The town of Terrace in British Columbia has both an incredible ski culture and an incredible ski hill. While most visitors today might assume that Shames Mountain has always been part of the community, the reality is that Shames is actually the sixth ski hill to operate in Terrace. The main focus of this video will be examining the fifth ski hill, Kitsumkalum, as well as exploring the four original hills and discussing the bumpy road to the Shames Mountain development.

Before we get to Kitsumkalum, let's rewind to the four hills that predated it. Downhill skiing in Terrace dates back to the 1930s, when ski pioneers looked for ideal sites to practice the sport. From 1936 to 1953, Terrace Mountain was the town's local ski hill until the club moved to Thornhill Golf Course, where they installed a homemade rope tow that became the first ski lift in Terrace. Three years later the town ski hill moved to a location on Old Remo Road, which proved to not have sufficient snow coverage, prompting the ski club to move again to a new location on Bornite Mountain in 1962. Bornite Mountain provided better snow coverage but did not have any road access, which prompted the ski club to move once more, this time to Northern Heights in 1968. The ski hill was closer to Terrace, had road access, and two rope tows, though a few lousy snow years ultimately killed skiing at Northern Heights.

Now we get to Kitsumkalum. In the early 1970s, the people of Terrace had realized that they needed something different. A public committee was formed which aimed to find a true mountain to build a true ski hill. After a good snow year, the committee found a hill directly north of town that had existing logging road access. Apparently, under all the snow, the committee found the hill reminiscent of Red Mountain. Thus the commission quickly launched Kitsumkalum, which was 100% financed by the citizens of Terrace.

Unfortunately, the mountain was built on emotions rather than logic and was extremely poorly designed. The committee who were in charge of finding the location were all proficient skiers, while most of the rest of the town's people were not. This led the committee to pick an overly steep mountain that most of the town couldn't even ski. The rope tow from the 1950s was relocated for the beginner slope and a Müller double chairlift was constructed in 1975 that serviced intermediate to expert terrain, traveling all the way up the mountain. Kitsumkalum officially opened to the public in December of 1975, which was a really good snow year.

However, through its nine years of operations the hill really suffered from two big problems. First, the hill had almost no beginner terrain apart from the bunny hill, which sent all the beginner skiers travelling to Smithers or Prince Rupert to ski instead. The second problem was that Kitsumkalum only had a base elevation of 260 metres above sea level. While the first few years of operations were really good, Kitsumkalum often suffered from poor snow years, and the hill also had no snowmaking.

Despite these challenges, Kitsumkalum consistently expanded their terrain offerings, adding several new runs almost every year. In 1978, Kitsumkalum installed a new Dopplemayr T-bar further down the main mountain that serviced beginner to intermediate terrain. While this T-bar was a helpful addition, it still didn't address the fact that the area suffered from poor snow, poor exposure, and an extremely low elevation.

Kitsumkalum never broke even, and in its last two years of operation the ski hill didn't even open. The last operating season of Kitsumkalum was 1984. In 1986, a referendum asked the citizens of Terrace if the money-losing ski hill should continue to operate, and unsurprisingly a majority of citizens voted to close the mountain permanently.

While Kitsumkalum failed at being a good ski resort, it did succeed at creating a deep culture of skiing in Terrace. That same year that Kitsumkalum closed, a new group titled Shames Mountain Ski Corporation purchased all the assets of Kitsumkalum at an auction, paying $322,000 for the equipment, all financed by the local provincial government. The group proposed to develop a new ski area at a higher elevation site that would be more sustainable than Kitsumkalum.

However, the road to the Shames development was no easy feat. Shames repeatedly had to ask the government to renegotiate payment deadlines and only actually made one payment between 1986 and 1990. In 1986, a group of local residents along with Ski Smithers fiercely lobbied the government not to consider further development. However, after a study came out saying that the development of Shames wouldn't hurt Ski Smithers, the government gave all their preliminary approvals.

The next obstacle Shames faced was road access. Shames was in an extremely remote valley which required a costly access road to be constructed up the mountain. Paired with the fact that Shames had reportedly asked the government to renegotiate loan payments, the situation was extremely precarious. After three years of delays, bad press, and threats from the government to call Shames's loan, the road was finally constructed in 1989. It was an extremely precarious situation that could have easily ended with no ski hill at all.

Once the road was finally built, Shames realized that they had overpaid for the Kitsumkalum equipment, after a bank assessment placed the total value of all assets at only $70,000, when Shames had paid $320,000. The drive terminal of the double chairlift was practically unusable at this point, which meant that Shames had to buy a costly new drive terminal. Despite all of this, the area barely managed to finally open in 1990.

Shames's existence has not been without its fair share of challenges since opening. After years of the mountain sitting on the market for sale, closure was feared across the town. This all led to My Mountain Co-op forming and purchasing all assets for only $600,000 in 2013. Since then the mountain has thrived and continues to economically support the town while preserving the legacy of skiing in Terrace.