Eagle Pass Heliskiing: onward and upward

Scott Newsome's passion and experience have led him to part ownership in a company in which he also works as a lead guide

1 of 5Scott Newsome lives to spend his days in the mountains near Revelstoke. — Jeff Patterson photo

2 of 5Leadership is one important aspect of mountain guiding. — Sean Hannah photo

3 of 5Eagle Pass Heliskiing offers clients exceptional conditions and terrain. — Jeff Patterson photo

4 of 5Scott Newsome enjoys the instruction aspect of the guiding job. — Sean Hannah photo

5 of 5Users beware—conditions in the Monashee Mountains can lead to powder addiction. — Sean Hannah photo

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It’s difficult to imagine a business that could better represent Revelstoke’s character than Eagle Pass Heliskiing. This company was started about seven years ago and, although it originally remained relatively unestablished, it had a great land tenure location with prime terrain.

A few years down the road an ownership group of three young business and mountain professionals became interested in developing a heliskiing business. With most land tenure already held by major heliskiing corporations, the opportunity to purchase Eagle Pass Heliskiing was a dream come true for the group.

Scott Newsome is an owner, but also a lead guide with the company. He’s long been interested in mountaineering—when he was young, he would tag along with the Lake Louise ski patrollers to watch them doing avalanche control. He later became a professional snowboarder and developed an interest in avalanche education as well as a passion for guiding. Newsome’s bio is essentially the perfect leadup to mountain guiding.

“In 1997 I moved from Whistler to Revelstoke,” Newsome said. “At the time it was a place with huge untapped mountains and no chairlifts—it was just a sledding, ski touring and mountain guiding community. I came in search of more quality snow, affordable housing and less people. The following few years consisted of climbing and riding mountains in the Selkirk, Monashee and Rogers Pass areas, which had not seen a lot of snowboarder travel at the time. All along I learned first-hand what skill level you need to be at to become a certified guide.”

Motivation and a deep interest

Newsome is motivated by his love for the sport—one of his greatest joys is being able to take his own children up skiing. Despite being an owner in Eagle Pass Heliskiing, Newsome lives to spend every day in the mountains and said he’ll continue guiding until he can no longer ride.

Eagle Pass Heliskiing currently runs two leased helicopters each day during the season. One is dedicated to fully catered lodge groups and the other services day-ski and private groups that leave from downtown Revelstoke. A maximum of four clients are in each guided group, which then set out to explore 463 square miles of land tenure in the Monashee mountain range. Another big part of the business is the lodge—and Eagle Pass Heliskiing is anticipating moving it forward.

“For now we lease our lodge, and it works just great for us,” said Newsome. “(However), we are currently looking at properties with building in mind, but any concrete timing at this point would just be speculating. Our plan is for Eagle Pass to have a newly built lodge before the 2014/15 season. Our group’s plan is to become a leader in the heliski/snowboard market, catering to the present and next generation.”

Working out

According to Newsome, the off-season can be nerve-racking as Eagle Pass strives to confirm bookings while planning for schedules and staffing. Still, with 25 to 30 employees working jobs that constitute a lifestyle, Eagle Pass has a solid team, most of whom have worked together for many years. It doesn’t look like Eagle Pass Heliskiing is going anywhere soon—it's another strong winter-sport option that is becoming a part of Revelstoke. Perhaps this is thanks to a business strategy and philosophy that is simple, but effective. 

“Focus on developing the core of the business first and the rest will fall into place—growth will then inevitably follow,” suggested Newsome.”(At Eagle Pass Heliskiing), we have no ambition to be the most popular kid at the party. We are happy just being the cool younger brother that likes to rip it up.”