It is the question that stops most skiers from ever booking a heli trip to Alaska: am I good enough? Ski Mag put it to Doug Workman, who has been guiding for Valdez Heli-Ski Guides since 2004 - and his answer will surprise you. The short version: what gets you down the big lines is not extreme ability. It is attitude.
Before you come: a shorter pole, and better legs
Workman’s first tip is a trick he learned from Doug and Emily Coombs, the founders of VHSG: try a shorter pole. Dropping down five centimeters encourages you to lean forward, and it can make a big difference.
The second is blunter: get in shape. Spend the winter skiing long runs on tough terrain. Alaska is no place to show up with rubber legs and rusty technique. The good news is that the techniques you will use in these vast spaces are the same ones you already employ skiing lift-served powder.
The myth of the extreme skier
“Everyone thinks you need to be an extreme skier, but the Chugach has vast terrain with something for almost all abilities. There are tremendous areas for advanced-intermediate skiers.”
The real key to skiing big Alaskan lines, Workman says, is convincing your guide you can handle them - and that has more to do with attitude than aptitude.
“What matters most is that you ski in control. It has a lot less to do with aptitude than with self-awareness and a willingness to ski within your limits. We can take an advanced intermediate who demonstrates he is willing to ski in control down very big terrain, whereas a strong-willed 22-year-old male who wants to always ski at the edge of his ability - that kind of skier will get reined in quickly.”
Ski like a guide, not like a ski film
Workman’s guests learn to ski the way a guide skis: deliberately, well within their ability, breaking Alaska’s huge vertical into manageable sections, planning each descent in advance, sticking to the plan, and stopping often to reassess and check back in with their surroundings.
“Even as you get better - and it is the same for a client or a guide - the goal is not to be Sage Cattabriga-Alosa. That is not what we want from clients; it is not how we ski ourselves. Learn to ski more like a ski mountaineer, where the goal is to safely ski long descents.”
And then the fun part: slough management
Deep powder plus steep terrain adds up to constantly moving snow - mini avalanches that will knock you off your feet if you have no plan. Most guests arrive with no experience of it, so the guides spend real time on it.
“There are three ways to deal with slough, and only two ways we recommend. What we do not recommend is trying to ski faster than your slough. People see that in movies and think they can do it, but that is rarely what happens.”
The better approaches: ski out to the side of your slough, or check your speed and stay behind it. Your guide will teach you to make a few turns to test it first - how fast it moves, how voluminous it is, which way it runs. Once you know its speed, volume and trajectory, you can ski off that trajectory and stay clear.
“That is why spines are fun: you can ski something steeper because the snow is always falling away on either side of the spine.”
