Daily Pampering: Learn to paint in the Bugaboo Mountains


Canadian Mountain Holidays
is offering a special trip from August 31 to September 5, 2010 which combines hiking, helicopters and painting in the astonishing landscape of the Bugaboo Mountains. Just look at the photo. Don’t you want to paint that?

The five-night adventure will include three days helicoptering around the mountains to scenic locations with renowned artist Liz Wiltzen, who also happens to be an experienced mountaineer. Wiltzen will offer any artistic guidance you might need, though once your lungs fill with mountain air and you’re staring at the Bugaboo Spires, glacial lakes and colorful wildflowers, you may not need any help at all.

After your long days of intense landscape immersion, you’ll be comfortably hosted at the luxurious Bugaboo Lodge, where you’ll find gourmet alpine cuisine served family-style and breathtaking views — even from the hot tub.

The highly exclusive trip is limited to just 10 guests at $3,183 per person (based on double occupancy; non-painting spouses can join at a discounted rate). Click here for more information or to book.

Want more? Get your daily dose of pampering right here.

Image via Canadianmountainholidays.com.

Heli-Skiing for the luxury thrill seeker

Canadian Mountain Holidays was the first company in North America to offer heli-skiing. Back in 1965, six years after the birth of the company, Hans Gmoser, the Austrian immigrant owner, thought it would be neat to fly skiers up into the Bugaboo Mountains via helicopter. The idea really took off, and soon after, they were offering heli-hiking, as well.

This winter, CMH is offering a little something special for you luxury thrill seekers. March 13-20, 2010 CMH will be taking two of America’s best pro-cyclists and some lucky folks like you on a heli-skiing trip in western Canada’s Adamants. Bob Roll and Ron Kiefel (right) will be joining guests and alpine guides in the CMH Adamants lodge for a week of family-style meals and other camaraderie-building activities like soaks in the hot tub and spa treatments.

Bob Roll is looking forward to the challenge; heli skiing in “some of the most remote, deepest powder on earth.” “There’s no one else I’d rather take that plunge with!” he said in a statement about CMH.

Space for this exclusive itinerary is very limited, and the price is approximately $10,100 per person (based on double occupancy). If that’s too steep for you — or you have a conflict — but you’d still like to try heli-skiing, visit Candian Mountain Holidays to check out their other packages, starting from $975/day (all-inclusive), or as Jamie Rhein’s recommended back in 2007, try Heli Canada Adventures for cheaper options.

Adventure Travel in Luxury in the Canadian Rockies

Usually I equate adventure travel with roughing it. Getting dropped off by helicopter into the wildnerness where there are no paved roads also sounds a bit risky. On the contrary on both accounts. Although heli-hiking vacations do involve helicopters and donning hiking boots for some rigorous activity, there’s no reason to forgo the niceties of pampering if you’re spending the night in the wild.

That’s what I found out when I read Joe Nocera’s first person account of his trip to Canada in the New York Times travel section. He went on a Canadian Mountain Holidays vacation that involved being dropped off on top of a mountain in the morning so he could hike all day with the rest of his group in stunning, hard to reach places before the helicopter came back for them to return them to the lodge. According to him, this experience allows for roughing it travel that is mixed with luxurious slumber in a lodge that also offers massages, wine and hors d’oeuvres. That does sound good BUT. . .

One of the things he mentioned was seeing markings left by grizzly bears, something that might be hard to see if you just hike somewhere. Harumph! The first time I hiked in Glacier National Park in Montana with my husband the spring before we got married, he pointed out two grizzly bears across a field from where we were heading to a lake he thought I should see. I wondered about the fruit in his pack. He said I ought to be more concerned about the salami in mine and all he had to worry about was out-running me. The bears were so far away they looked like small dogs and according to this personal tour guide of mine who spent the summers in college doing laundry at Many Glacier Hotel in East Glacier, we weren’t in any danger. We made it to the lake several miles from the parking lot. I still remember the mountains still capped with snow and the brilliant blue of the water. And at the end of the day, I had the satisfaction of knowing that I got there and back by using my legs to carry me. We didn’t see one person along the way. If a helicopter had shown up, though, I probably wouldn’t have turned down the ride.

One company I found that offers a smaller scale version of Nocera’s experience is Heli-Canada Adventures. You can do a heli-hike for a day if you want to picnic on top of a mountain, for example, and you just don’t want to walk there.