Wildcat Helicopters pilot David Morgan believes one ride in a chopper can ruin a person's life.
He's not talking about safety risks at all, for his employer boasts many of Canada's veteran rotary-wing pilots. These men and women are prepared for every contingency because they've spent thousands of hours cutting their teeth in various industries.
Instead, what Morgan means is: take one ride in a helicopter and you may find yourself hooked. You may not want to do anything else for fun.
That's the kind of experience Wildcat Helicopters aims to deliver for every client in its newfound team-up with Whistler Heli-Skiing (WHS). The Sea to Sky's premier heli-ski operation enters its 44th year, with dibs on 173 glaciers and 475 runs across 432,000 acres of terrain: a zone more than 50 times larger than parent operation Whistler Blackcomb itself.
Such a company needs a quality aircraft provider, and Wildcat fits the bill.
"We are excited to welcome Wildcat Helicopters into the Whistler Heli-Skiing family," said Erin Tierney, WHS senior manager, in a press release. "Wildcat brings 26 years of operational excellence as a British Columbia-based, family-owned company, servicing heli-skiing, wildfire and industrial applications. Its management team is comprised of industry professionals and some of the most experienced heli-ski pilots in the industry.
"We look forward to partnering with them to continue to deliver the world-class heli-skiing experience our guests deserve and have come to expect."
Wildcat operations manager Mike Westie is likewise thrilled, adding: "Wildcat Helicopters is excited to partner with Whistler Heli-Skiing … our fleet consists of the most modern helicopters in the ski industry, designed to elevate the guest experience while reducing noise pollution. The Whistler community will also benefit from having an additional helicopter operation supporting emergency response needs now and into the future."
High-performance, low-impact
Two Bell 412s, an Airbus AS350B3 and its newer H125 variant will ferry WHS customers across the region's snow-capped peaks this winter.
Westie highlighted the 412 in particular: a derivative of the commonly seen twin-engine Bell 212. Employing a composite four-bladed rotor system, the 412 is significantly quieter than its predecessor while delivering an increased cruise speed of approximately 232 km/h.
"We spend a lot of time up in Garibaldi Provincial Park and we share that area with a lot of ski-touring traffic," said Morgan. "It's really important to minimize our impact on folks who are recreating in that area. That's our commitment to the local community: we want to reduce our impact, certainly our noise footprint, and it's an added bonus that the aircraft has superior performance. We also try to stay as far away from built-up areas as we can, visibility permitting."
Meanwhile, the H125 is the Ferrari of the fleet: a single-engine machine with an expedient normal cruise speed of 260 km/h. This helicopter is able to (with a bevy of modifications) land and take off from the peak of Mount Everest at an elevation of 8,848 metres. Under normal circumstances, the maximum altitude of a rotary-wing craft is thousands of metres below that mark.
Even when it's not being deployed for such unusual missions, the H125 offers both agility and versatility for demanding topographical environments and adventurous heli-ski jaunts.
"Everything we're bringing to the table is at the very highest level and standard," Westie said. "I wouldn't say we've reinvented the wheel here, but we're definitely trying to be the very best we can be as we provide helicopter support."
'It's not by accident that we're all choosing to work together'
Needless to say, the best aircraft in existence would amount to very little without robust human capital. Both Wildcat and WHS have that in spades.
For example, Morgan has served as a mountain rescue pilot since 1999 with agencies like Parks Canada. He then amassed 20 years flying for Canadian Mountain Holidays, which is billed as Earth's largest heli-skiing enterprise, before transitioning over to his current position.
Resumés like his are the rule at Wildcat, not the exception.
"Wildcat Helicopters has such amazing depth when it comes to people of similar experience," Morgan revealed. "It's not by accident that we're all choosing to work together. We've got a strong community of pilots who have done years and years of air ambulance work, mountain rescue work, hoisting and firefighting. I take my hat off to our boss, Mike Westie, who's been able to round up most of this experience in Canada. It takes a special kind of pilot to be a heli-ski pilot, and you either love it or you hate it."
Make no mistake: strong mountain flying abilities are required in this field. One has to be comfortable facing all manner of environmental conditions from adverse weather, gusty or unpredictable winds to potentially hazardous terrain and so forth. You also have to be a great communicator.
Pilots must listen to their ski guides and vice versa. They cooperate in making key observations and judgment calls, ensuring a safe and fun trip each day. A person might be forgiven for assuming that pilots just fly and guides just ski, but that would be oversimplifying the case. Guides must understand factors which influence flying conditions, and pilots must be well-versed with mountain hazards, operational goals and group management.
"The experience of a guide and the experience of a pilot—you need both to make a successful day in even the best of conditions," said Tierney, who has guided for 25 years in addition to being an instructor and president for the Canadian Ski Guide Association.
"At WHS we engage with our pilots through every step of the planning, from preseason training to [on a daily basis] starting with our 6:30 a.m. weather call, our morning hazard analysis, logistics and general planning of the day."
Well-honed
Eighteen full-time guides fill out the WHS roster, and half of its top positions are occupied by women. Senior personnel have at least a quarter-century of experience beneath their belts, and most have worked for 15-odd years in Whistler.
"Our guides' training, and training as a whole in the industry, has really been focused on preventative techniques," explained Tierney. "Continued professional development requires guides to maintain their education and learn new things as they go, to enhance their ability to make good decisions.
"Whistler Heli-Skiing especially practices reactive technical rescue skills too, so if something were to go wrong, our ability to respond is fresh in our minds and well-honed. Any day that we don't go out into the field because of weather is used for training. In general, it takes a guide four to six years of courses and mentorship to be fully certified and the learning never ends. That's what makes this such an engaging job."
The 2024-25 campaign officially began on Dec. 7, but intensive preseason work kicked off on Nov. 30 covering a wide range of skills. Guides make plans for any given day (i.e. which zones to operate in, what kinds of areas to ski), so they're certified in terrain analysis, hazard management, guiding procedures, rescue techniques, and avalanche and weather forecasting.
Tierney also feels WHS' number of women leaders is a rare but encouraging sight.
"We just completed a survey within the [heli-skiing] industry with 543 respondents. Eighty-four per cent were male and 14 per cent were female," she revealed. "All of our leaders are leaders because of their experience level, regardless of gender … but having that balance [of men and women] provides different perspectives with our decision-making. It provides good role models both to people who want to be guides and to our female clientele. I'm really proud of the team we have here."
Added Morgan: "The biggest part of [Whistler Heli-Skiing] that I found myself appreciating is their commitment to mentorship. They seem really committed to bringing in younger, less experienced guides … it just lends itself to everybody sharing information and lifting each other up. I've never seen this kind of positive energy going into a season."
Learn more about WHS offerings at whistlerblackcomb.com/explore-the-resort/activities-and-events/whistler-heli-skiing/whistler-heli-skiing.aspx and for details on Wildcat Helicopters visit wildcathelicopters.com.
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