Gordon Precious has a heli-skiing trip in the books right now that takes place this April. The trip, in British Columbia’s Cariboo Mountains, will be just a month before Precious turns 101 years old, which means at 100, he’ll become the oldest person to ever go heli-skiing. And funny enough it’s the second time Precious will hold this record because he already took the mark with a trip back in 2019, when he was a spry 94-year-old grom.
Precious says the first time he recalls going skiing he was 12 years old, which means this has been a lifelong love. He had nearly 50 years of skiing under his belt when he finally started helicopter skiing, which was 40 years ago now. That just goes to show that even if you get a “late start” compared to others, you might actually still have a long fun road ahead of you.
“To me that’s the peak of great skiing,” he said back in 2019. “You feel that you’re in a different world, away from civilization. Every time you get out and take your skis, then the helicopter takes off, it just seems to fall down the steep mountainside. You think ‘Oh my goodness, how am I gonna get down from way up here.”
Four decades of heli-skiing trips can add up when you make it to the century mark, so Precious’ original world record set in 2019 was already a major accomplishment. Just two years later an American skier leapfrogged Precious by going heli-skiing at 95 years old. But technically, Precious has the upper hand here so long as he keeps getting some trips in the calendar.
“I’m a little older than he is, so I’ll take it away this year,” he told the CBC.
Gordon’s living the dream. Anybody who can keep making turns and enjoying their passion that long — nearly 90 years now, to be exact — is a massive inspiration.
