Revised - Mount Sima is turning 30. The ski hill is located about 15 minutes east of Whitehorse.

Don McLaughlin, a former mechanical engineer, was instrumental in Mount Sima’s success. He was tasked with finding a location for a ski hill in Whitehorse in 1989. This is how it came about.

“I had been interested in downhill skiing before I moved to Whitehorse but there wasn’t anything, so I did cross country at that time,” recalled McLaughlin. “The mayor at that time, Don Branigan, was a downhill skier and he used to go to the outside resorts a couple of times in winter. He got the city to put up $25,000 for a feasibility study and a company out of Whistler got that study. Well, that led to the formation of Great Northern Ski Society (GNSS). They got a grant of $15,000 to develop the ski area and I put in a proposal and got the contract to find the optimum location for a downhill ski area.”

McLaughlin went downhill skiing while he lived in Saskatchewan.

“We’d go to Winter Park in Colorado and Banff, Sunshine or Lake Louise, in those ski areas. So I would kind of collect what I liked and disliked about their lifts, their layouts, their runs, just kind of a mentally cataloguing,” related McLaughlin.

“When I got this study, the number one thing, the area should be based on the market. Now our market was very well defined. It was a population in Whitehorse and area.

“I listed the criteria. Number one was convenience in a day use local area, and then because the population was so small, we only really needed one major tow or chairlift to handle that population. With that, you’ve got to have a relatively easy, consistent run down from the top for new skiers. You have a training area but you’ve got to get them on the mountain. So that was probably the second challenge in finding the proper ski area.

“I worked with them (GNSS) and we decided somewhere between 900 (and) 1200 feet of vertical is what we should look for. I got contour maps and air photos. And I circled three areas that met that criteria.

“I hiked up this hill. It didn’t have a name. It was kind of an isolated peak. And I got to the top and I looked down to the bottom and I just had a ‘wow’ sensation, almost an emotional sensation. ‘If I can find a relatively easy run for beginner skiers from the top, this is it.’

“We hiked down what I thought would be the beginner run and they said OK, we agree. That was the big step. And then after that, it was finding out how they could acquire that land, use of the land. I hadn’t spent all their budget so I said OK, I’ll do a master plan and lay out the runs from what I have walked. There had been new photos done and new contour plans done that were much more detailed so I could get a pretty good idea how to lay the runs out.”

The chairlift was opened to the public on Boxing Day in 1993. Five days later, McLaughlin left the Yukon to take a job in Nanaimo.

In 2007, as part of the legacy of the Canada Winter Games, a T-bar lift was to be installed and a new day lodge built. McLaughlin was tasked with being a mechanical consultant for the plumbing, heating and ventilation system. He also became involved in engineering the T-bar lift. “I designed the foundations and signed off on that installation,” said McLaughlin. “So that’s pretty much my direct involvement.

“The site is kind of unique. It’s not what most people think is an ideal ski area. But once you got in on that terrain, there was so much variety. 30 years later, I’m still saying that was the only site to make it successful.”

McLaughlin said the terrain was a natural fit for snowboarding and new skis that were coming into vogue at the time. “There were some cliffs and irregular terrain and everything else. ‘This one’s going to keep them entertained.’”

McLaughlin said a study was done for the city for the Canada Games by Ecosign Mountain Resort Planners prior to the Games. “They determined it met international standards for alpine.

“It was over 1000 feet of vertical and you know people got out to the mountain areas in B.C. and came back and found ‘Gee, our ski area has as much vertical as many of the lifts at Big White or Silver Star’. So they supported it more and more and it got better utilization.

“The new style of sports was freestyle. It was a natural for it and I’m not sure what brought in the preseason training. I know one aspect was the fact that you could start making snow in October and most ski areas didn’t have snow at that time so that by beginning of November they had these special areas covered with snow so they decided to host preseason training. That has been a huge benefit for the local skiers because it has generated a lot of funding for Mount Sima so they can continue to make improvements.”

A new chairlift was installed in 2011 and McLaughlin came up for that. “They did a great job and what they did with that type of lift, I don’t know who took on the responsibility for that. But they did it right,” said McLaughlin.

He doesn’t seem surprised that Mount Sima is still around and thriving after 30 years.

“I felt it was going to work because it was sort of built for the new changes in skiing and snowboarding.”

McLaughlin also felt that the convenience of the proximity of Sima to Whitehorse is a “big, big factor” in its success.

“It’s great to have a facility like that right on the doorstep. I did research on other ski areas with the same amount of vertical. It’s not a Mickey Mouse Hill. It is a substantial, downhill ski area, sized right for the population.” McLaughlin added “I go to that (Mount Sima web) site every day. I sort of say it’s my ski area but they’ve done a great job finding new ways for it to work. A couple of hiccups in the past but the Yukon government has been very supportive and the city when they got the Canada Winter Games. I’m really proud of the way it turned out.”