Heli Ride
This is about as hip, hot and happening as a day in the mountains will ever get! Live your personal Peter Stuyvesant dream by boarding a helicopter at dawn and lifting off to thump into a high-altitude world where the updraft whips virgin powder along the summits of the Western Cape’s most rugged ranges.
Buffeted by high-altitude winds, you’ll whup-whup-whup past Milner, Groothoek, Rooiberg and Buffelshoek Peaks, waiting for the rugged bulk of Matroosberg to punch into view against the blue skyline. The slopes below this 2 249m peak (the highest in the Western Cape) brims with sculpted couloirs and virgin runs stretching away onto the plateau dropping nearly a kilometre onto the arid African plains below.
The peaks form part of the Hex River ranges and boast superb snowboarding, but only during a few select weeks every year when the Big Chill descends upon the Cape. When conditions are right, the crisp air and high altitude combine to produce magnificent powder slopes in these peaks towering above Paarl, and best of all is that you are only an hour away from the Mother City.
The Matroosberg Nature Reserve is a scenic reserve located on the farm Erfdeel (a working fruit, vegetable and protea farm) outside Ceres in...