Forget fishing. September is not too early for avid heli-skiers.

September lasts until Friday night, but heli-skiers are already cutting turns in the Tordrillo Mountains at elevations from 3,000 to 8,000 feet.

The Tordrillos are a small range about 75 miles northwest of Anchorage that includes peaks as high at Mount Torbert (11,413 feet) and Mount Spurr (11,070 feet).

Seward-based Silverton Mountain Guides Alaska this week kicked off its ninth season of heli-skiing when four staffers "fired up the chopper and went skiing and snowboarding in miles and miles of untracked snow," according to Aaron Brill, 45, co-owner of the company.

Brill said he founded Silverton Mountain Guides in Colorado 15 years ago and expanded to Alaska in 2007.

"This is the best it's been in September in any of my years here," Brill said. "We didn't hit any rocks at all and were able to ski much steeper terrain."

That left him considering whether to move the typical November opening up a month. Brill said his company serves what he calls "destination skiers" from Outside as well as Alaskans on weekends.

As welcome as the mountain snow was, not all the skiers' runs were perfect. According to a company press release: "On a film run down a 55-degree Alaskan face (mind you it was Sept. 26) one of the pros got a little overzealous and was hit by his sluff cascading down the mountain behind him which knocked him off his feet and he cartwheeled over a huge ice cliff."

He was not injured.