By Keith McNeill
The provincial government is considering an application from Mike Wiegele Helicopter Skiing for a lease to access and create new heli-ski trails, according to a spokesperson for the Ministry of Lands, Forests, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development.
However, no final decisions have been made.
The new heli-ski trails would be created according to the Eight Peaks Sustainable Resource Management Plan, which was approved by the province in 2003.
It provides for logging to be done in vertically-oriented cut-blocks on eight mountains close to Blue River.
This would allow heli-skiing to be done more consistently and safely, and with minimum flight times.
The Eight Peaks plan became a subject of some controversy recently when Michele Humphrey of Bone Creek Wilderness Retreat posted a petition on Change.org.
The petition was in reaction to efforts by MWHS during the past year to obtain leases for some of the proposed ski-runs within the Eight Peaks area.
The leases would allow the heli-ski company to restrict access to the proposed ski-runs.
Under the original Eight Peaks plan there had been no restrictions on public access.
Humphrey posted the petition on Dec. 26 and within 24 hours it had 5,000 names. As of Jan. 22, people were still adding their names and the count stood at nearly 22,000.
“The Ministry of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development is aware of the concerns of the Blue River snowmobiling community about the proposed development of heli-ski runs in the Eight Peaks area,” said the ministry spokesperson.
“The ministry is working with the proponent and the snowmobile community to address concerns with the proposal,” she added.
The size of the MWHS tenure, which stretches from Avola to north of Albreda, seems to be an issue but it is not the largest in the province, according to the spokesperson.
“There are two larger single heli-ski tenures – Bearpaw Heliskiing in Omineca Region and Bella Coola Helisports in the Vancouver Island Region … and it is smaller than the aggregate of Canadian Mountain Holidays’ tenures,” she said.
READ MORE: Threats mar Eight Peaks discussion (Jan. 3, 2018)
READ MORE: Cooler heads needed in Eight Peaks controversy (Jan. 3, 2018)
READ MORE: Wiegele promotes Yellowhead Corridor concept (July 25, 2011)
Matic Vecko, the MWHS general manager, said that the proposed Eight Peaks areas are currently unusable for either snowmobiling or heli-skiing due to the fact that they are densely forested.
“It is important to note that while the total MWHS tenure area may appear to be large, only about 25 per cent is actually skiable (too steep, too flat, too heavily treed, rivers, lakes, wildlife closures, etc.),” Vecko said.
The heli-ski company spokesperson noted that when the quality of the desired powder snowpack is taken into account (area skied out, snowmobiled out, wind scoured, rain crust, unstable due to avalanche danger, etc.) less than 10 per cent of the tenure area is actually available for heli-skiing at any given time.
“Finally, due to the lack of any snowpack at the beginning and end of the winter season, the total amount of terrain available for heli-skiing within the MWHS tenure can be as low as one per cent,” Vecko said.
The discussion about the Change.org petition on social media was marred when a few snowmobilers made threats against Mike Wiegele and his operation.
However, those few did not represent the vast majority of snowmobilers or the membership of Blue River’s Powder Packers snowmobile club, said club president Albert Venor.
The Powder Packers president could not be reached for an update on the situation by press-time.
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