St.-Philémon (QC), Canada – Years ago, helicopter skiing was available for a few short years on the windswept, treeless summits of the Chic-Choc Mountains on Québec’s Gaspé Peninsula. This year it returns to the Canadian province, although in a rather unlikely location.

Massif du Sud is ski area relatively unknown to Americans, located in the rolling hills about an hour and a half’s drive southeast of Québec City toward the Maine border. Many mistakenly confuse it with the better-known Le Massif de Charlevoix, which sits to the northeast of Québec City. Massif du Sud’s slopes start from the highest lift-served elevation in Québec on the north slope of a broad plateau overlooking the gentle farmlands of the Chaudière-Appalaches region that stretch toward the St. Lawrence River.

While the resort has offered snowcat skiing on the plateau’s northeastern flanks for some time, this year it’s giving skiers and riders the opportunity to use a helicopter instead, the only ski resort in eastern North America to do so.

Details for the new Héli-Safari program are still being worked out, but so far it’s been determined that flights will originate from the base of the ski area, from a heliport in downtown Montreal and from La Cache à Maxime, a nearby resort. Runs of 800 to 1,100 vertical feet will take place on slopes some four to six miles from the lift-served resort. Two to six guests can expect to make three to five runs in a day. Prices will range from C$350 per person for those who start from the ski area to C$2,200 per person for those who choose to begin their day in Montreal, and include a lunch of game stew in a mountainside cabin and other amenities.

For more information visit www.massifdusud.net.