Working as a Heli Ski Guide – Cliff Umpleby

At Last Frontier Heliskiing, much of our success revolves around having a skilled, knowledgeable, and personable roster of heli ski guides at our remote lodges in northern British Columbia. This week we reach behind the curtain and speak with Cliff Umpleby, a heli ski guide of 19 years (almost 15 years guiding for Last Frontier Heliskiing), now our Assistant Director of Operations. We explore what he thinks about working in a remote location, balancing guiding with family time and taking on a management role in his career.

Vince Shuley: How is Last Frontier Heliskiing different from other heliski operations you have worked at over the years?
Cliff Umpleby: First and foremost, the terrain. As a guide it’s always  a fun challenge, and there’s always new lines around the corner. Also, the density of the terrain means there’s so much good skiing in close proximity to the lodge, in every direction. Having 360 degrees of terrain to work with from the lodge is not that common for a heli operation.

VS: What do you like about working in such a remote location such as the Bell 2 Lodge?
CU: In a nutshell, it’s all heliskiing with no distractions. Once you’re there you’re in your own heliskiing bubble. You ski, eat, and talk about heliskiing for the entire shift that you’re up there, there’s nothing better.

VS: What shifts do you work up at Bell 2 Lodge?
CU: I work two weeks on, one week off for around 13 weeks over the winter.

VS: How do you balance your work time and quality time with your family?
CU: I have a wife and two children, a boy of 12 and a girl of 10 at home in Cumberland. When I’m home, I’m home. I’m not doing other things at this stage of my career so I can concentrate on my family. I’ll take my kids out of school for a day and go skiing and do things like that. I structure my work so I work a lot in the winter and not so much in the summer so I can stay home a lot more.

VS: Your role as Assistant Director of Operations means you have other responsibilities aside of guiding. Do you like spending time in that role?
CU: Absolutely. It’s something I’ve done before on a single lodge basis as opposed to having two lodges. It’s always a challenge and it’s stimulating and there’s a lot of other cool things you get to be involved in. I get to work on wildlife mitigation and mapping, other aspects to the industry that you’re not necessarily involved in as a heli ski guide.

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