Skeena Valley Expeditions

Skeena Valley Expeditions was started by Hatha Callis. In 2005 he moved to Terrace BC for a winter job guiding heli-skiing. A quick look around the region and a winter of both market and local business climate investigation showed an obvious opportunity; Terrace needed a rafting company.

So the summer of 2006 was spent exploring the rivers in the Skeena Valley near Terrace and obtaining the appropriate permits and tenures to operate successfully in the area. That summer, significant thought was given to the nature of business and its vision. A quick snapshot of the vision that was created shows "Skeena Valley Expeditions is committed to grow and prosper by providing a healthy, fun and adventurous addition to recreation in the Terrace and greater area. Skeena Valley Expeditions will also create meaningful work for Northern BC residents and promote a healthy, outdoor lifestyle to both staff and guests alike. Skeena Valley Expeditions will provide nothing less than excellence."

And that is exactly what has happened... since that initial summer of dreaming and scheming SVE has had 2 summers of very successful business. Hatha convinced his high school friend and long time co-guide, Jupiter MacDonald to move up and help grow the vision. Jupiter moved up, made Terrace home semi-permanently, and has been a key part in ensuring the operations of SVE have grown in a safe, high quality and efficient manner.

In 2007 they ran a float trip for the Port of Prince Rupert's cruise ship guests with 30 guests 3 times a week, and offered both whitewater and family float day trips based from Terrace. As no other commercial rafting company had ever operated in the Skeena Valley there was a huge amount of ongoing river exploratory, access point, and local market education work to do. The process of developing a new product in a region so rich with resources was a pleasure to Hatha and his key staff that first year since everything they did was uncharted territory. They had over 1100 client days that first year many of whom had the excitement of being along for inaugural trips on a new and changing tourism product.

In 2008 the cruise ship program grew significantly, local day trips almost doubled, and they began running multi-day expeditions. They have 2 annual permits for the Tatshenshini River in the Yukon, BC, and Alaska which is a 10 day trip through the planet's largest protected area and SVE operated both trips. They also hold permits on the Babine River which is BC's best hidden gem and has been dubbed as "the river of grizzlies," a fitting name as they encountered 9 grizzlies at one point on the trip that summer. They were also approached by the Nisga'a First Nation and asked to develop a tourism program in the Nass River valley so a multi-day exploratory trip was run on the Nass River which has not been run commercially before. That summer SVE had over 2200 client days, won the business excellence award for tourism from the local chamber of commerce, and employed 18 staff.