Our Company
Staff
Lonna Sheen - Menu Specialist/Transport Queen
After many years of Yoga instructing, cooking, travelling, gardening and living the life in the fast-paced outdoor mecca of Whistler, B.C. she has joined us in the remote and semi secret abode of Terrace.
Lonna designed all our menues and built all the aspects of our food and beverage program from the ground up. She has worked closely with Hatha and Jupiter in the design of all our new trips to ensure that they are built in a way that incorporates the food and beverage program smoothly. She has also created all the shopping lists and ensures any relief drivers are well trained.
Sarah Vesterberg- Advertising and Office Specialist
Sarah is relocating to Terrace from her native homeland of Sweden. Why, we're not sure as we understand it is really nice over there...but then again, it's really nice here too so I guess we understand. Either way, we sure are happy to have her cheery face and personality around and many of you will see her around town spreading the SVE word.
Mark Leung - Photo program developer
Mark is an engineer specializing in medical implement design...gone photographer for a rafting company. After years of corporate life in Eastern Canada, Mark has pursued a lifestyle choice and now lives wherever adventure and life's passions take him. He is working with us as a concierge on our cruise ship program and more importantly in developing a photo program for SVE.
Coho - Assistant Managing Director
Coho has been with Skeena Valley Expeditions from the very beginning. As the company's longest standing employee he ensures all guests are adequately greeted and protected while at the office. He is responsible for the safety of the shuttle driver while guests and guides are on the river and he maintains a high level of standards in the quality control sector of SVE's food and beverage program.
History
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.
