Heliskiing in Haines. (Hayley Total Heliski)

2019 has been a difficult year for heli-skiing in Haines. Heli-ski tour operators had their slowest season since the Haines Borough started keeping records on their flights into the backcountry.

Heli-ski businesses in Haines are allocated a certain number of ski days for their clients each season. Each ski day is equal to one skier, snowboarder or adventure photographer spending one day heliskiing. This year heliski tour operators used the fewest number of ski days since 2007.

Scott Sundberg is the owner of Southeast Alaska Backcountry Adventures (SEABA). His business used only about a third of its ski days this season.

“The last couple years have not been very good snow years,” Sundberg says.

For the last two years Haines has seen low levels of snow accumulation. (Graph created using NOAA Online Weather Data)

According to National Weather Service Data, the Canadian border station on the Haines Highway normally records around 260 inches of snow annually. For the last two years, the snowfall has been less than half of that.

Sundberg says that many skiers are booking trips in the Lower 48, Japan and Canada where there has been better snow recently.

Snow isn’t the only factor affecting heliski operations. Sundberg says that the ski industry is spending less money on heliski trips to film professional athletes. He also says that skiers are looking to find new areas.  

“People who have been to Haines to ski have skied the available terrain and over the years had hoped to come back and ski new terrain. That’s one reaction we have gotten from our previous clientele.”

Sundberg wants to offer more heliskiing on land near Haines managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). Helicopter supported recreation grew on these lands in the 1990’s and early 2000’s but was reduced while Alaska Department of Fish and Game researched the noise impact to wildlife.

Now BLM is considering an update to its management plan that could increase the number of helicopter recreation landing permits for previously buffered areas.

BLM will hold a public meeting on its management plan at the Chilkat Center for the Arts on June 20th from 6:30-8:30 p.m.