Unless things have changed since I lived in Switzerland:
Drops in France are banned, but you can take off from France, drop in CH or IT and ski down…
Sebastian_G wrote:
Actually what is the European situation on heli ski? For many years I simply assumed it is not possible and has to be done in the US or Canada. But it seems that is not true and Italy seems to be the only European country to allow it. Has anybody here ever done this?
I believe it is done in Sweden. At least I can’t see what the legal obstacles would be. Of course you would need an AOC, but I think any helicopter company would have one anyway.
Thanks for the snowy pictures ! It looks better than rainy Paris 
I went heliskiing for a week in Turkey a couple of times. In the far north east corner not far from Georgia. Great conditions and it was culturally interesting. Every day after skiing we took a hamman bath in the village mosque.
This trip is now being offered by these guys:
https://www.eaheliskiing.com/destinations/europe/turkey
And then did a week in Greenland with a couple of guides from Val d’Isere.
Just trying to point out that if you want to experience heliskiing you can do so in more unusual and interesting places than British Columbia with a bunch of American doctors.
Weren’t they using Air Zermatt helis at some point?
Yes, used them when I went there in the early 2000’s. They had to fly them all the way to Eastern Turkey as there were no helis available and no pilots in Turkey they trusted to do mountain drops. I imagine they have come up with a better solution now!
I’m faced with the prospect of not skiing in this coming season for the first time in 30 years. :(
However, I do not at all relish the prospect of going skiing when lifts are technically “closed” since I don’t feel I could rely on help in an emergency.
Stickandrudderman wrote:
I’m faced with the prospect of not skiing in this coming season for the first time in 30 years. :(
However, I do not at all relish the prospect of going skiing when lifts are technically “closed” since I don’t feel I could rely on help in an emergency.
I think things will open up here (France) on Jan 7th, I cannot see them keep things closed post that to be honest, the pressure is getting too high (politically) from local politicians for things to open up again. If they will open the borders might be a different question. There are rumours of ‘gendarmes’ manning the borders and stopping people with skis coming back into France (Switzerland is open for business) but how they will do that (and people will just rent locally rather than carry their own) is a mystery to me given I haven’t seen anyone at the border since this whole ‘crisis’ started.
I have this theory (and its a theory I have no evidence) European governments have just closed the skiing off to show ‘the Brits’ they don’t really need their money since Boris has threatened it would impact EU tourism so much. Someone at EU level decided to do a ‘crazy Ivan’ to show ‘the other side’ this would effectively be an empty threat. We’ll see once negotiations fail whether that actually holds or not…
LFHNflightstudent wrote:
I have this theory (and its a theory I have no evidence) European governments have just closed the skiing off to show ‘the Brits’ they don’t really need their money since Boris has threatened it would impact EU tourism so much. Someone at EU level decided to do a ‘crazy Ivan’ to show ‘the other side’ this would effectively be an empty threat. We’ll see once negotiations fail whether that actually holds or not…
I think it has more to do with just to “show the Brits”, many individual countries in Europe had their own divergences vis-a-vis COVID-19 response: GA VFR flying being one example, managing international travel is another one, winter sports another one, tourism another one…
I would not even try to find much logic in some sanitary measures, some are vastly lost in translation or hastily drafted, Ski Stations are well open just no Ski Lifts but it does not take a PhD in rocket science to figure out that “Alps ski & COVID-19 outbreak” were highly related, does it matter now I have no idea?
Off topic on Brexit, I don’t think lot of it now is a bluff on both UK-EU sides, first “self inflicted economic damage” is highly normalised during this corona crisis (halting everything is business as usual now), any cost is taken care in a bigger bill by the taxpayers, second, business that can still operate under corona restrictions tend to be well equipped to cope with “hard Brexit”, it was inimaginable 9 months ago on “economic basis” but it’s well on the table now: after all the short-term cost and disruption is really tiny compared to corona damage, long-term is a different story but that’s another topic…
