Heli-skiing looks like a serious amount of fun, but I bet you didn’t realise they’ve been running heli trips for over sixty years!
Amateur filmmaker W.J. Wellenstein made this mini film on a heli-ski trip to Mt. Alyeska in the 1950s. This footage was digitised just two months ago.
Mount Alyeska is now the biggest resort in Alaska, complete with 73 marked runs and nine lifts.
Back then, it was just a fresh untracked face with no lift access. You could only get there by helicopter. I wonder if heli-skiing was as insanely expensive then as it is today.
Still, this bunch of pow-hungry American skiers look like their having a blast on their wooden skis. Rad!