A few weeks ago I was fortunate enough to go on a heli ski trip in the Chilcotin Mountains of BC with new and old friends alike. Besides the helicopter (which many of us were enamored with), and skiing, I brought Lars’ GPS - Garmin Forerunner 205 - watch to track a day’s worth of skiing in Google Earth from TLH’s Tyax Lodge out to the mountains.

I placed the watch inside my ABS bag- the mandatory airbag for avalanche safety- and it looks like we finished the day with 28k feet of vertical. Looking at the flight path and turns in Google Earth, it appears as though the watch captured most of the day.

For the video, Lars took the flight path of the helicopter - Bell 212 - and added points along the flight path which have video clips as well as images of skiers and a boarder alike (he built it from a kmz/google earth file along with my point and click vid). Be warned that the video is long and can cause a bit of motion sickness - especially when ‘experiencing’ my turns (which were many as Lars pointed out ). You can fast forward to the helicopter images/placemarks to view the embedded video.

Beginning - takeoff; 1:30 - view from cockpit; 3:30 - dropoff.takeoff; 4:15 - turns (can be dizzying); 4:40 - images (Alex is skier in placemark, Oliver, Matt, Hans, Ed); 5:20- Aerial of dropoff points and mountains in Google Earth.

View this on Google Earth Blog: http://www.gearthblog.com/blog/archives/2009/03/heli-ski_tour_in_google_earth.html