For perfect powder in the French Alps, Val Heliski has the hookup. The Courchevel-based outfitter has pioneered 32 drop zones throughout Valgrisenche, the Courmayeur Valley, and the Col du Petit Saint-Bernard Pass, ensuring ideal terrain and snow conditions at every run—no matter your skill level. Enjoy long descents with views of nearby Mont Blanc or the Matterhorn as well as luxurious chalet accommodations for plenty of après-ski R&R.
#2 Jackson Hole
Conquer deep and dry powder in Jackson Hole with High Mountain Heli-Skiing, a 44-year heli expert offering top access to the best open bowls and steep chutes throughout the Snake River and Palisades mountain ranges. Spend a day flying from peak to peak—those with a daredevil streak can tackle six runs totaling up to 15,000 vertical feet—and then take it easy with wintery adventures like cross-country skiing and snow biking. For the most exclusive way to heli, stay at the Snake River Sporting Club, a private ski community with overnight accommodations and easy helicopter access to the pistes.
#3 Park City
With the Utah-based outfitter Powderbird, first-time heli-skiers can expect access to more than 80,000 acres of fresh powder in the Wasatch Mountains via their own private helicopter. And thanks to the hundreds of inches of snowfall that descend on Utah every winter, the perfect conditions for a first-time heli run are virtually guaranteed.
#4 Telluride
Telluride’s best-kept secret is that the best snow comes late in the season. Take advantage of that with a high-flying adventure through the San Juan Mountains with the experts at Telluride Helitrax. During the late winter months, skiers can expect deeper snowpack and more stable snow conditions—perfect for first-timers. Base yourself at the Madeline Hotel & Residences to ensure your après-ski activities include plenty of pampering—the Auberge Resorts property features one of Telluride’s largest spas.
#5 The Dolomites
In 2009, the Dolomites were added to the UNESCO World Heritage Site list for their intrinsic beauty, fossilized atolls, and spectacular vertical forms. They’re also a spectacular place to get acquainted with heli-skiing. Take advantage of this rare blend of adventure and history by booking Ciasa Salares’s heli-skiing experience, which takes adventurers through the ledges and plateaus of some of the region’s most famous mountains. Post-run, the hotel’s new penthouse, which features a private terrace and hot tub for those achy muscles, is the ultimate place to recuperate.
Lisa Ellen Niver is an award-winning travel expert who has explored 102 countries and six continents. A graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, she worked on cruise ships for seven years and backpacked for three years in Asia. She is the founder of the website WeSaidGoTravel which is read in 235 countries and was named #3 on Rise Global’s top 1,000 Travel Blogs. Niver is a speaker at the Los Angeles, New York, Chicago and Dallas Travel and Adventure Shows for 2023. Her podcast, “Make Your Own Map,” has been watched in more than 11 countries on 4 continents. Niver is represented by Chip MacGregor of MacGregor Literary, Inc. Look for her memoir in Fall 2023 from Post Hill Press/Simon and Schuster.
You can find Lisa Niver talking travel on broadcast television at KTLA TV Los Angeles, Satellite Media Tours, The Jet Set TV and Orbitz travel webisodes as well as her YouTube channel, where her WeSaidGoTravel videos have nearly 2 million views.
With more than 150,000 followers across social media, she has hosted Facebook Live for USA Today 10best, is verified on Twitter and listed on IMDb, and is the Social Media Manager for the Los Angeles Press Club.
As a journalist, Niver has interviewed Deepak Chopra, Olympic medalists, and numerous bestselling authors and been invited to both the Oscars and the United Nations. She has been a judge for the Gracie Awards for the Alliance of Women in Media, and has run 15 travel competitions on her website, publishing over 2,500 writers and photographers from 75 countries.
For her print and digital stories as well as her television segments, she has been awarded three Southern California Journalism Awards and two National Arts and Entertainment Journalism Awards and been a finalist twenty times.
Niver has published more than 2000 articles, in more than three dozen magazines and journals
including National Geographic, Wired, Teen Vogue, HuffPost Personal, POPSUGAR, Ms. Magazine, Luxury Magazine, Smithsonian, Sierra Club, Saturday Evening Post, AARP, AAA Explorer Magazine, American Airways, Delta Sky, enRoute (Air Canada), Hemispheres, Jewish Journal, Myanmar Times, BuzzFeed, Robb Report, Scuba Diver Life, Ski Utah, Trivago, Undomesticated, USA Today, TODAY, Wharton Magazine, and Yahoo.
https://bit.ly/m/lisaniver
Awards
National Arts and Entertainment Journalism Awards
2021 Winner: Book Critic: Ms. Magazine “Untamed: Brave Means Living From the Inside Out”
2019 Winner: Soft News Feature for Film/TV: KTLA TV “Oscars Countdown to Gold with Lisa Niver”
2019 Finalist for: Soft News, Business/Music/Tech/Art
Southern California Journalism Awards
2022 Finalist: Book Criticism
2021 Winner: Technology Reporting
2021 Finalist: Book Criticism
2020 Winner: Print Magazine Feature: Hemispheres Magazine, “Painter by the Numbers, Rembrandt”
2020 Finalist: Online Journalist of the Year, Activism Journalism, Educational Reporting, Broadcast Lifestyle Feature
2019 Finalist: Broadcast Television Lifestyle Segment for “Ogden Ski Getaway”
2018 Finalist: Science/Technology Reporting, Travel Reporting, Personality Profile
2017 Winner: Print Column “A Journey to Freedom over Three Passovers”
Social Media Presence
YouTube Channel: We Said Go Travel (1.7 million views)
Short form video:TikTok, Instagram Reels, Facebook Reels, YouTube Shorts
Twitter: lisaniver (90,000 followers)
Instagram: lisaniver (24,000 followers)
Pinterest: We Said Go Travel (20,000 followers and over 70,000 monthly views)
Facebook: lisa.niver (5,000 followers); We Said Go Travel (3,000 followers)
LinkedIn: lisaellenniver (9000 contacts)
Thank you to the Robb Report for publishing my article:
