Money does fall from the sky, if you are a ski operator.
The powdered peaks of northern B.C. are stacking up with more and more international denominations. The trickle of Euros, pounds and greenbacks has become a steady stream.
The conventional downhill mountains of northern B.C. are well known among global skiers and boarders. Within two hours of Prince George there is Tabor, Purden, Powder King, Troll, Murray Ridge and Little Mac. The Hart Highlands Winter Club is right inside the city. Not much further away is Shames (Terrace), Hudson Bay Mountain (Smithers), and Marmot Basin (Jasper).
Many communities around the north - especially Burns Lake, 100 Mile House, and Prince George's Otway facility at the top of the list - are also well endowed with nordic skiing trails.
These have their devout followers, but a niche industry is growing for heli-skiing and cat-skiing.
"We are getting tonnes of interest from magazines and ski periodicals," said Susan Clarke of Northern BC Tourism. "And we do have these special places. These are not run-of-the-mill downhill resorts. Those have their place, and it's a very important place in the local winter economy, but this is a whole other side of skiing. It is a unique experience you can't get anywhere else in the world."
The list of providers is becoming lengthy and diverse. Skeena Cat-Ski (Smithers/New Hazelton) takes skiers on wide tracks into the northwest powder even on days helicopters can't fly.
When the helicopters can operate, besides Skeena Heli-Ski, Last Frontier HS, and Northern Escape HS are available. Canadian Mountain Holidays (McBride), Crescent Spur HS, and Bearpaw Heli-Skiing (Prince George) are also on hand.
Skeena HS is one of the oldest in the region, with about 15 years of experience. It is owned and operated by a local man who grew up on northern B.C.'s slopes in a family keenly interested in the region's landscape. Giacum "Jake" Frei's parents and other family members moved into a log house at Tchesinkut Lake (between Burns and Francois lakes, about 2.5 hours' drive west of Prince George from Switzerland when he was a small child. He went on school trips to Hudson Bay Mountain, and also took his burgeoning love of skiing back to Europe on family visits.
By 17 he had quit going to regular school in favour of correspondence education, had earned a sponsorship deal from the Salomon sporting goods company, and was apprenticing for a career in the outdoor adventure tourism sector. The dream never faded and now he is a longstanding member of the northern B.C. business community, and the startup proprietor of a leading company in this niche industry.
"January to April, that's when the magic happens," said Frei. "You're trying to make all your money for the year in that short window, so if the weather is bad or you have a problem employee or anything at all goes wrong, you carry that loss all the way through to next season. That's what's hard. The risk in this business is those variables."
Eighty per cent of the world's heli-skiing takes place in B.C., he explained, because it is the best location in the world for minimizing those variables. He explained that New Zealand, Russia, Turkey and other nations have some helicopter slope service, but those places have more warm weather events, or government interference in their business operations. B.C. has dependable snow, breathtaking scenery, challenging terrain, reasonable government regulation of the industry, ironclad safety protocols, and a stable political system.
Companies like his have to jump through a lot of regulatory hoops to get underway, he said, but once that happens "it is a lot of tweaking and maintaining your land-use plan, which is always a living document."
Heli-skiing companies were hit hard by the effects of the global economic crisis in 2008 and that business has been slow to return.
"Heli-skiing's golden era was in the late 1990s. When the crisis hit, the whole industry took a dump," said Frei. "For most HS companies, Americans make up the big majority of your clientele and they stopped buying. It took awhile for Europeans to infill for the missing Americans. Mine was always predominantly Europeans so I didn't suffer quite as bad as some of the other companies. Now, the overall industry is showing signs of coming back to life."
He sees emerging economies like China, Brazil, and India as long-term possibilities for a new client base but short-term business plans have to remain focused on the U.S. and Europe, Frei said. One HS adventure costs $10,000 to $15,000 plus travel expenses, so only those with deep pockets take part. But it takes more than money. The clients also have to be skilled skiers but they bring high expectations with them.
"We have to do a lot of work in the off-season to maintain our equipment, tie up the paperwork for the season that just happened and get the paperwork ready for the next season, plus you have to go to trade shows and go hunting for your markets," explained Frei. "I get maybe a couple of weeks off each year, and even then I'm working somewhat. But what helps us is having those gateway airports in Prince George, Terrace and Smithers so our clients have an easier time getting to us."
That is getting easier every year, said Clarke, as the northern region of B.C. has been showing up in more and more publications and films aimed directly at the outdoor adventure tourist. She expects more calls to come in from reporters, bloggers, photographers and videographers interested in seeing the B.C. north, especially since there are so many different sorts of terrain and activity.
