It's a clear blue sky and the whirling rotors of the helicopter pick up rooster tails of snow as it touches down near the peak of a piece of Rocky Mountain heaven.
Looking down on the long run of untouched powder they're about to tackle, the group of 10 skiers and their guides from Crescent Spur Heli-skiing feel the adrenaline building in their boots in anticipation of their next thrill ride.
What started as an idea 20 years ago for former Prince George Spruce King hockey player Mark Aubrey and his wife Regina is now a thriving business which caters to well-heeled clients looking for the ultimate ski experience.
"It's way beyond skiing," said Regina Aubrey.
"Our lodge is at the bottom of the valley at 2,160 feet and within minutes you're dropped off at the top of a run standing with your group and your guides and you're looking out over this huge expanse of mountains that seem to go on forever. It's quiet and you feel, 'I'm so out there.'"
"I've been in this business for 35 years and I never get tired of that feeling, where I just feel humbled and so lucky to be out there in this environment. It gives you an appreciation for something much larger than yourself, and the skiing is just an adrenaline rush. It's so much fun, and I think that's why people come back."
Skiers plunge between 1,000 and 4,000 vertical feet with every run after being dropped on mountaintops that rise as much as as 9,000 feet above sea level. This year there's no shortage of virgin powder in the Robson Valley to make tracks on slopes buried in snowpacks piled above average in most areas.
"The skiing has been really good, we had a lot of snow so we have a heavy base," said Mark. "It's the mountains and you're always at the mercy of nature, but with the licence we have we can usually find a good place to go skiing."
Mark Aubrey was born in Prince George and played centre for the Spruce Kings for half the 1978-79 season, before he gave up hockey to become a logger and develop his new love for skiing. He met Regina in the early 1980s when he signed on as a guest of Selkirk Wilderness Skiing, a snowcat-skiing operation where she worked as guide in the mountains north of Nelson. The following year he returned and started working for the company as a guide.
In 1987, the Aubreys came up with a plan to open their own heli-skiing business and bought Mark's family farm near Crescent Spur, 160 kilometres east of Prince George.
Aubrey's parents, Elisabeth and Jim, came to Crescent Spur in the 1950s, when the CN Rail line was the only access to the tiny logging village. James worked as a bookkeeper at the Crescent Spur sawmill and they built the farm for their family of five children in the late '60s and '70s.
This is their 20th season offering heli-skiing and there's never been a problem finding returning customers.
"Skiers like the familiarity of the runs they skied last year, the same reason skiers buy season passes to ski areas," said Regina. "Between 75 and 80 per cent of our guests are returning customers. We have some people who have skied with us 15 or 16 years. One guy from Southern California [Garry James] is coming four times this year. By the end of this season he'll have skied 30 weeks with us."
Heli-skiers should be of strong intermediate ability, able to ski all the black diamond runs at a ski resort without fear.
"If you can get down those runs in a resort competently, not that necessarily those are the runs you will choose, then you can heli-ski," said Regina, 60, a Crescent Spur guide. "Nowadays we have the specialized powder skis. Once the fat skis came in, it really revolutionized the industry.
"You should be fit. The most tiring thing for a lot of people is falling and getting up out of the deep snow. But in all the years, I can count on one hand the people who shouldn't be here, because it's not a cheap holiday."
The cost for a week of skiing ranges from $6,715 per person in the spring season to $7,980 in midwinter for a six-day, seven-night package.
The 1,500-square-mile area they are licensed for allows Crescent Spur skiers to carve tracks in Morkill River drainage area east to McBride, as far south as the Bowron Lakes area. They have close to 350 runs mapped out, and average 10 to 15 runs per day.
"We're lucky because we have the Rockies and the Cariboos within our boundaries," said Regina. "You can have quite different weather and conditions in each of those areas. Sometimes the Rockies are socked right in and the Cariboos look great, and vice-versa, so we have a lot to choose from. The guides are always finding new runs."
Every morning, before the chopper blades are set in motion, the guides spend an hour discussing with the pilots where to go skiing. Weather conditions, avalanche danger, the level of ability of the skiers are factors that determine where they ski. If avalanche danger is high or if it's snowing heavily, they stick to skiing in the trees if the snow is not too deep or find less hazardous areas. At the end of the day, information about the conditions they encountered is submitted to the Canadian Avalanche Association's InfoEx. The subscriber-based website provides updates on avalanche risk, based on reports from CCA staff and other heli-ski tour and ski resort operators in B.C. and Alberta.
"It's a competitive business but it's one of those industries where we understand the challenges we all face in safety and risk management, so we're very supportive of each other on that front," said Mark. "We have access to a lot of information about what other professionals are seeing on the ground, and that's very helpful in our own risk management programs.
"The backcountry does have some inherent risks and the people use it have to accept that."
The helicopters are stocked with avalanche rescue equipment and all guests carry their own transceivers and are briefed on rescue training techniques before they take their first run.
Last winter season, 11 people died in avalanches in Canada, down from 12 fatalities in 2009-10 and 26 in 2008-09, most of which were snowmobilers or backcountry skiers. In 20 years of operation Crescent Spur has had one avalanche fatality, in February 1995.
"When you think about how many skiers are out there on a given day, the safety record is really good," said Regina. "There are so many micro-climates and terrain features that change what's happening out there and it's an inexact science. So what you're doing is putting together information and doing the best you can to make intelligent decisions."
Mark, 52, still likes to skate and has been asked to play rec hockey in McBride but says he can't afford the risk of injury, knowing his livelihood depends on his ability to guide skiers.
"Hockey was a big passion of mine up until I was 19 or 20, when I found something else with skiing and this business," said Mark, who attended school in Prince George as a teenager. "That focus and discipline that hockey teaches you I found very helpful. In a business like this you have to have a good team involved to look after the clients, and the clients are part of that team, too.
"I didn't start skiing until after I was finished playing hockey. It's one of those sports that it's never too late to start."
Crescent Spur limits its number of skiers to a maximum of 20 per week to ensure they get as many runs in as possible. Two guides are provided for each group of 10 people. The Bell 205 choppers are limited to 12 passengers and one pilot. Semi-private sessions are also available with four guides for every 10 skiers.
"The best part of this business is the people you meet, we've made some great friends with the people that work here and people who come here as clients," said Mark.
The client base is about 75 per cent American. They get regular business from Spain, Austria, Norway, Finland, Sweden and the United Kingdom. Canadians make up a small percentage of their customers, but a few weeks ago all 20 clients were from Canada, a first for Crescent Spur.
"We're really quite accessible, you can fly from anywhere in the world to Vancouver, and then it's a one-hour flight to Prince George," said Regina. "We don't get any celebrity movie stars or anything, like the bigger operators. Maybe they just don't know about us."
Regina loves to recount the story of an American man, a devout Catholic, troubled by his decision to choose going out with the group on a Sunday, rather than attend church in nearby McBride. It was a brilliant day for skiing, warm and sunny, and in the middle of a run the man realized he'd made the right choice.
"He came up to me and said, 'I'm in God's cathedral right here. I'm so blown away by where I am. This is where I should be on this day and I'm grateful that I'm here.'"
"It's a really special thing to be out there."
For more information, go to www.crescentspurheliskiing.com.
