The majestic Karakoram mountain Range in northern Pakistan witnessed the first ever heliskiing event recently, when 11 skiers from France, Serbia, Russia, Canada, Switzerland and, of course, Pakistan came to ski down the slopes there between March 30 to April 5. The only Pakistani skier in the group was also the only women among them.
Samyra Rashid has been skiing for 30 years now. She skis every winter in Europe in February and March and in the United States for most of the remaining year. “We were all active skiers in the group so no one was really in need of special training or extra practice before the event,” she says.
The rest of the 10 skiers, were invited over by team leader Brice Lequetier, a European champion and world junior champion, who has five years of experience with the French Acrobatic Ski team, etc., and has climbed the Everest and skied down it. Brice himself was invited by Nisar Malik, CEO of Walkabout Films (Pvt.) Ltd.
“Brice and I go a long way back. His company takes people heliskiing all around the world to places like Chile, Canada, the Swiss Alps, Greenland, Japan and Norway. So I asked him to bring his skiers to Islamabad as we finally had everything in place for the event,” said Nisar, who added that he had been planning heliskiing in the Karakoram Range for some seven years now.
“We couldn’t do it earlier as you need proper team effort for heliskiing. There have to be helicopters of course, which can take the skiers to the slopes and drop them off there for skiing downhill in places where there is no other way to reach such spots. Then someone has to take care of the food and lodging, too. So all was organised as the helicopters, Eurocopter Ecureuils, with the best pilots were provided to us by the Inter Services Public Relations [ISPR], thanks to them we also gained access to difficult-to-reach places; the national carrier, PIA, brought all our equipment from abroad; the Shangrila Resort hotels provided us free food and lodging while all the team members paid for their own travel. Everyone did things in kind for the sake of coming up with a good product,” says Nisar.
And by product he means the documentary, his film company made about the entire adventure, which will be shown on Pakistan Television.
Describing the sporting activity that went on in the Karakoram Range, Nisar says, “Well, there were the team guides, who would go out scouting for picking out skiing locations every morning. Then two team members each would be dropped by the helicopters from the lower part of a chosen slope to the upper part to ski down it. We had two helicopters doing that, while I was busy filming in a third one with a special camera attached to the bottom of that helicopter. Earlier, another big helicopter, the MI 17, picked up the entire team and crew from base camp to the lower part of the slope,” he explains as Samyra starts laughing remembering a funny incident that could have turned into a tragedy.
“On the very first day, Nisar was in the third helicopter filming while the guides were dropped off to check out a slope. That was when he noticed some tracks on the top of a run and zoomed in on them to realise that they were made by a very large bear. And following those tracks, he found just round the corner this humongous Himalayan brown bear that had just woken up from hibernation to perhaps wander around in search of food, so it was a fairly hungry bear,” she says.
“Nisar and his pilot used the helicopter they were in to scare it away while the guides, who were screaming out for help on shortwave radio could be picked up. Thankfully, it all ended well and and they escaped unscathed before making a point not to choose that particular slope,” she finishes her story.
Both Samyra and Nisar are all praise for the ISPR helicopter pilots. “The pilots had never done something like this. Army helicopters don’t throw people out; they rescue people so the pilots had to learn a new skill, that of hovering over just two or three feet above the snow to drop the skiers out. But they were fantastic and nailed it in a day,” says Samyra.
“Between the men and machines we had the best combination,” she says.
About her being the only woman among the skiers, she smiles before pointing out, “Well, I begged to be included in the team.”
Nisar adds, “We want more women to be a part of such adventures but you have to understand that there is no support system or infrastructure for this. Ten men can live in one room but if you have a female team member you need to make separate arrangements for her. Still, one is a good beginning. Next time there may be more,” he says.
The heliski project, like their other projects, served the purpose of promoting the natural beauty of Pakistan’s northern areas as well as raise local interest in these places while promoting domestic and international tourism.
“Tourism is not to go to a beautiful place, make a mess of it and then never go back there again. It is to go to a beautiful place, own it, gain information about it and then help preserve it so that you, your children, grandchildren and their grandchildren can enjoy it,” concludes Nisar.