Southeast Alaska Backcountry Adventures co-owner Scott Sundberg said the company has shut down its heli-ski operations for the remainder of the season.
Sundberg said the company decided to shut down for a variety of reasons, including consideration for personnel who were “devastated” by the March 15 avalanche that killed SEABA guide Aaron Karitis.
Poor snowpack and difficult forecasting conditions also make for potentially dangerous scenarios, he said.
SEABA also reached out to customers who had already scheduled heli-skiing trips to inform them of the poor snow conditions and to tell them many of the world-class runs Haines is famous for won’t be available, he said.
“Many of them weren’t interested (after that),” Sundberg said.
Sundberg said its insurance provider did not force the company to shut down. “It was not an insurance decision. It was more of a general safety and forecasting decision,” he said.
SEABA will still continue to offer its snowcat-skiing and snowmachine tours for the 2014 season.
Haines Chamber of Commerce president Barbara Mulford said the abbreviated season is “a really big hit” against the town’s economy, as a heli-ski season typically generates about $600,000 in taxable sales for things like groceries, beds and supplies.
A trip to Haines is a once-a-year, special trip for clients, Mulford said. “Some of them are doctors and lawyers. They have deep pockets. It’s a concentrated dollar amount we get here in two months.”
Mulford said sales tax revenues generated by heli-skiing also will take a hit.
“The borough is already forecasting for a loss in sales tax revenues. This probably follows suit. A really good season may have been able to offset that outlook. It’s something we’ll see when it comes to budgeting,” she said.
During Tuesday’s Haines Borough Assembly meeting, Sundberg revealed SEABA is putting together plans for a 65-person, 11-day special ski competition next year. The people interested in participating in the competition are European, he said.
“They came from Europe to look at this about a week ago,” Sundberg said. “It would be live telecast, three million European viewers. They want to paint the town. Big event, big sponsors.”
Sundberg said they picked out four areas for the competition. “Three of them are in boundaries, (but) their ideal is not. So we’ll leave that hidden until it’s time to bring that forward.”
In other heli-skiing news, the Haines Borough conducted the first of five GPS checks on three heli-skiing operators March 10 and found no violations.
According to the March 10 data, SEABA and Alaska Mountain Guides did not operate that day, and Alaska Heliskiing operated within the borough map boundaries.
A check on the coordinates of the March 15 fatal avalanche showed the SEABA operation was also in-bounds.