Heli-ski Guiding: The Best Job In The World?

By Author: BusinessDealer
Total Articles: 5
Comment this article

How big is your office space? Ours is about 2.2 million acres and has an average annual snowfall of 25 meters. Getting to the copy room might be tough, but then again, we don’t make copies. Heli-ski guides are the original issue, and their years of experience have earned them a 360-degree corner office, with mountaintop views. The only time we see a “cube” is when we drop them to the bottom of our tumblers and pour a drink over them.
What’s the dress code? Heli-ski guides wear sports jackets all the time but without the choking tie. Our jackets are triple insulated, and come with plenty of pockets, radios and other cool gadgets. Pencils and pocket protectors have gone out with skinny skis. The only “straight-edge” we use is the one we’re carving on. And we don’t have to worry about dress-down Fridays because we’re already dressed down Saturday through Thursday.
How far is your commute? Most people travel about 40 kilometers in bumper-to-bumper traffic on fossil fuel. Heli skiing guides travel at approximately 40 km/h with no gridlock, straight downhill, in fresh snow, on pure adrenaline.
Office ...
... tension? Maybe all of that internal office strife disappears through sharing a common hobby or interest, such as origami afternoons or book club weekends. Heli-ski guides already have their common thread: they like to ski. Everyone in our office likes to ski, so everyone gets along. In the evenings, we have a few drinks and talk at dinner about how much we like to ski (do you see a pattern here?).
Living for the weekend? Heli-ski guides start living their weekends on Monday, or is it Wednesday? What day is it anyway? Forget it, who cares?
What about vacation time? Our two weeks vacation last about five months.
How is the communication between departments? Heli-ski guides get on-the-spot updates from helicopter pilots and the lodges. Every night they tune-in to the following day’s weather conditions and discuss departure times and pick-up zones with the pilots. Then they chat with everyone in the group. A heli-ski guide leads an exciting life and everyone wants to know more about it. With a ratio of one guide to every five clients, you don't get dropped memos or a missed emails. In the lodge there is a lot of chatter and laughing, but out in the snow, communication is reduced to one-syllabled “Wheeeeeees” and “Wows.”
Is your work environment boring? Boring? What’s that? Nothing is ever boring in this job.
What’s the possibility for career advancement? Peaks in British Columbia top out at about 3,000 meters above sea level. You can’t get much higher than that.