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Issue link: http://digital.canadawide.com/i/1484213
NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2022 BCBUSINESS 37 LEFT AND CENTRE: BRUNO LONG R E C R E A T I O N have made a cottage industry out of back- country skiing from small, snowy, mom- and-pop ski hills. Japan, however, has over 500 ski areas to bounce between, all linked in close succession, much like in Europe. Zincton would be isolated and on its own. What's more, skiing is much cheaper in Europe and Japan. Though many B.C. ski areas have started offering "one-up" backcountry tickets, they're not far off the price of a full-day ticket, which is creeping toward $200 at most destination-class resorts. "Sidecoun- try" skiing isn't a product Canadian resorts have embraced. Harley says he's going to remedy that with "affordable" pricing and a managed backcountry area. Given, however, that he doesn't plan on accepting any Crown land (some is often granted to develop- ers to help subsidize resort construction through real-estate development) a nd principally wants to sell skiing, low ticket prices could be difficult to swing. Very few resorts are able to make a go of it with- out significant real-estate developments attached. Zincton's would be limited, subdivided from the land Harley already owns. The tangential businesses in the village—food, accommodation, rentals—would all be handed to third-party vendors in what Har- ley calls a "distributed ownership" model that's, again, common in Europe. He also promises to partner with an organization called 1% for the Planet to clean up con- tamination from mining tailings over the resort's 60-year-lease, and to limit summer operations in order to maintain a Zincton- managed "wildlife reserve." SKI'S THE LIMIT While that all sounds forward-thinking on paper, for investors, the idiosyncrasies of this plan could prove to make it a non- starter. One of the few resorts that gets by without real estate and summer operations is Whitewater Ski Resort (which owns all of its food and beverage services), near Nel- son. Co-owner Mitch Putnam knows that just selling skiing is a long-term, low-return investment with a lot of risk. "It can be a challenge for small ski areas to be profitable," he admits. "You need to be two hours or less for day-trippers, or