Skeena Heliskiing
Skeena Heliskiing

An offer to fund more accommodation can present a difficult choice for a hospitality business. Extra rooms create room for more guests, but they may also bring questions about staffing, service, and the atmosphere that owners hope to preserve.

For Martin Wehren, president and general manager of Skeena Heliskiing, those considerations shaped a decision to keep the operation small. The business offers helicopter-accessed skiing in northern British Columbia, with guests staying at Bear Claw Lodge. Wehren says its direction reflects a preference for personal involvement and gradual improvements to the guest experience.

Years ago, he recalls, investors offered to finance additional chalets and double capacity. He declined, concerned that expansion would alter the relationships underpinning the operation and make it harder to assemble the right team.

Co-owners Martin Wehren and his wife, Kaleigh Allen, remain closely involved in daily operations, with Allen managing the lodge and Wehren overseeing the skiing operation. Wehren believes keeping guest groups small allows them to maintain a personal, welcoming atmosphere for families and friends traveling together. "There's no plan to get bigger," he says. "Keeping it small, exclusive, keep improving the product."

That involvement builds on a history that predates Wehren's arrival. According to him, Skeena began in 2004, established by a Swiss mountain guide who grew up in Canada and recognized the area's skiing potential. Wehren is careful to distinguish his role from that of the founder.

"It wasn't myself who started it," he says. The lodge, he explains, was originally being developed as a private retreat. Allen's family was involved in managing the property and its construction, and she began working there around the age of 15 while still attending school. Her connection to the place developed through years of practical involvement before she assumed responsibility for running it.

Wehren credits her parents with helping establish the welcoming atmosphere he now seeks to maintain. The family's ties to the property also include ranching and raising horses, giving the lodge a history beyond its role as a base for winter visitors.

His own route into the business began in the Swiss Alps. Raised in a ski resort, Wehren worked as a ski and snowboard instructor before moving into marketing, events, and product-related roles at a sporting-goods company. He arrived in Canada in 2011 expecting to stay for a season, travel, and return home.

"I definitely fell in love with the area and the people, and obviously with my now wife," he says. Those personal connections inform how he approaches staffing. Some employees are relatives, including nieces from Allen's family. Others, he explains, have become close through working and spending time together. He recalls informal evenings when staff members bring out a guitar and remain at the table after their shifts.

For Wehren, these relationships are part of what guests experience. He also recounts visiting a returning guest's family in Switzerland, an example of a connection continuing beyond a holiday.

"We're selling an experience, for sure," he says. His plans for investment follow that thinking. Wehren says a separate wellness building is being planned, with relaxation and the wider stay as its focus. The proposal remains a future development, rather than an existing facility or a confirmed opening.

He also points to activities already available, including morning stretching, cross-country skiing, walking in Canada's winter wonderland, time in the sauna or hot tub, and a viewing of the Northern Lights if they are lucky enough. In his view, these options matter for companions who do not ski and for periods when weather interrupts the skiing schedule. They give guests other ways to spend time together or enjoy the setting. Wehren emphasizes the importance of offering activities for companions who do not ski, helping them enjoy their stay and feel included in the experience.

The business direction he outlines depends on continuing to make those choices carefully. Additional facilities would need to support the kind of stay the owners want to provide, while staffing decisions would need to preserve the close working relationships they value.

For Skeena Heliskiing, Wehren places the next stage of development within the scale already established. The task is to give guests more to enjoy while retaining the personal attention, familiar faces, and shared time that he considers central to the business.