The Freeride World Tour might come back to the Chilkat Valley in 2025 after a eight-year break, if the borough can finalize terms to pay a $75,000 fee to the organization that puts it on. The borough assembly unanimously approved an agreement to come up with the money at its May 14 meeting.
The assembly’s tentative support comes despite concerns that the project wasn’t worth the cost and that the borough’s tourism department didn’t have enough organizational capacity.
Proponents argued the event could help the borough raise its profile as a wintertime tourism destination.
“This borough has expressed in planning documents and community conversations the need to increase winter tourism and winter economies and this seems like a great way to add to winter economic development,” said assembly member Natalie Dawson.
Freeride World Tour organizers told the borough it would accept in-kind donations to cover some of their ask for things like transportation and catering for the 35 participants and 50 production staff participating. Borough tourism director Reba Hylton is also looking for private sponsors to cover the fee.
The organization said the event, which entails skiing through ungroomed routes, is expected to be included in the Olympic program of events by 2030.
The event’s impact on the Haines economy is hard to estimate, but based on sales tax data from 2015-2017, the borough brought in an extra $15,000 or so per year in sales tax revenue.
Dawson, borough staff, and representatives from the Chilkoot Indian Association met with Freeride earlier this week to start sketching out a plan for the event. Dawson said the meeting was encouraging. She said Freeride seemed eager to help the borough promote the Chilkat Valley in its coverage of the event and to acknowledge Indigenous people in the area.
“They seem very open to working with us to make this event a good experience for the community,” said Dawson.
Dawson said she hopes the borough won’t have to pay any costs out of its own coffers and can instead use in-kind and sponsorship money. The borough hasn’t entered into a contract with Freeride yet.
“The real rubber hits the road when we have to sign the contract,” she said.
Finding the cash and donations will fall to the borough tourism director, who cautioned assembly members that her small staff is already close to capacity.
“It’s a really big ask to pull something off this quickly,” said Reba Hylton. She said she has been brainstorming ways to come up with the money. “We gotta hit the ground running with it because there’s a lot to do.”
On top of fundraising, Hylton is hoping to organize events like live music and trivia during the evening to attract more people.
Even if the borough can’t come up with enough donations to cover the fee, Dawson said the assembly still might support allocating borough funds. She said there’s potential to put Haines on the map for future winter visitors.
“These events can bring these intangible benefits to the community, but we gotta plan it out ahead of time to make sure we can receive those benefits to make sure these kinds of events aren’t just extractive,” said Dawson.