With a mission to inform, empower, celebrate and advocate for British Columbia's current and aspiring business leaders, BCBusiness go behind the headlines and bring readers face to face with the key issues and people driving business in B.C.
Issue link: http://digital.canadawide.com/i/1296256
66 BCBUSINESS SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2020 nearly 1,800 people and contribute $89 million in household income. The indus- try has enjoyed substantial growth in recent years—from 2016 to 2019, total skier days grew 20 percent, to almost 118,500. However, high-end powder skiing mostly depends on aff luent foreign customers. Though the level of reliance varies from company to company, more than 90 per- cent of those who typically occupy seats in snow cats and helicopters have American or European passports and can afford to pay up $10,000 for a week of skiing. Unless these companies can find a way to get foreign guests into the country safely without posing a health risk to fellow ski- ers, staff and the communities in which they operate, the 2020-21 season could be a bust, says Ross Cloutier, executive direc- tor of HeliCat Canada, which lobbies and advocates on behalf of its 21 heli-skiing and 14 cat-skiing members. According to Clout- ier, some operators simply won't survive a season of zero revenue, especially after the pandemic caused an early shutdown in mid-March, around the time that three Americans heli-skiing with three different companies tested positive for COVID. The closure cost operators between $60 million and $70 million in lost revenue, he reckons. That's why HeliCat Canada has been focused on getting health measures in place, including personal protective equip- ment for staff and guests and Plexiglas shields between seats in the helicopters. However, the looming bigger question is whether companies will even be able to get their guests into the country. "We think it's possible to create a quar- antine bubble, but I think folks are coming to the realization that the borders will not be open and are now determining what that all means for them," Cloutier says in late August. "Some are close to announcing that they will close, while others are rejigging." Chris McNamara co-owns and manages Retallack, a cat-skiing and mountain- biking operation tucked into the Selkirk Mountains between the Kootenay towns of Kaslo and New Denver. The 25-year-old company, which has carved out a niche with expert skiers thanks to steep, treed terrain, has 85-percent repeat customers. When BCBusiness reached McNamara at his Nelson home in July, Retallack was running a limited summer mountain biking program. Given the nature of the business and the inherent threat of avalanches, McNa- mara likens running a cat- or heli-skiing company to being in risk management. He believes the spirit of cooperation between businesses is helping the sector adapt to a new reality and operating procedures. "The problem is, so many things are up in the air. It's certainly possible that we won't be able to operate if there's another lockdown," says McNamara, who is also VP of HeliCat Canada. "I'd say overall, given the situation, government is doing a pretty good job, but the tourism sector is getting hammered." PIVOT TO WHAT? Megan Osak thinks government should do more. Eight years ago, she and her husband bought the oldest cat-skiing operation in B.C., Selkirk Snowcat Skiing, founded by late industry pioneer Alan Drury. Today, 65 percent of the company's clientele is foreign, and general manager Osak says the best-case scenario for the coming winter is to break even. "The alternative would be to shut for the season, risk losing our staff and still have to pay our overhead costs," she explains. "We are already moving forward with our plans to defer our U.S. and international clients to the 2021-22 season and fill our lodge with domestic skiers. We are a small operator and expect to be able to fill 300 seats." Cat-skiing is "a low-margin industry with huge up-front costs," Osak adds. "Most operators are putting off making any decisions until the fall, but the unknown is stressful, and it takes months to get these operations up and running." O n a cold February day in 1963, Austrian-born Hans Gmoser loaded a helicopter with skis and skiers to fly into the Bugaboos, a gla- cier-shrouded group of granite spires in southeast B.C.'s Purcell Mountains. Gmoser, who had immigrated to Edmonton in 1951, was already a well- established mountain guide. He was also an entrepreneur who in 1959 launched Banff-based Rocky Mountain Guides, which would later become Canadian Mountain Holidays ( CMH). Gmoser credited Calgary geolo- gist and avid skier Art Patterson with the idea of accessing powder snow by chopper. His first guinea-pig guests paid $20 (roughly $170 in today's currency) for a day of heli-skiing and overnighted at a logging camp. Though others had used helicopters for such trips in Alaska and Europe during the 1950s, Gmoser's pioneering Bugaboos foray launched a high-end industry that put B.C. on the global map as a premier destination for powder skiing. As demand for this exclu- sive experience grew, so did CMH. The company, now called CMH Heli-Skiing and Summer Adventures and owned by Denver-headquartered Alterra Mountain Co., has 12 lodges, 500 employees and 15,000 square kilometres of commercial recreation tenure in B.C. Gmoser died in 2006 after a cycling accident near Banff. –A.F. THE B.C. HELI-SKIING INDUSTRY TOOK OFF THANKS TO ONE MAN'S PIONEERING EFFORTS ALMOST 60 YEARS AGO VIRGIN POWDER Some of B.C.'s first heli-ski guests touch down in the Bugaboos in 1965 (top); industry innovator Hans Gmoser founded Canadian Mountain Holidays CMH HELI-SKIING AND SUMMER ADVENTURES