Originally Posted by JR
Oh my, where to start.
There has always been plenty of access without them. They have created a situation whereby every sledder and his brother can access the alpine and shred till their heart is content. Then there are the sled-assist skiers. They have taken a beautiful peaceful drainage and turned it into a damn war zone. To their credit they are much more approachable than any other cat operation. They are head and shoulders above the douchebags that own and run Baldface who don't give a flying fuck about anyone but themselves. The fact that Valhalla is willing to release their existing tenure is testament to that.
I have spoken to Lindsay a couple of times and he seems like a decent guy. It still does not change my feelings about them moving on. I have said before that if I was those guys, I would be pretty pissed off at Land and Water BC for even entertaining a commercial tenure in that area with all the public usage it sees. These guys have invested time, energy and money in this venture just to have to move on. If it was me, I'd be consulting with a lawyer and attempting to recover costs from the province. But that is a whole other story.
I guess what it comes down to for me TJ is that I would like to have places to go ski tour that are not in the middle of nowhere. Why should commercial ventures take all the easily accessable terrain and leave the scraps to the taxpayer? I mean shit, we have paid our taxes and paid for the stewardship of these lands for years. Now all the sudden, some guy comes in with a hankering to make some money and the general public become second class citizens.
If the present trend continues, our children won't be able to go anywhere without competing with heli-ski, snowcat and commercial touring businesses. There is a common misconception that Canada is a huge country and therefore there must be lots of terrain to go around. The truth of the matter is that 80% of Canada's population lives within 100 km of the US border. Of that narrow strip, perhaps 5-10% of it is good ski terrain. There is not a limitless supply of ski terrain and I have and will continue to advocate for the ski touring public, the ones who are not blinded by $$$$$, but simply want to enjoy the outdoors and make some turns without running into a Piston-Bully or an A-Star.
I realize that many, if not most, people on this board feel differently and that is their perogative. That does not mean there is not a large group of people in Canada (and the US for that matter) who feel differently. Many are afraid to speak out or do not have the energy to continue to voice what is in certain circles and unpopular opinion. I say fuck it. Someone has to stand up and be counted or commercial operations like Valhalla will continue to over-run our crown land leaving scraps for those of use who enjoy ski touring.
