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Vertical Reference: The Life of Legendary Mountain Helicopter Rescue Pilot Jim Davies
An exciting and heart-pounding look at one of Western Canada’s most adventurous individuals, known as a pioneer pilot of the heli-ski industry and as the first mountain-rescue pilot in the Canadian National Parks system.
Jim Davies is an icon of competence and courage as the first heli-skiing pilot in Canada. But it is his groundbreaking work as a helicopter rescue pilot for Parks Canada that made him a legend to all who worked with him. His stellar career as a pilot overshadowed his other talents as a ski racer and artist.
Jim received several awards for his work in mountain rescue, including the Helicopter Association International – Pilot Safety Award of Excellence, the Alberta Achievement Award for excellence in helicopter flying, the Summit of Excellence Award at the Banff Film and Book Festival, and the Robert E. Trimble Memorial Award for “distinguished performance in helicopter mountain flying.” He is now retired and living in Banff, pursuing his love of painting and photography.
Jim Davies is an icon of competence and courage as the first heli-skiing pilot in Canada. But it is his groundbreaking work as a helicopter rescue pilot for Parks Canada that made him a legend to all who worked with him. His stellar career as a pilot overshadowed his other talents as a ski racer and artist.
Jim received several awards for his work in mountain rescue, including the Helicopter Association International – Pilot Safety Award of Excellence, the Alberta Achievement Award for excellence in helicopter flying, the Summit of Excellence Award at the Banff Film and Book Festival, and the Robert E. Trimble Memorial Award for “distinguished performance in helicopter mountain flying.” He is now retired and living in Banff, pursuing his love of painting and photography.
352 pages, Kindle Edition
Published January 12, 2021
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
February 2, 2021
From the first page, this biography tells the detailed and captivating story of an amazing man. Jim Davies was a ski champion, then helicopter pilot up north, then began flying in Western Canada's mountains. He led an amazing life, and this book goes into many of his phenomenal -- and hair raising -- adventures. Really well written. Highly recommended!
March 29, 2022
Calvert provides a biography of Jim Davies, a helicopter pilot who was instrumental in establishing the rescue services in the mountain parks of Alberta and B.C. While about Davies, the book also describes the development of these services and the many people that were involved. Many of the rescues are described, showing the involved logistics of using a helicopter to extract a person from a steep slope.
The title of the book - Vertical Reference - refers to the need to look down to correctly see the helicopter's position above the ground. In an early incident, Hans Gmoser offered to jump out of the helicopter onto a pass, but caution caused Davies to have him drop his pack first revealing that they were still 200 feet above the pass.
The author's description of early Banff, where Davies grew up, relates the many interactions with the wildlife. Interesting that they were able to deal with the bears on an ongoing basis without treating them as deadly animals.
Peter Fuhrmann lead the development of early avalanche control efforts in the parks. Helicopters were used to drop explosives. The year 1971 was notable for large deposits that became unstable with warming weather, resulting in some particularly large avalanches. One was triggered on the slide path below the Goat's Eye which turned out to be bigger than expected and took out much of the parking lot. Another release off of Mt. Bosworth travelled across the highway and right up to the rail line.
Helicopters have also been used to move problem bears into the backcountry. This function has it's own problems as the the correct sedative must be used to ensure that the bear can be moved, and yet the bear has to be watched to ensure recovery at the destination. In one case, a recovering bear wandered into a stream and would have drowned had not Davies lifted its head out of the water.
Calvert concludes with an overview of how the helicopter rescue services have changed from the early days. Drones have been introduced to assist in assessing flying conditions and drop food, supplies and radios. The Swiss feel they have the most advanced system in the world, but consider that of Canada and New Zealand to be similar. The rescue record "... is so far unblemished by any deaths or serious injury either to pilots, rescuers or victims, though close calls have occurred."
The title of the book - Vertical Reference - refers to the need to look down to correctly see the helicopter's position above the ground. In an early incident, Hans Gmoser offered to jump out of the helicopter onto a pass, but caution caused Davies to have him drop his pack first revealing that they were still 200 feet above the pass.
The author's description of early Banff, where Davies grew up, relates the many interactions with the wildlife. Interesting that they were able to deal with the bears on an ongoing basis without treating them as deadly animals.
Peter Fuhrmann lead the development of early avalanche control efforts in the parks. Helicopters were used to drop explosives. The year 1971 was notable for large deposits that became unstable with warming weather, resulting in some particularly large avalanches. One was triggered on the slide path below the Goat's Eye which turned out to be bigger than expected and took out much of the parking lot. Another release off of Mt. Bosworth travelled across the highway and right up to the rail line.
Helicopters have also been used to move problem bears into the backcountry. This function has it's own problems as the the correct sedative must be used to ensure that the bear can be moved, and yet the bear has to be watched to ensure recovery at the destination. In one case, a recovering bear wandered into a stream and would have drowned had not Davies lifted its head out of the water.
Calvert concludes with an overview of how the helicopter rescue services have changed from the early days. Drones have been introduced to assist in assessing flying conditions and drop food, supplies and radios. The Swiss feel they have the most advanced system in the world, but consider that of Canada and New Zealand to be similar. The rescue record "... is so far unblemished by any deaths or serious injury either to pilots, rescuers or victims, though close calls have occurred."
May 24, 2026
Made it about a third of the way through the book. Its writing is pretty dry, and doesn’t dive into significant details around exciting adventures. Also will introduce several friends as random characters for a page or two just to not be relevant. Don’t really feel like reading the rest of it.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews