GUIDE EXPERIENCE & SAFETY
Your safety is our top priority. Every decision that we make is rooted in conducting safe operations. It starts with our guide training, experience and knowledge. All of our guides are trained in emergency care with current EMT, WFR, and/or OEC certifications. Additionally, our Chief Guide is a licensed Physician’s Assistant.
We require that all senior level and above guides must have at least a professional level 2 avalanche certification, and our junior level guides (those who do not yet lead their own groups in the field) are working on attaining their professional level 1 and level 2 certifications. Many of our guides are avalanche course instructors and work as operational leads for other avalanche forecasting operations, ski patrol, and other guide operations.
Pulseline is a professional avalanche forecasting operation. We observe and record weather and snowpack data in Alaska starting in the fall when the annual snowpack begins all the way through the conclusion of the season. During our daily morning guide meetings we have a comprehensive discussion on weather and snowpack to develop an avalanche forecast and strategic mindset for the day. Guides collect snow pit and weather data each day during heli-skiing operations to aid in developing our avalanche and snow safety forecasts.
Each guest completes our indoor safety briefing and outdoor avalanche safety briefing including demonstrations and hands-on practice using an avalanche transceiver to search for a buried transceiver, and proper probing and digging techniques to extract a buried transceiver.
Our guides are exceedingly experienced with some of the deepest knowledge in the heli-skiing industry and a comprehensive understanding of terrain, snowpack, and weather conditions in Alaska. Collectively we've guided thousands of skiers and snowboarders in the Chugach Mountains. Many of our guides pioneered terrain and established protocols for guided heli-skiing operations in Alaska. Our guides are trained in avalanche and snow safety forecasting, heli-skiing operations, crevasse/high-angle rescue – and all are expert skiers or snowboarders with excellent physical fitness.