Posted by Topher Donahue on Fri, Aug 20, 2010 @ 09:01 AM
Sitting in a car or bus has a familiar sleepy vibration. It’s a rare person in our modern world who doesn’t know riding in a plane is all about that hypnotic jet hum in an atmosphere thick with a hundred passenger’s quiet discomfort. Millions of people know the smooth speed of an electric train and the hypnotic rhythm of a rocking boat. But far fewer people know what it’s like to travel by helicopter, especially the big twin-engine Bell 212 - known as the safest helicopter in the world - used on CMH Summer Adventures.
Adventure travel by helicopter in the mountains is like nothing else. The combination of relatively slow speeds compared to a plane, and proximity to the earth for a truly bird’s eye view of alpine grandeur, offers the passenger an unparalleled intimacy with flight.
Leaving the ground is the first eye-opener. The helicopter takes off slowly, rising vertically for several metres, and there is a second or two when if feels like the machine could go any direction - and it can. Then it leans forward slightly and begins to accelerate, quickly reaching cruising speed. This is about the point when the cameras start clicking.
As a passenger in a helicopter, your sensitivity to changes in speed is very acute. In a jet, it is impossible to get a feel for speed because of the high cruising altitude. When “cruising” in a Bell 212 during a CMH Summer Adventure, you’re right at mountaintop level, or lower, doing around 200 kilometres per hour – about the average speed of a Formula One race.
If you’ve ridden in smaller helicopters, which often feel like they are rotating back and forth, the Bell 212 is unbelievably stable – sort of the Limousine of helicopters. While it has two engines, and can fly on one engine if the other should fail, the mighty Columbia Mountains force the Bell 212 to fly slow to around 100 kilometres per hour while climbing - think highway speed, but looking out the window at a glacier.
Unless they're in a rescue scenario, pilots don’t just fly straight up a vertical mountain face. A good mountain pilot, like those we work with from Alpine Helicopters, will read the terrain for the easiest line just like a mountain guide, crossing passes at their lowest points, avoiding unnecessary altitude gain and loss, watching the wind and weather, and always keeping an escape route open if conditions change.
On the way down, the helicopter can lose altitude fast enough to put your stomach in your throat – up to 1000 metres per minute – but the pilots save those kinds of speeds for when they’re alone in the helicopter. With passengers, they slow the descent to give everyone a smooth, comfortable, photogenic ride.
If you’ve never been in a helicopter, riding in a Bell 212, on route to one of the myriad experiences of a CMH Summer Adventure, is the ultimate way to give it a try. Not only do you get a scenic flight in the world’s safest helicopter through some of the world’s most beautiful mountains, but at the end of the flight you are left in a breathtaking location with a guide to spend the day in a mountain paradise surrounded by raw, quiet, untouched wilderness.
Photos by Topher Donahue.
Air speed information for the Bell 212 provided by Alex Holliday, Safety Manager for Alpine Helicopters.
Posted by Topher Donahue on Tue, Jun 29, 2010 @ 11:11 AM
I visited the CMH Bobbie Burns Lodge in the summer of 2007 as the guides were putting the finishing touches on the now legendary Mt. Nimbus Via Ferrata. Traversing the knife-edged ridges, straddling the tiny summits, and walking across the airy suspension bridge was exciting enough while tethered into a bombproof harness and cable. Building the thing must have been outrageous. To find out a bit more about the installation and its strength, I tracked down Carl Trescher, a British Columbia native and mountain guide. After experimenting with a small via ferrata on Mt. Syphax, Trescher went to Europe, the birthplace of adrenaline sport, to learn from the masters.
TD: What kind of training did you do in Europe?
CT: I did a High Ropes Instructor Course. I concentrated mainly on the building aspects of the course and learned lots of different techniques for setting up ziplines, portable and permanent cable structures and protection systems as well as specific rescue techniques with cable based systems.
TD: The forces on the suspension bridge must be massive. Do you have any idea how much force is placed on the anchors if a person is standing in the middle of the bridge?
CT: Surprisingly, the forces placed on the anchor system of the suspension bridge are pretty low. Safety is by far our main priority. We distribute the load between 4 main cables, which then distribute the loads to their separate anchor systems. A separate safety cable and anchor system is used for fall protection. We use a dynamometer to measure the force on most of our structures and maintain a safety ratio of around 10:1 or greater. Measuring the force on the bridge anchors comes in under 2 kilonewtons (the force of about 204kg) with someone standing in the middle.
TD: 10 times stronger than needed! That’s nice to know. So how strong is that?
CT: We use expansion bolts to build our anchoring systems for the bridge. These systems are theoretically capable of holding around 100 to 135 Kilonewtons. (The force of over 13,000kg.) Should be strong enough!!!
TD: How long did it take to install?
CT: The Mt. Nimbus Via Ferrata was built in a series of phases of two summer seasons. About three weeks of construction time was taken to complete each phase. The material required to build a via ferrata a sure weighs a lot and some days it sure felt a lot longer!!
TD: How do average people do on Mt. Nimbus in terms of both fear and physical difficulty?
CT: The average person and first timer does incredibly well on the via ferrata. The great thing about it is you are going to some outrageously wild places and situations in the mountains, yet it is completely safe and not difficult so the average person is more than able to physically do it.
Most people do quite well with the fear also. We designed the via ferrata with a bit of flow starting off with easier sections and slowly building as we climb Nimbus Tower. For those looking for a bit of adventure this is definitely the highlight of the trip. We try to get to know people on the first hiking day as a lot of people are physically able to do the ferrata although not every person would necessarily enjoy it. That is one of the great things though about summer in the Bobbie Burns as there is still all the great hiking and classic mountaineering as well as the adventure trails and via ferratas.
Have you done the Mt. Nimbus Via Ferrata? Did it feel strong enough to you?
Mt. Nimbus Via Ferrata photo by Topher Donahue