News
Airline begins scheduled service
Jun 21 2006
On Dec. 30 Powder Air will start flying passengers between Calgary and Valemount on a weekly basis. The flights, intended to get heli-skiers to the Canadian Mountain Holidays lodges and other ski lodges in the area, will leave Calgary on Saturday at 11:45 a.m. Mountain Standard Time and arrive in Valemount at 12:15 p.m. Pacific Standard Time, making the travel time an hour and a half. The return flights will leave Valemount at 12:45 p.m. and arrive in Calgary at 3:15 p.m.
Patricia Macdonald, Revelstoke manager for Powder Air, said lunch would be served on the plane, skiers would be bussed between the Valemount airport to the lodges and that the return flight would cost $790. "We'll be using Beechcraft 1900 C and D series twin-engine planes that can carry up to 18 passengers with luggage," she said.
Macdonald said that local travellers would be welcome to use the service to and from Calgary provided there is room. She also said the aircraft would carry freight back and forth if space is available.
Powder Air is already thinking about expanding the service that, right now, caters to heli-skiers booking a week long package. "Some skiers only want to ski two or three days," she said.
Macdonald said that Powder Air would have started a scheduled service this year even without the recent airport upgrades, but she said the runway lights and design GPS approach would help pilots maintain the schedule. "In really bad conditions at Valemount, we'll use Blue River as an alternate airport," she said.
Powder Air is a division of Uniglobe Travel, claiming to be the world's largest single brand travel franchise organization. Powder Air is in its fourth year of specializing in flying skiers to heli-ski destinations. It will fly into Valemount until April 17 this ski season.
Airport upgrades complete
Jun 21 2006
Airport lights that include ground markers along the sides of the runway, threshold lights to guide planes at each end of the strip, apron floodlights and a lighted windsock are now operational. In addition, a GPS guidance system and other navigational improvement work is done-all within $1,000 of the $350,000 provincial grant provided to the Village of Valemount for the project.
McBride pilot and flying enthusiast Kelly Mortensen says the improvements are important and that soon he will be putting a proposal for similar upgrades to the McBride airport before McBride's village council. "Having the ability to land at night extends the tourist season," he said.
Mortensen said that in McBride flights from places like Vancouver can run into daylight problems during the short days of fall and winter, but the instrument approach of the upgraded Valemount airport, even if it is a non-precision system, makes all the difference. He says the regulations reducing elevation for visual flight at Valemount will now allow aircraft to come down low enough to break out of cloud cover almost all the time, making the airport accessible 24 hours a day, seven days of the week. This he said is particularly important for medivac flights where critically injured patients must be transported as soon as possible.
Mortensen said the new equipment and systems don't really improve flight safety. If flying regulations are properly followed, every airport is safe. However, he pointed to the plane crash at Tete Jaune last year where a pilot who was low on fuel bypassed Valemount's aircraft fueling station twice before running out of fuel trying to get to the airport a third time. "There's no law against stupidity," said Mortensen.
Valemount's Public Works Superintendent Murray Capstick, who is responsible for looking after the airport, says incoming pilots will be able to turn the lighting system on by keying their radio microphone tuned to a particular frequency. The number of key clicks will determine the intensity of the lights. He said the colour of the threshold lights, red or green, at the end of the runway would tell pilots if they are properly lined up with the landing strip.
Fuel will continue to be supplied at the airport on an honour system. "We've only been stiffed once," said Capstick.
Full Tourism Potential of New BC Gateway Community Simply Awesome
Dec 6, 2003 Press Release
Well-Known Developer Intends to Move Quickly With Hotel, Golf, Gondola and Residential Projects.
VALEMOUNT, British Columbia – Canoe Mountain Resorts Inc. will move very quickly to develop the full recreation and economic potential of British Columbia’s newest and most spectacular tourism gateway community while demonstrating excellence in environmental stewardship, President Gerry Levasseur announced Saturday.
“With the most spectacular scenery in the world as our backdrop, Valemount today launches a renewed era of prosperity,” said Gerry Levasseur, President of Canoe Mountain Resorts Inc. “Our company is fully committed to leading the development of a spectacular, four-season resort that builds a sustainable future with increasingly positive economic impact.”
Standing in the shadow of Canada highest peak Mount Robson , Mr. Levasseur, also President of Sunrise International Inc., a leading developer of resort hotels and world-famous tourist attractions, said years of intense effort and exhaustive environmental study led to today’s signing of a Master Agreement with the BC Government.
Canoe is planning to spend up to $100 million over the next decade to spearhead development of an awe-inspiring sightseeing gondola, golf courses, hotels, private real estate, cross-country skiing, biking and hiking trails, and a community ski area.
“Valemount has unmatched potential and we will work with government and the community to deliver a future filled with positive economic news,” Mr. Levasseur added. “Climate, majestic scenery, more vertical than Whistler, great people and close proximity to the Alberta border – Canoe Mountain has it all.”
The Master Development Agreement signed during a ceremony Friday formalizes the terms of use of Crown land, including the purchase of 340 acres for the base area that will be used for residential, hotel, commercial and golf course development. An additional 3000 acres of Crown land will be tenured for a spectacular eight-passenger gondola that will lift visitors to the most scenic view in Canada ’s mountains and the ski hill development
Mr. Levasseur said the resort, 10 kilometres south of the community, has already signed award-winning Canadian architect Gary Browning to design the first of two golf courses expected to be developed in a region where more than one million vehicles travel annually.
“When Gary developed the award-winning Stewart Creek course in Canmore. Alberta , he said at the time the intent of the first tee was to place players up there and take their breath away. Canoe Mountain , with view of Mount Robson and Mount Terry Fox, is so dramatic they’ll be gasping for air,” added Mr. Levasseur.