The ninth annual Red Bull Nanshan Open will be taking place just outside of Beijing January 22nd and 23rd. A collaboration between Red Bull and Mellowparks.cn, the event has a reputation for being not only very rider-friendly, but also extremely well-organized. All those years ago, the event was the first snowboard competition to ever be held in China, and thanks to the Mellowparks.cn folks it's legitimately one of the few remaining events done by riders for riders. That doesn't mean it's only worth it for locals. The event is a 4Star TTR slopestyle competition on the World Snowboard Tour, offering 500 TTR points and a piece of the US$30,000 prize pool. Some of the big names that have taken part in the past include Austin Smith, Hampus Mosesson, Nick Brown, Tobi Strauss, Juuso Laivisto, Jakob Wilhelmson, and Freddy Austbo.

China may not be one of the first places you think of when you say big freestyle event, but as with everything in China, it's growing. While China is a great place to visit, we here at Mica Heli Guides are still quite confident that the best skiing and snowboarding happens right here in British Columbia, Canada. Yes we're biased, but the numbers back us up too, at least when it comes to the backcountry. Over 95% of the world's heliskiing and catskiing take place here every season. That's because only B.C. offers the world's best helicopter accessed powder skiing and heli boarding. Helicopter skiing in Canada is quite an experience, especially if you make a visit to our amazing 72,000 hectare tenure.

We only do small group heliskiing tours, which means that you basically have the whole place to yourself when you and your friends are out on the slopes. The powder here is phenomenal too, and we're not exaggerating when we say it's deeper here at Mica. Come see for yourself and book a tour with us, but make sure to do it soon as our tours are already filling up. Helicopter skiing Canada.