If you live in the Robson Valley and you’ve never done a helicopter tour of Mt. Robson, you are missing out on another dimension of our local landscape.
Ascending from the Yellowhead Helicopters hangar just north of Valemount, we float in the middle of the wide valley along Hwy 5. Our pilot Jeff Coenen glides us smoothly over a ridge and suddenly Mt. Robson is before us. Even on a cloudy day, with its peak obscured, it is magnificent.
Coenen guides the helicopter through a narrower valley in order to come around to Mt. Robson from the back side. We watch for bears and mountain goats along the ridges as we drift hundreds of metres above the more remote landscape. Under us are no roads, but vein-like rivers twisting together like a pack of cords. Coenen points out the various glaciers as we pass by them. There is still plenty of snow and except for the peaks, the landscape is pure white. At each ridge, the helicopter seems to gain a little speed as we crest into another remote valley.
Finally we cross the final threshold before Mt. Robson. It is stark and beautiful, the ice on Berg Lake still frozen, but cracking in places. We get a million dollar view of Mt. Robson Glacier, Emperor Falls and Kinny Lake which is azure blue at this time of year.
The prices for this tour were more reasonable than I expected. Check it out and change the way you see our valley forever.
