I’ve had more than one friend tell me I would be a lot faster on the skin track if I just stopped talking. But when I meet so many interesting people in my travels, I can’t help asking questions.
Meet Quinn Castillo, ski guide with Selkirk Tangiers Heli Skiing (ST) in Revelstoke, B.C. We spent a very snowy Boxing Day last year chatting away as we (slowly) made our way back up for a second and third run in the untracked. Our first trip up was notably the fastest because Ryan the helicopter pilot, after finding a hole in the weather, dropped Quinn, three others and me off high in the alpine for a day of heli-assisted ski-touring
The sudden quiet when a helicopter leaves you and your group, then drops out of sight, is lovely, but when you know you won’t hear the roar again until the end of the day, well, that’s truly sublime.
As with all heli-touring, your first run of the day is no sweat, literally. After that, however, the skins come out of the pack and each run is under your own steam—and the watchful eye of a ski guide. Whether ST added alpine touring to heli-skiing, or a helicopter was added to alpine touring, the result is a really, really nice combo. While the rush in heli-skiing is to get aboard and do it again, as fast as possible, the rush in heli-assisted touring is far more cerebral: gentle, quiet and meditative. Before you know it, you’re removing your skins again and burying your tips in virgin blower that you’ve earned.
“We never had a lot of money,” said Quinn between breaths. Raised on a small farm between Vernon and Salmon Arm, he grew up nordic skiing. “We’d find the biggest hill on the property, ski to the top and then straightline it down. It wasn’t until I was 12 that my grandmother took us alpine skiing at SilverStar. After that I never looked back. I would work every summer to make enough for passes and gear.”
As a 30-year-old in 2002 he was ski guiding at different alpine touring lodges in B.C. before making the move to Selkirk Tangiers in 2010. And sometimes answering clients’ nonstop questions.
Quinn Castillo enters his third decade of guiding.
It’s easy: just one foot in front of the other—and repeat.
S.C. Who is heli-touring for—and who is it not for?
Quinn: Heli-touring is for people who want the pure wilderness skiing experience, deep-powder runs and beautiful calm mountain uptracks. What it doesn’t include is almost as important. It doesn’t include the access ski. [From, say, the parked car to the trail head.] It doesn’t include the epic approach and exit, the heinous creek crossings, the giant log crossings, the intense bushwhacks….
S.C. How many ski guides does Selkirk Tangiers use in a typical season?
Quinn: This year we have 35 on the roster. We have a huge, varied tenure. It is one of the reasons that I keep returning to work at Tangiers. The past couple of years the management has made an effort to reduce the number of groups that we ski with. It also means that our guiding staff is smaller than in previous years.
S.C. What kind of range is there in clients? First time on AT skis to aggressive Type-A personalities?
Quinn: The majority are men in their middle years. That being said we get a fair number of families with adult children and a few all-female groups.
S.C. And a typical day’s vertical?
Quinn: The average run is about 800m and we usually get two or three runs in, if not more. It all depends on the client’s fitness and the type of terrain the client wants to ski. What terrain is available due to weather and avalanche conditions is also a consideration. The great thing is that we have the helicopter which assures that all the metres we ski are high quality.
S.C. What kind of physical shape should people be in before a day of heli-touring?
Quinn: A client needs to be in moderate physical health. Though the better shape you are in, the more you will appreciate the day. If you can hike the metres there is a good chance that you can ski the runs.
S.C. What’s something you would do for a client that he or she might not consider requesting?
Quinn: When the stars align, we might ski a run that no one has ever skied before.
S.C. What rewards can skiers expect that they wouldn’t get with heli-skiing or ski-touring without a heli-bump?
Quinn: Heli-skiing is great for gobbling up huge amounts of deep powder runs. Touring is an immersion in the powder uphill and down, an immersion in the steep glades, and an immersion in huge alpine slopes and glaciers. Heli-touring brings both worlds together.
S.C. Well said!
