54 BCBusiness November 2015 CmH Heli-SkiiNg
Austrian-born mountain guide Hans
Gmoser—prompted by Calgary geolo-
gist and avid skier Art Patterson and another friend,
Brooks Dodge—assembled a group of guinea pig
clients in a remote valley near the Bugaboo Range
south of Golden. He used a Bell 47 helicopter to
ferry the clients two at a time up into the high gla-
ciers and untouched powder of the Bugaboos. It was
a cumbersome operation with the low-capacity heli-
copter, and accommodations were the deŽnition of
rustic: clients were lucky to get two runs per day;
they stayed in the uninsulated plywood cabins of
an abandoned sawmill camp and shared kitchen
duties. However, Gmoser knew that he had stum-
bled upon a winner and his guiding outŽt, Canadian
Mountain Holidays (
CMH), became the world's
Žrst heli-skiing company—giving birth to what is
now one of the most exclusive tourist experiences
money can buy.
Fifty years on,
CMH is a leader in an industry
that now boasts more than 18 di"erent heli-skiing
operators in B.C.; cat skiing, a lower-price-point
powder-skiing option in which guests are shuttled
up the mountain in a snow cat, came two decades
later (there are currently 20 cat-skiing operators in
the province). While Žnancial metrics for the indus-
try are hard to come by, a 2013/14 report from the
Canada West Ski Areas Association pegged revenues
in both the heli- and cat-skiing sector at $160 mil-
lion, up from $100 million in 2003. But the sector—
which employs approximately 2,000 people in B.C.
and accounts for 19 per cent of the $817 million gen-
erated annually by Western Canada's ski industry—
faces some serious challenges. The proliferation of
GET TO THE CHOPPER
(Clockwise from left) The first trip Hans
Gmoser made in 1965; Gmoser; a group
of heli-skiers; the CMH Adamants lodge
(one of 11 CMH heli-skiing lodges)
