Heli Skiing In Valdez Echo

There is a certain moment that sticks with me from my first trip to Valdez. The helicopter lifted off from a gravel bar near the river, and within minutes we were threading through a valley that looked like it had been carved specifically for skiing. The pilot banked left, and suddenly the Chugach Mountains opened up in front of us: ridge after ridge of snow-covered peaks, none of them groomed, none of them tracked. That was my introduction to heli skiing in Valdez, and it c