We are located in the high, snow- and ice-covered peaks of the Coast Mountains that extend 1600 km northward along the Alaska Panhandle into the Yukon. These gloriously scenic mountains have peaks up to 4,000m (Mount Waddington). Numerous long, twisting, deep fjords penetrate the mountain mass along the coast. The range averages 200km in width.
The Coast Mountains, covered in dense temperate rainforest on its western exposures, rise to heavily glaciated peaks and include the largest temperate-latitude icefields in the world. It then tapers to the dry interior plateau on its eastern flanks, or to the subarctic boreal forest to our north. Because of the extremely abrupt landscape and the dense forest cover, the alpine areas of the Coast Mountains have been largely unvisited by hikers, climbers or ski tourers to this day.
Our exclusive commercial heliskiing region is three major three icefields north of the highest peak in the range, Mt. Waddington (4,019 metres/13,186 feet). Many of our glaciers and peaks are unnamed. Inland 150 km from open water, we have three prime operating areas just west and north of Monarch Icefield and east of the Chilcotin Plateau. Near to the rainiest community in Canada, we receive the bounty of this precipitation in the form of snow between the months of October and January.
The Bella Coola River is a major river on the Pacific slope of the Coast Mountains in southern British Columbia. The town of Bella Coola, which is the historic and ancient capital of the Nuxalk people, is at its mouth on North Bentinck Arm. Bella Coola is the only town on the BC Coast between Kitimat and Squamish to have road access to the inland side of the Coast Mountains; it is at the end of Highway 20 from Williams Lake via the Chilcotin Country. Summer ferries run between Vancouver Island and Bella Coola, and onward to Prince Rupert, BC, Juneau and Skagway, Alaska.
