The Haines Borough Assembly on Tuesday approved Alaska Mountain Guides (AMG) as the third helicopter skiing tour operator in the borough.
The assembly voted 5-0 to approve AMG’s permit application. Member Greg Goodman was absent.
AMG applied for a permit last year, and the assembly delayed action so a mayor-appointed work group could make recommendations on a revised heli-skiing ordinance.
The work group did not reach consensus on a third operator, but the assembly earlier this month approved an ordinance that permits up to three operators to share a 2,600 skier-day limit.
AMG’s operating plan in December requested “to be allocated 600 user days in the Haines Borough for the 2011 season, or the same amount of user days as the other heli-skiing tour permit holders.”
AMG’s Sean Gaffney on Tuesday said he had scaled back the request to 200 skier days for the season that will run through May 3.
Borough manager Mark Earnest is responsible for allocating skier days. Before the updated ordinance passed, the most recent allocation was 750 for Alaska Heliskiing and 450 for SEABA.
“I know there’s been a lot of commentary from people with concerns in the borough about, ‘Is 200 enough?’ and (whether) if we have 200 we’re immediately going to want more, and we’re not,” Gaffney said. “We can run a really high-quality, viable program with 200.”
Gaffney served on the work group, along with Sean Brownell of Alaska Heliskiing, Scott Sundberg of Southeast Alaska Backcountry Adventures (SEABA), Mayor Jan Hill, assembly members Daymond Hoffman and Joanne Waterman, and three other residents.
Both Brownell and Sundberg voiced their opposition to a third operator at work group meetings and have cited a reduction of available terrain due to a Bureau of Land Management Environmental Impact Statement that has delayed issuing permits for heli-skiing on BLM land.
“To those unfamiliar with backcountry skiing, it might appear that it’s plausible to ski just about anywhere there is snow across the vast landscape surrounding Haines,” SEABA guide Matthew Borish wrote in a letter to the assembly.
Borish said avalanches have become a concern due to a “slowly lessening client skill level” and wrote that “choosing safe ski runs for us is a very complex process focused upon a dynamic relationship between weather, snowpack, terrain, and clients’ skill levels.”
Assembly member Waterman said operators earlier had said there was room for a third company.
“I remember clearly at one of the first heli-ski work group meetings, I asked specifically of the representatives of the industry there how many companies the valley could support, and both of those representatives, Scott (Sundberg) and Sean Brownell, said three companies,” she said.
Assembly member Hoffman said this year’s heli-skiing conditions have led to improved communication between Alaska Heliskiing and SEABA, which would help a third operator. He said, “It’s hard to differentiate between ‘this is truly a safety issue,’” and operators not wanting more competition.
Nick Trimble of SEABA on Tuesday said this season had been particularly difficult and said his opposition to AMG’s permit “really isn’t about economics,” but operations.
“Days like today, as you look outside and you see clouds all over the valley and wind-affected areas, with little snow, us and Alaska Heliskiing have been packed into a small square-mile area,” Trimble said. “We’re flying all over each other, competing for small amounts of quality snow.”
According to its permit application, AMG would offer educational courses in leadership and guide training, plus guided heli-skiing day programs in the borough, with a focus on operations out of the airport. The business previously has provided heli-skiing tours in Skagway.
Gaffney said he was “absolutely confident” about safety with three operators and said “it would be our desire to minimize our uses here as much as possible.”