything to offer. You can be skiing wide open glaciers, trees, chutes, bowls and even make a trip to the Bute Inlet on the Coast of BC all in the same day. It gives the opportunity to have a trip that can’t be rivaled by any other heli operation. With such a great group of guides, staff and friends, it won’t be a rip I’ll be forgetting anytime soon. I can only hope that Mike will give me a shout to come ski again sometime in the near future.