MOUNTAIN LIFE - Blue Mountains | Spring 2019

50 ML BLUE SPRING 2019 plenty of sweets. As I settled into the charcuterie, we were told we would be heading on a hike in the next twenty minutes. It was a perfectly sunny day, yet I had assumed this first day would just be a transfer. As I quickly learned, CMH may look and feel like a luxury lodge in the woods, but the ethos of the company as defined by Hans Gmoser calls for limitless adventure in the mountains. So off we went. The Cariboos are unlike any other mountain range, and it’s easy to see why Gmoser chose this as a location for the first CMH lodge. With perfectly sloping valleys, picturesque alpine meadows, cascading waterfalls, and mind-bending glaciated terrain, the area is a hikers’ heaven. Lucky for us, the guides—many of whom spend their winters here, too—know the area as well as anyone aside from the local mountain goats. Every day was filled with hikes in multiple locations that would normally take a full day or more to access. I quickly realized heli-hiking is not just hiking with the help of a helicopter, but much more than that. The guides and pilots, due to their experience navigating through complex terrain, were able to treat four groups of guests to only the most enjoyable terrain possible—while still providing enough physical exertion to make the beers at the end of the day worth it. We skipped from the toe of massive glaciers to waterfalls, alpine meadows, and summits. When you’re strolling through an alpine meadow surrounded by glaciers hundreds of thousands of years old, it’s tough to complain about the views, or your sore legs. It took only one flight accompanied by a ridge walk for me to be convinced at the genius of heli-hiking, and it is hard to imagine a company that can better execute a few days in the mountains. cmhheli.com Take out the long approaches, leaving only the moments of pure bliss in the mountains. That’s heli-hiking. BEN OSBORNE