In 1989 Don McLaughlin was assigned the duty of finding an optimal location to develop a downhill ski area in Whitehorse.

More than twenty years later, McLaughlin reflects on what he considers one of the finest ski areas in the nation.

After the city decided to move forward with plans for a ski area, McLaughlin, a mechanical engineer by trade, was brought in to assist the newly formed Great Northern Ski Society in finding a suitable location.

One of the first measures was reaching an agreement that the area would be used

for day use, not as a destination resort.

"The number one factor was convenience,” said McLaughlin. "We agreed that meant not more than 30 minutes away from town.”

The next factor was determining an appropriate size.

"Some people wanted 2,000 feet of vertical and I said ‘The worst thing you can do is create a monster that you can't look after.'

"I really didn't want to go above 1,200 feet.”

McLaughlin said there were three problems that quickly arose with developing a ski area in Whitehorse.

"Number one is a small population,” he said. "Number two is there's very minimal natural snow fall and number three is days lost to extreme cold.”

The location also had to face between north and east to keep the sun off in the spring.

McLaughlin poured over maps and studied air photos, eventually settling on four possible locations; Haeckel Hill, Mount McIntyre, Annie Lake Rd., and Mount Sima.

Haeckel Hill was eliminated due to active mineral claims.

McLaughlin found an area on the south base of Mount McIntyre that appeared promising but was unable to flag out a beginner route.

"I knew there was going to be one major chair lift so they had to have an easy run down from the top but I couldn't find one,” he said.

The next hill, just south of Annie Lake Rd, was included in the selection process as a requirement of the research funding and wasn't a location that McLaughlin had selected.

"I found out it was within an area that the Carcross band was claiming as a land claim so we dropped that and it left us with one spot: Mount Sima.”

Sima wasn't without its problems.

The left side of the hill was unusable due to the terrain and when McLaughlin brought members of the board up to the hill they told him they couldn't visualize it as a ski-hill due to the rock croppings.

McLaughlin remained optimistic.

"The terrain really excited me and when I got to the top and looked down I just had the feeling, this was it,” he said.

Rather than be discouraged by the natural elements of the area, McLaughlin saw it as something that could enhance the experience of the hill, telling the board members that if they worked with the contours it would make for an exciting run.

"I knew this thing had to be done right or it was going to fail,” he said.

After about a week of hiking up and down the hill, McLaughlin was able to flag out a beginner route.

"I brought the group out and said ‘I think this is it,' and they agreed,” he said.

A number of factors solidified the selection.

"We could drive right to the bottom of the hill from day one,” he said. "So that meant we didn't need to spend mega-bucks for an access road.”

The area was also close to a power supply and a water source, for manufacturing artificial snow.

McLaughlin was also inspired by his youngest son, who was 14 at the time.

"He was into snowboarding and he and his buddies were making jumps and I thought this is the kind of hill they'd love to ski on.”

In the second year of development, two runs were opened on the hill and people were hiking and ski-dooing up to get a chance to ski down.

McLaughlin suspects that some of the kids who were climbing the hill back then are now the parents of the youth who ski or board the slopes of Mount Sima today.

One of the executive members, who was initially skeptical of the proposal, went out to the area and spent a day skiing.

"He told me afterward, "You were right, this is going to be great,'” said McLaughlin.

McLaughlin lived in Whitehorse from 1982 to December 31st, 1993, leaving just five days after Mount Sima was opened to the public for the first time.

He's returned to the area on occasion and he's happy with the way things have progressed.

"Mount Sima has matured into a legitimate ski area, and in size and scope relative to the city's population, it would be the envy of most cities in North America,” he said.

McLaughlin paid attention to the Artic Winter Games' use of the hill and one interview caught his attention.

A competitor from Fort McMurray, Alta., said she was unsure what to expect in Whitehorse but she didn't expect to encounter a mountain.

"I listened to that clip three times and she didn't say mountains, she said a mountain. In her eyes this wasn't a skill hill, it was a ski mountain,” he said.

The comment drove McLaughlin to research the three day-use areas that serve Vancouver; Grouse, Seymour and Cypress.

In comparing the statistics of those areas to Mount Sima, McLaughlin found some interesting revelations.

"Grouse has two chairlifts, one is about 100 feet higher than Mount Sima the other is 120 feet shorter. Cypress, which hosted all the freestyle events for the 2010 Olympics, has six chairlifts, one is about 50 feet higher and all the rest are shorter.

Semyour has three chairlifts; one is about the same vertical the other two are smaller.

"These are world class day use areas and Mount Sima is right there in the same category. It's not a Mickey Mouse hill.”

McLaughlin believes Sima's history of problems will stay in the past. He's a fan of the new chairlift and the current board of directors.

"When they had real trouble in 2008 people thought the city or territorial government should take it over and I thought the worst thing they could do is have the city or the government run it. It would lose its personality,” he said.

"The people that work there, work there because they enjoy the atmosphere. They love to be part of what's happening, whereas if you had employees that are assigned to work out there and would rather be someplace else, it would be a different atmosphere.”

McLaughlin described the new chairlift as a "beauty.”

He said he was opposed to the original lift but there wasn't an alternative option that was feasible.

"The way the money was at the time they were kind of backed into a corner and couldn't do anything else,” he said.

"I was sure glad to see it go and I'm sure they were too.”

McLaughlin believes Mount Sima will continue to serve the area until the population hits around 40,000 people, at that point, he said several modifications will need to take place.

"They might have to start looking at some terrain on the back, Mt. Mac, or something,” he said. "The new lift is only at two-thirds it's capacity, they can add more chairs. They can extend the days of operation, encourage more mid-week use and maybe put some lights in and have night skiing.”

Until then, McLaughlin said Mount Sima is a "jewel of a hill.”

"It's right up there amongst the best, it compares to the three areas serving Vancouver and the population there is well over a million,” he said. "There's an awful lot of facility there for a small city and they should be proud of it.”