# First Time Heliboarding - Any tips, suggections or advice?



## Guest (Aug 16, 2009)

Ok, so next week will be my first time Heliboarding... first time in a Chopper even.

We are going with Wilderness Heliski in the Mt Cook area of the South Island of New Zealand.
Wilderness Heliski : Heliski in New Zealand's Premier BIG Mountain Terrain - Packages - Standard Day

I have a old K2 168 Eldo, a Osin 165 and a brand new Rome Flag 165.
I will most likely take the Osin 165 (Although i would love to take the Eldo, it's just getting a bit tired i feel)

But outside the obvious equipment i would take to the mountain on any given day
Is there anything else you need to know??

I realise there will be a brief before we fly and no doubt we will be wearing the extra safety equipment.
Just looking for a bit of a heads up i guess.... never done it before.
Thinking of taking a Helmet CAM along.

Anyway, any advice would be great...

Thanks


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## Guest (Aug 17, 2009)

Thanks heaps Snowolf,

Thats exactly the kind of help i was looking for.... never would of thought to do those things at all.
Yeah, the Air sickness i never gave a thought, i do heaps of Fishing in a boat, and as much as i more or less have most forms of motion sickness at bay, when it does come on from out of the blue, there is nothing you can do about it.

And due to my current lack of fitness, i might just pop some pain killers too, so my legs can't tell my brain they hurt 

Any advice on how fit you need to be for this???
I figured the ride up is easy, but the long runs in soft snow must be a killer on the back knee and leg muscles??

I remember in Italy it was so hard in the deep powder, you always had to be on your game to keep the tip out of danger during weight transfer in turns.

Anyway, the trip is only a week away.... so i guess i don't have much choice in my fitness level


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## Guest (Aug 17, 2009)

Ok... i think i just found my next problem... Travel Insurance.
We are about to book Travel Insurance online, then reading the fine print, it seems if you even think about having fun, you're not insurured.

Skiing and Snowboarding Insurance - what we don't cover

^^^^^ This is the company we were intending to go with.

Any suggestion on what would be a better choice? Or are they all about the same?

Thanks


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## Guest (Aug 17, 2009)

Ok, i found this insurance... perhaps better

Ski Travel Insurance | Seven Descents


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## Guest (Aug 17, 2009)

Thanks again Snowolf, i had kind of planned that kind os pace for the day.
It is pretty much how a tackle any day on the mountain, nice easy morning start, get your rhythm in check, then a mid afternoon blast when the energy levels are still there, then a slow down run.

I think the sheer length of each run will test me though


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## Guest (Aug 18, 2009)

Definitely take pics or get a helmet cam!! Then post here :thumbsup:


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## Guest (Aug 18, 2009)

Have decided to take an old school miniDV camcorder and 2 x 8mega pixel still cameras.
The helmet cam may still happen.. but after viewing lots of Helmet Cam videos on Youtube, the footage is pretty lame, unless you are following your mate, which can happen.

But sure, we will make sure plenty of pics are taken of the whole day and chopper flight and post them here.


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## Guest (Aug 19, 2009)

looks like you picked a good time to go! 17cm of fresh down that way over night 

very jelious


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## Guest (Aug 20, 2009)

Salty_Dog said:


> Have decided to take an old school miniDV camcorder and 2 x 8mega pixel still cameras.
> The helmet cam may still happen.. but after viewing lots of Helmet Cam videos on Youtube, the footage is pretty lame, unless you are following your mate, which can happen.
> 
> But sure, we will make sure plenty of pics are taken of the whole day and chopper flight and post them here.


As for a helmet cam, there is a guy on here whose name is killclimbz. He had a REALLY good helmet cam and the footage was clear as day. I would ask him what he had. If your going heliboarding it would definitely be a wise investement for a helmet cam! Thats like getting a video when you first go skydiving. You gotta do it!


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## killclimbz (Aug 10, 2007)

Well I didn't have the helmet cam, it was a friends. 

Tom had a POV1. They are on sale at Backcountry.com right now. It's some coin, but the deal is good.

The POV1.5 is a better camera and is also on sale. 

One of the problems with the one is that the needles on the cable would bend and break. That is supposed to be fixed with the 1.5. You can get replacement cables but like everything it costs money. 


Some people really do not like the cable attached to a video screen system. It bothers them when moving their head and all. Putting the video screen in your front inside pocket worked great for us. I had no issues with it. It also made it really easy to tell what you were shooting. Plus the lens is nice and small and not as likely to get damaged. 

Still if you don't like it, another rider thinks the POV sucks (I don't) and suggested the Contour HD. This shoots in full quality HD and supposedly has lasers to get your angles right. I have some doubts about it, but it costs less and the film quality is better. No doubt about that. I also think if you take a rough tumble, this camera is more likely to break. 

Getting any of the cheaper ones and be prepared. I have a friend with the gopro and out of the 15-20 times we took it out, he got something like 5 minutes of useful footage. It was just darn near impossible to get the angles right without some sort of guide to show you what you were shooting.

As far as video goes here is some of that footage infamous is talking about. This is shot with the POV1


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## Guest (Sep 1, 2009)

I'm Back!!!!

And thank you to everyone that helped with advice and good wishes. Alas, we had the worst weather i had experienced in New Zealand on any previous trip, 195Km/h winds, strong and warm NW weather patterns, rain etc etc, most of the South Island was CLOSED the entire time we were there.

Silly as we did check the weather before we went, and it was on the cards to be bad, we just didn't think it was going to be so bad and for so long..... it is still bad there as i write from home in Australia.
Out of a week, we got one day to ride Ohau, the rest of the time everything was closed.

Needless to say, the Heliboarding never happened, we even drove up to Mt Cook to check out the operation and saw the Heli all rugged up and parked in the hanger.... it wasn't going anywhere!

So..... $2000 for one days riding.... Sometimes you just have to laugh. Thats mountains i guess


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## killclimbz (Aug 10, 2007)

Ah man, that sucks. Still, I'd rather be waiting out weather than stuck at work. Though it would have been nice to be able to reschedule. Look at it this way. Your next big trip is bound to be fantastic. Things just tend to work that way. If it's not, and just as shitty, god might hate you...


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## Guest (Sep 2, 2009)

Funny you should mention that, as God was brought up a few times as we drove in perfect sunshine while the moutains only 40k's away were too windy to open.

At least it made me get my equipment up to spec


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## Suburban Blend (Feb 23, 2008)

Sweet as... that you got to ride Ohau. I love that place. Did you hike?

Not to rub it in but here is what you missed:
I had do dig up an old vid that I made from 10 years ago when they first started letting you heli off of Mt. Cook.
http://www.harddiskjockey.com/SumerstokeNZ.wmv
footage I bought from Warren Miller (Snowriders2) as I was in it.


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## Music Moves (Jan 23, 2009)

Suburban Blend said:


> Sweet as... that you got to ride Ohau. I love that place. Did you hike?
> 
> Not to rub it in but here is what you missed:
> I had do dig up an old vid that I made from 10 years ago when they first started letting you heli off of Mt. Cook.
> ...


Watched this earlier today... good stuff.

Nice positive attitude after the trip being a wash Salty... get 'em next time!


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