The Haines Borough’s denial of an Idaho-based heliski company’s permit application is sparking a discussion about increasing the limit on how many heliski companies can operate in Haines and how the industry is regulated in general. Current and former Haines heliski operators say there isn’t enough room for more companies and that the permit applicant is a bad actor.
The issue was raised at a tourism advisory board public hearing last week when borough clerk and interim manager Alekka Fullerton denied the permit because borough code allows for only three permits in a given season.
“I hope that TAB would question the whole system,” Fullerton said during the meeting. “I think it’s something we need to rethink, and I think there’s better ways to do it.”
Stellar Adventure Travel owner Reggie Crist said in an appeal that Haines heliski operators, on average, fail to use their allotted skier days, evidence that there’s room for growth in the industry. “These empty seats represent lost revenue opportunities for the community of Haines and suggest that the Haines heli ski industry has not reached its full potential,” he wrote.
“Haines has the best heliskiing on the planet,” Crist told TAB members. “But for some reason, we seem to not be reaching our full potential. Something is going on with the Haines heliski industry that makes us keep coming up short.”
Crist has worked with local operators for more than a decade in various capacities. Stellar’s website advertises heliski trips in Haines for six nights “lodging at Stellar’s Heli Lodge,” with a 4:1 client to Stellar guide ratio. His company doesn’t have a current business license in Haines, according to borough staff. Businesses advertising Haines are required to have a business license.
In an interview this week, Crist said his company has at various times guided clients using his brand and paid local operators for use of their helicopters and other services. “Stellar is a registered travel agency that takes payment like any other travel agency,” Crist told the CVN. “I get an invoice from (a local company) for the services. Their guides are working for them. I call them Stellar guides because they are Stellar guides when they work around the world for me at other locations.”
Former Southeast Alaska Backcountry Adventures owner Scott Sundberg said his company sued Crist because he wasn’t paying what he owed.
“SEABA had to sue him to pay his debts, which he eventually paid,” Sundberg said. Alaska court records show Stellar Adventure Travel as a defendant in a civil lawsuit with SEABA as the plaintiff. The case was dismissed in 2017. Sundberg said the threat of the suit motivated Crist to pay.
Crist then went to work with Alaska Mountain Guides. That business relationship ended and he moved on to work with Sean Brownell’s Alaska Heliskiing this year. Gaffney declined to comment but Brownell also said Crist acted in bad faith financially.
“They first started skiing with SEABA and burned them as well and then tried skiing with AMG and things didn’t work out there either. Stellar has burned their bridges in town with all the operators.”
Crist said there have been disputes between himself and the other companies.
“There were disputes over what the bills should be. We haggled back and forth,” Crist said of this year’s season with Alaska Heliskiing. “At the end of the day we agreed on what was owed. The current operators do not want another operator. They want to keep a stronghold on what they currently have.”
Crist has a partnership with Bud Filipek who owns property at 18 Mile Haines Highway with an FAA certified landing strip. Crist said he wants to develop the property into a lodge.
Tourism director Steven Auch said the public hearing was held at a TAB meeting because it was anticipated that Crist would appeal to the assembly and the assembly would then ask TAB to weigh in.
TAB members questioned why only three heliski permits were allowed and some members expressed support for removing or expanding the cap.
Haines only had two heliski operators until 2011 when Sean Gaffney, Alaska Mountain Guides owner and TAB member, applied for a permit for his company Alaska Mountain Guides. Southeast Alaska Backcountry Adventures and Alaska Heliskiing opposed adding a third permit.
“There’s not enough terrain for three operators,” Alaska Heliskiing owner Sean Brownell said in an interview this week. “One more would really make this place a gong show and dangerous as we all race around competing for limited terrain. There’s simply not enough room for it.”
Former SEABA owner Scott Sundberg echoed Brownell’s claim. Both were involved in discussions in 2011 when the borough was considering heliski regulations. “(The borough) had not done an economic feasibility study, or even attempted to understand what made the industry work,” Sundberg said of 2011 when the borough assembly was considering adding a third permit. “They were being driven by residents concerned about impacts, and (other) residents wanting to support a robust industry without really knowing what made it work.”
Gaffney also said there’s not enough terrain to safely support more heliski operators. He said using the average amount of unused skier days as evidence that the industry has room to grow doesn’t take into consideration a string of dismal winters and bad weather that kept helicopters grounded.
“It’s a big geographical area. That’s a fact,” Gaffney said. “But a tiny amount of it is good for heliskiing. I don’t think those unused user days are necessarily a sign you can add capacity and not have, in particular, safety issues associated with it. I just don’t believe that’s possible.”
The borough will host a public hearing on the topic, although it’s yet to be scheduled.