Great day in the mountains. Arrowsmith Range has nice vertical, with a variety of terrain options. Guides are extremly professional & know where to find good snow, very well run operation.

Will be back again! & would refer to others. Thanks Jim.
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I skied the Arrowsmith range with Methven heliski on a bluebird spring day. The snow conditions were not epic, but it was a magnificent day, skiing some spectacular country. Heliskiing is not cheap, but the prices in NZ stack up well against operations in the Northern hemisphere, especially if you are coming from overseas and getting the benefit of the relatively good exchange rates of the last few years.

I think some of the other heliski operations in Canterbury have struggled in the last few years. There are probably more skiers and boarders booking heliskiing out of Queenstown and Wanaka these days. Canterbury heli is worth making the effort for however. There is so much more to the area than Mt Hutt.

If you are thinking about a day of heli, he best idea is to talk to the company as soon as you arrive in the area, or preferably before the holiday. Set aside a few likely days weather wise and have an alternative if the weather is poor. If you are based in Methven, you can ski Mt Hutt, obviously, but you can also sneak up Lake Coleridge road to ski Porter Heights or one of the club fields if it is a no fly day.

New Zealanders do heliski well. Go anywhere else in the world and it is likely at least one of the guides or pilots will be a Kiwi. This is their home turf and worth experiencing.
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Methven Heli are the 4th heli operator I've used in NZ and I've gotta say, hands down - the best.

Forget the queenstown/wanaka heli operators, not that there's anything wrong with them. The vertical and steeps these guys have in the Arrowsmiths is far superior.

Kevin (lead guide) runs a nice operation, the guides are quality - safety concious and able to select the best aspects for powder, safely.

The transit time for the heli from the pickup, Glenfalloch station (about an hours drive from Methven), to the skiing is minimal, which means more bang for your buck.

The only other Heli area in NZ I would check out is Wilderness Heli, which is run by the same people (Alpine Guides) just slightly further south, out of Mt Cook Village. I know the Mt Cook area terrain there a little bit from overnight hut split-board touring trips and it is similar in quality to the Methven Heli terrain in the Arrowsmiths.

Kevin was nice enough to take some high quality action SLR photos and put them on a memory stick for $20.

Not to sound snobby, but I won't really consider heli in many other places in NZ apart from here.
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New Zealand heli skiing operations are very similar and are somewhat difficult to differentiate from each other. Factors that are typical to all NZ heli operations include: no tree skiing; high frequency of down days due to inability to ski and fly in protected areas; variable snow quality; small group size; and the rates are a fraction of what you’d pay for heli skiing elsewhere in the world.

One stand-out feature of the Methven Heliski operation is the steep terrain that advanced and expert skiers and snowboarders will adore. The terrain is at good elevation, which results in longer runs and more consistent snow than some of their competitors.

See our Methven Heliski review for more information.
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Value Value Value at all. The guys picked me up on an awesome Wednesday morning. To bring me to the shop, fill up some documents about, i have no idea what exactly. SO after that we took a ride to the Helly spot which is located some miles out of town. Pretty nice road and landscape so not that bad to drive to the mountains instead of flying. After we reached the spot, we got some safety instructions how to handle the avalanche gear and so on. We were a group of 6 peoples, 2 guides and 4 buddys. The area around is damn beautiful, I really loved it. The peaks full of powder and the runs full of fluffy powder. Nice choice of the guys.

The runs could be a bit more steep but on these days the avalanche risk was a bit to high so yeah, either way we had awesome ten runs.
The guides know their area, they are well trained and know their business like their wallets.
Yeah thanks for this awesome experience.
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Flew with Methven Heliski on August 11, 2012 and is my third time flying with Kevin and his team. We caught an epic day in the Palmer Mountain range and managed 9 runs as we had god group, great guide (Gary) and pilot (Phil) who put us into some great runs. Note extra runs are generally cheaper then advertised and somewhat negotiable. We were charged $NZ270 per head for the 4 extra runs. This trip was three groups being flown per heli meaning no waiting for a lift.
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