Jeri Ledbetter
commercial guide, pilot, activist, mom

   Adhering to the original definition of a user day- any person in any part of the canyon for any part of a day -a passenger interchange at Phantom or Whitmore should count as two user days. Rather, such exchanges are currently counted as one. This has allowed significantly more use and crowding than the system was originally designed to permit. Also it provides a compelling economic disincentive for outfitters to offer full canyon trips.

   Some outfitters claim the shorter, more fragmented trips are easier to market, yet all companies have managed to utilize nearly 100% of their allocation for the past decade. Although there are companies which offer unfragmented trips, most don’t, as they find this user day giveaway too lucrative to pass up. Our goal should be quality of experience and protection of resources, not packing the greatest number bodies into the Canyon, reaping the greatest profits, or ease of marketing.

   Some claim this is an “access” issue for those who only wish to spend a day or two in the Canyon. Nevertheless, if we followed the original definition of a user day, these short commercial trips could still be available. The marketing advantage, however, would be lessened as the system would no longer actively encourage such offerings to the exclusion of full canyon trips.

   In 1996, 55.7% of all commercial passengers either began or ended their trip via helicopter at Whitmore, resulting in an average of 8 flights per day. Further, 20.1% of all commercial passengers helicoptered in at Whitmore, then were rushed below Diamond Creek to minimize the number of user days counted. Yet the average noncommercial passenger trip length is 15 days, and the demand far exceeds supply.

   If the NPS were to comply with the original definition of a user day, outfitters currently utilizing the “free” days would have two choices:

   1) They could offer more full canyon trips and keep the same number of launches; or,

   2) continue their current level of fragmented trips and reduce their number of launches.

   Preferably, we should consider alternatives to the user day system, such as counting “people launches” which would not encourage more passenger exchanges.