One could argue that Warren Miller is the king of extreme skiing movies. I would agree with that. After watching one of his videos for just ten minutes, I was convinced. His videos aren't just about the skiers, or just about the mountain. They are about the entire team; the pilot, the cameraman, and whoever you are skiing with. Warren Miller even makes a point that, of the team, the pilot is the craziest. Nosediving down to the bottom of the mountain, picking up the skiers when they get there, and going back up, only to do the same thing again.

Extreme skiing has been an admiration of mine, but not necessarily a dream. If I was given the opportunity to go extreme skiing, I would probably turn it down, but if I was given the opportunity to go to Alaska or Canada or anywhere else where people would be extreme skiing, just to watch them and decide later if I wanted to try it, you should bet I would go. I'm the kind of person that sees something and says, “I want to try that” or “That looks cool.” I don't shy away from a challenge, but risking my life, that's a little different. If I could do one thing as much as I wanted to, and not die, I would be an extreme skier. I would wake up in the morning, get my ski gear on, and get on the helicopter.

Heliskiing is another name for extreme skiing. You take a helicopter up to the top of a mountain and ski back down. Usually heliskiing is a commercial business and extreme skiing is a personal hobby. Heliskiing can be very expensive. For a 6-7 day trip (an average amount of time you would go) is upward of $75,000. Not many people have that kind of money to spend, even if it is a lifetime memory. If I had a spare $75,000, I would probably spend it on heliskiing. Heliskiing is usually on an easier mountain and has better safety rates. The companies that specialize is heliskiing usually try to avoid mountains with possible avalanches, in concern for their customers.

Sources:

www.canadianheli-skiing.com

www.youtube.com