GNSS looking at the idea of creating an Adventure Park at Mt. Sima

Members of the Great Northern Ski Society are hoping to turn Mt. Sima into the outdoor version of Whitehorse's Canada Games Centre.

Members of the Great Northern Ski Society are hoping to turn Mt. Sima into the outdoor version of Whitehorse’s Canada Games Centre.

In a presentation to council and senior management on Tuesday, GNSS president Craig Hougen said one of the key factors to the hill becoming self-sustainable is having it opened for business in the summer months.

Hougen said the GNSS is looking at the opportunity of developing an Adventure Park in the Yukon. An Adventure Park is an activity-based, leisure park in the woods. It’s accessible to people of all ages with varying levels of difficulty.

“This type of thing will greatly reduce and possibly even eliminate the need for long-term funding,” he said.

Hougen estimated the cost involved in creating an Adventure Park to be around $380,000. The GNSS expects to work closely with the private sector to develop an adventure themed park should it prove feasible.

Mt. Sima turned a profit this year of more than $80,000. The profit was a pleasant surprise to the GNSS, which had to refund more than $55,000 in season pass purchases (as a result of the hill being closed for the majority of the 2007-08 ski season due to mechanical problems and cold temperatures).

The profit also would have been higher had the hill not been closed for 13 days during the Christmas Break, Hougen said.

“We actually made money this year, which is great,” he said. “We are delighted with that. We are a long way from being self-sustainable, however we broke even because we have generous funding partners and we are working hard on a long term sustainability plan.”

Hougen said the basic issue with Sima in the past has been maintenance work not being done in the summer. Besides being 20 per cent cheaper, he said it is also important in order to meet its December opening target date.

“The cycle Sima was in in the past is they had no core funding, so basically they had to sell season passes in the fall to get enough money to hire staff to start doing maintenance that should have been done in the summer,” he said, adding this put them behind the eight-ball to meet mid December target opening date.

The hill hopes to begin snowmaking in the second week of November, so that it can be opened for business in early December.

There will also be a greater emphasis on school programs, Hougen said about the upcoming season.