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Four beautiful lodges in Golden

Seeing the video below and the pictures at Golden Alpine Holidays makes me excited for winter!

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Epic heli skiing videos

Now that we’ve covered "when to go", "where to go" and "what equipment you need", it's time to take a look at what you'll experience when you employ an awesome air machine to transport you to the remote, pristine, snow covered mountains.

There are tons of great videos, pictures and diaries out there that depict people's experiences heli skiing. Here are a few that I personally thought were pretty cool:

• Mike Wiegele Helicopter Skiing youtube videos
• Points North Heli Adventures
• Whistler Heliskiing
• Robson Helimagic youtube videos

If you’re ready to sign up for a trip, check out the heliskiing company profiles on UncleRoss

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Snow is here...

Think it is still a little early to start thinking about ski season? Think again! Silverton got 50cm of snow and Mountain Goat Ski Guides put up a video of the first turns of the season. While not heli skiing per se, you'll find a lot of simliarities with licensed backcountry skiing… but without the sometimes prohibitive price tag.

I also found some additional guides/reviews on 2010 ski models, so if you're in the mood to spend your weekend getting prepped and outfitted for the upcoming (or already begun) ski season, check out reviews from Epic Ski, Bill's independent reviews, or On The Snow which does a great job or triaging the type of ski that will suit your skill/style best.

Getting excited for the slopes — let us know when you get up for your first turns!

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Your brand is your promise

A while ago, I blogged that brand is more than a logo. People often get caught up in a logo or a quality seal but brand is so much more than marketing mumbo-jumbo: your brand is your promise to your customers and other key members of your community. Key members of your community include (but are not limited to) suppliers, competitors, and community associations.

Your brand is not a legal contract but it is a social contract, which is why I prefer using the word promise. Without offending too many lawyers, social contracts are generally stronger than legal contracts. Lawyers make their money negotiating around legal contracts but it is much harder to "negotiate" around a social contract: try telling your wife that you don't have to say "Happy Anniversary" to her until the exact hour, minute, and second you were married. If you find yourself saying "Technically, we don't have to do X" chances are you're breaking your brand promise.

While the external nature of your brand is obvious, it's also an internal promise. How you treat your employees and how they treat each other is a reflection of your brand. If you commit to helping your town recycle, but you don't commit to it internally, your hypocricy will leak out through your employees. Your brand helps align your team with your values.

You may be asking, "I understand how brand applies to someone that can afford to pay a brand manager that spends his time waving his arms talking about synergy but how does this apply to me, a local activity-based tourism provider? I live in the real world." In my experience, most small businesses are excellent at managing their brand because they are their business. However, one area where it pays to write out your brand's promise is if you want to grow from a small activity based tourism company to a slightly larger activity based tourism company. I'll talk about that in the next post.

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Heli skiing equipment

Alright — time to get back on track. After a few week hiatus, we're going to pick up where we left off and talk a bit about equipment options/preferences for heli skiing.

The question of "should I buy new gear" before my heli ski trip seems to come up often. The folks at Valdez Heli Camps wrote an informative post about the topic so have a look here for their detailed response. Basically, the answer is that it depends. How new is your gear? Fat or narrow skis/board? How does your skill level match your gear? Etc.

One great option that a lot of outfits offer is to demo new skis when you arrive. It costs a few bucks, but at the end of the day, you're skiing on the newest boards with the best technology available — and you're not replacing your skis (or board) year in and year out.
Powder Magainze also put out a great guide to this year's gear, so take a look and see what makes the most sense for you.

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