The heliski experience is just unique and  really suggested to all the freeride lovers: a thing to try at least once in a lifetime! The typical heliskiing day is pretty different from the classic snowboard day, since the moment when you wait the chopper, all the senses come into play, first you hear the loud noise of the helicopter, then you see it landing and a moment before getting onboard the air moved by the blades hits your face like it wants to tell: “You’re about to fly! Get ready!”
The heliskiing activity in Courmayeur is really suggestive, flying along the Val Veny you immediately notice on the left a big face, the “Mont Fortin Sector”, wich you have to carefully look for spotting lines, because it’s the area where you can easily find good powder conditions, thanks to its north facing slopes. Looking right you can admire the greatness of some famous glaciers like the Brenva first and the Miage later, with their big crevasses and seracs that make you understand you are entering a world where man cannot stay long, but just for some time, the high mountain environment.
Once landed, the first impression is like being in paradise: a breathtaking 360° degrees view, where the sight will be lost around the infinity of peaks in front of you and the unreal silence will get you unique sensations.
I must say we have been very lucky with a perfect combination: sun, wind calm, 30 centimeters of fresh snow, and no tracks of skis or snowboards in front of us!
The first descent that we got to ride is in the “Pyramides Calcaires” area, very good spot to test the slopes on a first ride, or as a first helicopter ride for people who are still not very confident with powder and steep terrain but still want to try the Heliskiing experience. From the first area, we then moved with a second Heli ride towards the “Mont Fortin sector”, where the deep, perfect powder snow gave us big emotions on steep lines but always in safety.  This last area is more challanging than the one before, and is suited for riders who already have some experience in freeriding.
To finish off we can just wish, to everyone who will decide to try the heliskiing experience, to find a superb sunny day as the one whe had!

More here: VDAmonamour.

via aostavalleyfreeride.com

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This season the snow arrived very late, so we had to wait until the 1^st of February to get the chance to ride powder in the woods of La Thuile. We had been checking the weather for some days, and then finally we saw that a big storm was going to hit the Mont Blanc area from north and reach La Thuile as well, with abundant snowfalls. The dream came true! On Friday some old friends, all ex professional snowboard riders, contacted us to know if we would be out riding in the weekend; they also had seen that a lot of snow was falling in La Thuile and they wanted to enjoy it after having been surfing for one day in Finale Ligure. That would be the perfect combo! Enough said, on Sunday we all were on the first gondola up the woods of La Thuile, sticking our faces on the windows to check out how much snow there really was, and the more we would go up, the more our smiles would grow! We couldn’t wait to get inside those magic woods, a real natural playground where you can lay down turns, jump rocks, trees and bushes all covered up in snow. The choice of riding in the woods was done because it was still snowing on the top part of the slopes, with low visibility and strong winds as well. To our big surprise we noticed a blue patch of sky above our heads, giving visibility back on the whole resort. Minutes after getting on the “Chaz Dura Express” chairlift we were on the start of the “Elliot” couloir, where we rode it very quickly before the weather would close in again. Once having ridden it, the sky was all cloudy again. Not too bad, we were again inside the woods where we rode different lines all day, until our legs could not take it anymore. We felt absolutely destroyed at the end of such a big day of riding, but when we stopped, we still wanted so bad to keep riding those magical woods!

More here: VDAmonamour.

via aostavalleyfreeride.com

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