Ugly Faces and Alaska Movie

[Valdez Telehead]

Not much into over production, but some folks visited me and I showed them the goods for a week. They made this for some sports channel Foreign video. They did one day in a heli and the rest with human power. Grab some coffee and enjoy this 28 minute of ugliness. Probably not on the "circuit" this fall, but it played well over there.

[James]

Just out of curiosity what type of vehicle was used for the opening scene of this movie and what is the carbon foot print as it relates to climate change. So heli skiing is OK in your threads but not others. I am not sure what is worse your hypocrisy or naivety.

[Valdez Telehead]

So you are comparing the carbon footprint of transportation to a trailhead to go backcountry skiing to driving to a lodge/ trailhead and then going heliskiing? Next thing you know you will say they are as quiet as skinners.

I can tell you one day of heliskiing uses more oil than the hundred days I drive my truck to the trailhead.

Sold the F-250 gas guzzling truck and got a Subaru, thus I don't need the plow option any more as it was a work truck during the Chalet days. We had the GEO Metro (45mpg) also for skiing til it got sick and died at 150,000m. Seriouly I'm one of the last people that argument has any weight and frankly everyone know my opinion on it anyway.

[James]

Wow, thanks for validating my last comment. The vehicles (I use that term mockingly) used in the opening scene of that movie you posted are flying not driving and the movie shows them heli skiing and you mention it yourself. So in your world it is OK to fly half way across the planet to go heli skiing in Alaska so long as they do a little BC skiing with you but some gals you don't know are ignorant about heli skiings effect on climate change because they do a movie with some heli skiing in it.

If you want to promote reducing peoples carbon foot prints there are other places to do it then on a thread about an all female ski move and there are a lot more important things to worry about then heli skiing. Bottom line you have not even seen the movie you were commenting on and have no idea what the gals who made that movie do or don't know about climate change and its effect on global snowfall. Based on what you have posted I bet they know as much or more then you.

[jellero]

Not much into over production, but some folks visited me and I showed them the goods for a week. They made this for some sports channel Foreign video. They did one day in a heli and the rest with human power. Grab some coffee and enjoy this 28 minute of ugliness. Probably not on the "circuit" this fall, but it played well over there.

thanks, i liked it but it is better with the sound off. j

[dschane]

Enjoyed the short film quite a bit -- they brought good energy to their travels.

[chamonix]

Great short movie, but my Russian isn't very good.. The video quality of the Go Pro for POV video has really improved.

BTW, isn't there a lot of drilling for oil going on in Alaska? Drilling for oil in ANWAR? Seems a little hypocrtical for an Alaskan resident who gets an annual check for oil drilling royalities to complain about a day of heli skiing.

Just saying..

some data on fuel consumption for an ASTAR B2 45 gallons /hour

http://www.wwheli.com/astarspecifications.htm

AS350 B2 specs here

http://airbushelicoptersinc.com/products/AS350B2-specifications.asp

So a quick 6 minute hop with 5 passengers works out to 4.5 gallons of fuel. 6 minutes is a typical flight time from a pick up spot, to ski say 1500 vertical.

That works out to 4.5 divided by 5 (passengers) = .9 gallons per passenger for each run.
Obviously the empty helicopter has to fly back down empty to the pick up pad, so that should be factored in.

confession; I did a day of heli skiing last winter. There were two groups of skiers , and one ASTAR, So while one group skiied down with their guide, the other group was being picked up for another run.

[cesare]

I do not recall Matt ever saying he opposed helo skiing in the Chugach because he is opposed to all uses of fossil fuels. His opposition has always been because of the noise and the change in usage patterns in the Tompson Pass region. If you're gonna try to pick a fight with him, fight fair. Attributing something to him that he has never said as a reason to call him hypocritical for receiving his dividend check is a straw man and a low blow.

[chamonix]

cesare
this is what VT wrote on the Pretty Faces thread

Seems like just another heliski and resort flick by skiers who fail to comprehend global warming and its relationship to declining snow around the world. The ski industry seems to be contributing to its own demise. No instrument of winter access pollutes more than a helicopters at 1 barrel of crude oil an hour.

Get real, ditch the chopper and help save the planet and our snows. It's not about pretty faces. It's about everyone.

emphasis mine..I should have responded on this other thread..

ASTAR in Revelstoke

[Valdez Telehead]

I send my check to Greenpeace.

[chamonix]

Ok Point taken

I have met a good number of ski guides, and most of them have at one point in their career guided heli skiing. It goes with the territory. You may be the exception.
The Guide who taught our Avy 1 course in Revelstoke had heli-guided for Mica.
Greg Hill who guided us for the day of Heli skiing has certainly contributed an enormous amount to ski mountaineering in Canada. As you know he skined up and skied 2 million vertical feet in 2010.

I don't mean to start a war, I just thought you were tough on the women who did the Pretty Faces ski movie..

[Valdez Telehead]

It would be sexism if I didn't.

[cesare]

I was thinking back to teletips days and didn't see that thread. Sorry for my misstatement.

[Valdez Telehead]

In a moment of true sincerity….

VT said this…
"FWIW I actually encourage many of my clients to give helisking a try "once" in their life for a day while they tour Alaska. Yes I have actually skied with dozens of heliskiers and I don't berate them all day while skinning for that. I probably won't motor ski cause I think we all have a responsibility as skiers to do everything we can to not pump more pollution into the air as we pursue untracked space."

As far the fuel thing you have to actually calculate how much avgas will produce on hour of helicopter Hobbs time….

It takes a barrel of crude oil to produce a a few gallons of avgas. So if you bunch that into your calculations you get a pretty low return off a barrel of oil compared to regular gas or diesel. This inefficiency is what makes so expensive, not withstanding the end product and the environmental effects. You were just measuring avgas volume. I am talking crude oil to refined avgas.

[chamonix]

Well I was interested to crunch the numbers (as a pilot) on how much fuel a ski run/passenger in a helicopter takes. For actual flight time, I would think that recurrent maintenance is more expensive than the fuel.

These helicopters burn Jet fuel, Jet A-1 (?) basically Kerosene with anti-static additives, a less refined product than AvGas.