Commercial backcountry ski lodges aim to keep their tips up during the pandemic
Sol Mountain Lodge and other Backcountry Lodges of British Columbia Association (BLBCA) members hope to make the most of this ski season despite current travel restrictions.
Sol Mountain Lodge is one of 32 BLBCA members, a home-style lodge nestled in the Monashee mountains between Vernon and Revelstoke, and is prepared to operate this winter under new restrictions and protocols set by the province.
The BLBCA’s executive director, Brad Harrison, said they’ve been working closely with the province to make sure lodges can safely operate during the pandemic.
“I think we both have our concerns, we want to keep the lights on so we need to work in the constraints that the PHO [provincial health officer] thinks is necessary. We need to make sure they understand how our business operates and make them comfortable with what we’re doing,” said Harrison.
Sol Mountain Lodge, and some of the other members, are well equipped to operate under new restrictions and guidelines which Harrison helped construct.
“It’s an overall guidance document to help people and those individual businesses create their own plan that’s specific to their operation. We tried to do a lot of the heavy lifting to make it easier for these independent operators to adapt, get their plan in place. Typically small operations are mom and pop shops and don’t have a huge capacity for this kind of work,” Harrison said.
Sol was quick to get their plan in place to be able to operate over the summer.
“We reduced capacity back in June after the COVID guidelines came out in May,” said Aaron Cooperman owner and operator of Sol Mountain Lodge.
“With reduced capacity we can ensure private rooms for guests, dining is physically distanced just the same as any restaurant and of course there’s all the protocols for staff. We’ve got increased hygiene and cleaning protocols, but our biggest defense is the pre-screening. We know who is coming through our doors.”
Even though Cooperman has been able to continue operating, keeping the doors open will remain a struggle as long as restrictions are in place.
“Essentially our business plan right now is to keep the lights on, which under the current restrictions means we can stay open until mid-January. We’re not looking at any revenues as long as the restrictions are in place,” Cooperman said.
One of the most difficult restrictions set by provincial health for tourism operators is the travel restriction recommendations, but Cooperman and Harrison said they plan to fully oblige in helping reduce the spread of the virus.
“The way we’re coining it is if the Monashees are in your backyard, which it is for our guests from Kamloops, Okanagan, Revelstoke and a little bit of the west Kootenays, then you’re welcome at Sol,” said Cooperman.
Many of the BLBCA members neighbour a small community which allows locals to take advantage of getting into the backcountry and utilize lodges in their region that would typically be booked up.
“Almost all the lodges have some regional center reasonably close by. I think it’s good because of the accessibility and price point, there’s good opportunities for local people to get into deluxe backcountry facilities in their region and be comfortable not having to travel outside of their region like Dr. Henry suggested,” Harrison explained.
Sol has had to cancel bookings after the Nov. 18 announcement from provincial health.
“Normally we would have opened Nov. 20 but those were bookings from out of province guests and assuming the same travel restrictions continue, we will only have local guests for December 10 onwards,” explained Cooperman.
Despite surmounting difficulties and unknowns, Cooperman and the association’s top priority is to remain diligent in reducing the spread of the virus and co-operating with provincial health orders.
“We are totally behind Dr. Bonnie Henry. She says ski local and that’s our plan, we can do this,” Cooperman insisted.
“We make sure that everyone is tuned into the most recent orders. Whenever possible (the lodges) follow their best practices plan that is posted on their website.” Harrison added.
To see which BLBCA lodges are in your area, visit their website and to keep up to date with provincial health restrictions, click here.
*Editor’s note: These interviews took place before an update on the travel restrictions was given at 3 p.m. today from the PHO.
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