Mt. Sima reveals short-term plan at executive meeting

Photo by Jon Molson

In a special executive meeting on Tuesday, the Great Northern Ski Society laid out its short-term plan, which outlines what the board believes is necessary to get Mt. Sima up and running for the 2008-09 ski season. 

The short-term plan includes a six-point process, which is a consultant report being commissioned by a group of three individuals from the Eaglecrest, AK ski hill.

The group have already done a preliminary inspection and are expected to have the report finalized by May 9. The report will address every aspect of the Mt. Sima’s function as a ski hill.

After a thorough inspection is done, the Eaglecrest group will provide feedback on how to improve the situation at the hill.

“We have been doing some things since our last meeting, which was almost two months ago,” said Ernie Berken, president of the Great Northern Ski Society (GNSS).

“The GNSS board have really reached out to different government agencies to try and see how we can get things back on track at Mt. Sima and get what we need in place so that we can operate as well as we can for next season and beyond that.”

There are two sections with the six-point plan. The first deals with technical aspects and operational analysis of the ski hill.

It consists of a review and operational analysis of all ski equipment on the hill.

The analysis will outline what needs to be done in bringing all equipment up to operational standards.

The report will also provide a detailed budget and schedule for completing the work.

The inspection schedule has a specific goal of completing all of the necessary work, in a timely manner, before the beginning of the operational season.

Part three of the report deals with the recommendations for the short-term summer maintenance, equipment analysis and staffing requirements for the season.

The second section of the report will be a review assessing historical issues with staffing and will offer recommendations on how to staff for the upcoming season.

All operating costs will also be reviewed, which will include the creation of a recommended budget to ensure successful spending for the upcoming season.

The final point is considerations for the Yukon government to contemplate, regarding possible future alternatives of operations of the ski area.

After the report is finalized it will be studied at by a transition committee for the ski hill, which consists of four members in total.

Two members are from the Yukon government, one is representing the city, while the final member is on the GNSS board.

The report will presented to both levels of government.

Besides revealing the six-point action plan, the purpose of Tuesday’s meeting was to brainstorm ideas with people living in the community about getting Mt. Sima ready for the upcoming season, enlisting volunteers interested in helping out and discussing the roles and responsibilities of the transition team.

Among the challenges currently faced by Mt. Sima include hiring a full-time area manager and mechanic for the hill.

Before this can be done, the ski hill must secure the funds needed for any potential staff hiring as well as the regular costs involved in becoming operational at the beginning of the season.

In the past Mt. Sima has used season pass purchases to help offset any of the start-up costs, but this year’s closure of the ski hill, partially due to complications in the snowmaking process and mechanical problems with the T-bar, has resulted in the board looking for additional support.

Mt. Sima will honour all punch card and season pass holders that were purchased this past season for 2008-09.

The ski hill is presently in discussions with the Yukon government and City of Whitehorse and has also filed applications with Lotteries Yukon and the City Parks and Recreation Grant.

Additional revenues will be generated by renting out Mt. Sima’s ski chalet during the offseason.

Another goal of the meeting was to allow interested individuals the chance to join the board, which has nine members in total. Each board member has a two-year term.

To ensure continuity, the GNSS board switches over four or five members every year, while the remaining members stay on.

Board members must officially be appointed at the organization’s Annual General Meeting, which is after the conclusion of the ski society’s fiscal year in May.

One member of the board stepped down on Tuesday, which resulted in there being two vacant seats available. Any members who fill the spots would have to run for a permanent seat at this year’s AGM.

Sue Carr was the board member who gave up her seat on Tuesday. In an interview after the meeting, she said her intention was to only stay on the board until Tuesday’s meeting.

“I believe it is the strongest statement I can make to get other people in this community involved,” she said.

“There comes a time in organizations when they grow and that things need to shake up and different mixes need to be added.

I think that’s the case here, I think it’s time to get some new blood coming forward and at the same time there are some solid plans underway to keep moving forward right now.”

She said she is optimistic about the future of the ski hill.

“I am impressed with, frankly, the dedication of some individuals in this community and I will include government representatives on that,” Carr said.

“There are several people working really hard, perhaps behind the scenes a little bit at this time. In order for the ski hill to be a community hill it needs to reach out to other parts of our community and make it fun to get involved up here.

Make it feel like it makes sense for the youth to be involved. Most of them don’t want to sit at board meetings and I can understand that, but there are other ways to reach into our community.

Right now practically on the short-term financial viability, safety, and extremely important is management staffing. That needs to be looked at in the short term.”

Carr plans to still help out with the hill in the future and said there are benefits to being involved.

“If you want to see something happen sometimes you just have to get involved,” she said.

“I certainly know there are some people in this room tonight who care very much about getting this hill up and running for next year.”

Sue Deforest was one of the community representatives at the meeting. Deforest was formally a coach for Snowboard Yukon and said she came because of the kids in the snowboading community.

“There are lots of kids in the Yukon who snowboard and they are very skilled and have a lot of experience,” she said “Mt. Sima has done a great job at providing a terrain park and having a half pipe.

It’s important for the ski community to have a place to go, where they can have fun and express themselves. Lots of kids use it and lots of kids were learning the half pipe and I want to see that again.”

Deforest was pleased with how the meeting went.

“It went well and I think as they continue to have meetings it will progress,” she said.

“I think the ski hill, they want to learn and they want to improve and they want to make it better. The more information they can gather from people the better it will be.”

She said all of her questions were addressed and hopes the ski hill can find more effective way to co-ordinate competitions with user groups.

“As a coach, I wanted to host snowboard competitions here and I found it really difficult to co-ordinate with Mt. Sima and the other user groups at the hill,” Deforest said.

“So I really hope Mt. Sima could have an event co-ordinator or program co-ordinator that can do scheduling of events and help out with the user groups needs. There’s money in competitions.

There’s lots of sponsorship, lots of prizes, it attracts people. When you have entertainment at the hill, you are going to get crowds.”

Deforest said she is optimistic about Mt. Sima being able to overcome their present challenges and plans to volunteer her time to help out.

Dick Eastmure is a member of the Alpine Racing Club and also attended the meeting. Eastmure said he is pleased with how things are progressing.

He said the hill is extremely important to Alpine club.

“It’s the lifeblood of our organization,” Eastmure said.

“If we don’t have a hill, we don’t have a club basically. It was devastating for our programs this year.”

Eastmure said all of his questions weren’t answered at the meeting, but he expects in time they will be.

“They have a plan going,” he said. “It’s moving forward and let’s hope they get the thing up and running and it can be profitable.

I’m glad things are underway to get it opened for next year.”

Kirk Duncan is the general manager at the Eaglecrest ski hill and one of the members of the consultant group.

During the meeting he said despite some of the problems, Mt. Sima is in better shape than he anticipated it would be.

“I am comfortable with saying the situation is certainly not bleak,” he said “It’s much better than I think any of us expected.”