Skiing has always been the adventurous sort's way to explore the mountains up close, but after a while you may want to go higher than a chairlift can take you…and trade in your lift ticket for something with a little more range. A helicopter, perhaps?
Once February and March roll around, conditions should be getting just about perfect in the Nevada Mountains, and an outfit called Ruby Mountain Helicopter Skiing will be ready to take you to the very top of the mountain.
Their helicopters hold five skiiers at a time—not counting the professional guide—and after a quick trip to the top, you'll spend the rest of the day working your way downhill with a bit of expert help. Unlike the usual resorts, you won't spend all day zig-zagging up and down a handful of runs, you'll be choosing from 200,000 square miles of real estate of which you'll have your pick of snow conditions and a peak that suits your skill level.
Each three-day trip comes with a guaranteed 39,000 vertical feet of skiing (just barely above your 38,000 vertical foot minimum requirement), and when you're finished for the day, you can retire to basecamp: a fully furnished 125-acre ranch at the foot of the mountains where you'll take meals and rest up for the next day's run.
Avalanches are still a real danger, so each group begins their trip with a thorough training session on the rules of the mountain, and anyone heading to the slopes takes along an avalanche transceiver so there's less danger of getting lost.
That is, unless you wander off looking for a chairlift.
Ruby Mountain, 775-753-6867, info@helicopterskiing.com