One of the early pioneers of heli-skiing died last week, after succumbing to injuries he suffered in a fall while skiing. He was 92 years old.
Leo Grillmair was one of the co-founders of CMH Heli-Skiing & Summer Adventures, originally known as Canadian Mountain Holidays. The longstanding heliskiing company now has 11 lodges throughout British Columbia, where skiers and snowboarders have spent decades exploring the vast mountains.
Grillmair was born in Austria in 1930 as the sixth of ten children and became an apprentice plumber as a young teen. But when the Second World War ended and work dried up in his home country, he and his friend Hans Gmoser set sail for Canada on Grillmair's 21st birthday. The trip took 13 days.
The pair eventually found work in the Bow Valley, west of Calgary, and began work to become certified mountain guides.
It was during this time when Grillmair met his first wife Elfi and had three children.
His guiding brought him to the Bugaboos mountain range, where he and Gmoser began ski touring and guiding clients. One client, Art Patterson suggested they use a helicopter to access higher areas, and in April 1965, Gmoser hosted the first official weeks of commercial helicopter skiing.
Grillmair spent 22 years as area manager with CMH heli-skiing and was the lead guide in the Bugaboos. He met his second wife Lynne while she was working as a cook at the heli-skiing lodge.
Grillmair had a number of close brushes with death during his long and storied life, surviving a number of avalanches and other mishaps that come with a career in the mountains.
“At my lifestyle, it’s amazing,” Grillmair told a reporter on his 80th birthday. “Someone once said to me that I had horseshoes up my ass. I told them I had an entire damn ranch.”
Even when he retired, Grillmair was never far from the Bugaboos and from CMH's operations.
“Leo had an endearing touch of irreverence and a willingness to go for it and try something that had never been done before,” said current CMH President & COO, Rob Rohn.
“He and Hans invented a new sport that really differentiates Canada in the mountain and guiding world and is now the primary employer of guides in this country. That doesn’t happen without a certain mindset.”
Grillmair suffered an injury during a fall while skiing last month. Several weeks later, he died from the injuries he suffered, surrounded by family and near the mountain he had fallen in love with many decades prior.
– this story was sourced from a more lengthy obituary written by Kelsey Verboom
