Mount Sima General Manager Sam Oettli is proud that the ski hill is into it’s 30th year of having skiers and boarders swishing down the slopes.

“Pretty proud and excited that this place is still going strong here. And I mean, it’s a lot different than (the) first concepts that were created 30 years ago.”

Oettli said many changes have occurred on the mountain over the years.

“Officially the mountain opened in ‘93 … next year would be 30 years but the concept and everything was well underway at this point in time and they had already gotten leases and stuff. They started off with a small little bunny hill at the bottom, which I remember as a kid thinking it was so big.

“And then they put the chair in a few years later up the rest of the mountain and put it a few runs down the mountain and just slowly expanding every year bit by bit.

“And now, we’re at a point where all this skiable terrain on the mountain has been developed.

“We have preseason. We have snowmaking, we have a new bigger lodge that happened in 2007.

“There’s a new lift in 2011.

“Just recently electrifying our entire snowmaking system as well, which was a huge leap forward.”

Oettli said the hill has faced many challenges over the years.

“Finding people to run the place, there’s finding the right money and capital investment to make it happen. You know, skiing as an industry is not a cheap thing to do. So, we struggled with all those things and still do even today. You know, there’s insurance costs are incredible and fuel costs and those things are ever climbing and we have to try to adjust and make it still affordable for local people to come and actually enjoy the facility. Because if we didn’t, then nobody would show up and then we wouldn’t be open.”

Financial challenges included being threatened by bankruptcy.

“A couple times, actually,” confirmed Oettli. “There was once in 2008. The place opened for three days and then shut down. I was a patrol leader at the time. That sucked. Luckily through community support we were able to get it going again the next year.

“Things were looking a little better there for a bit and then 2013 when we closed the doors that April that was looking like that was it. The society that was running the hill up until that point had to fold and out of the ashes came the current one, which is Friends of Mount Sima Society. Myself and a few others worked tirelessly over that summer and fall to get things back up and going again – just (a) skeleton crew – and make things happen and yeah, it was definitely touch and go.”

As for the future, “What I hope to see is growth,” said Oettli. “We are continuing to grow our preseason product that we started back in 2014.

“There’s housing on the horizon here hopefully for both staff and for rental accommodation for folks in town here and just extending some of our summer offerings as well.

“We continually try to make things better and bigger here.”

Regarding night lighting, Oettli said that’s a future plan.

“We had hoped to have that as part of our electrification we just did recently for (the) snowmaking system. But budgets in the pandemic kind of messed about with a lot of that. So we put in some infrastructure in the ground for future lighting. And now the next time I find a grant that can pay for it, I’ll definitely try to make it happen.”

Oettli said they are also building some accommodation on the hill.

“We are looking at some triplex and fiveplex sort of buildings. They’re an up-cycled kind of buildings in a box in a way, refurbished and reused oilfield housing units that are brought back to the factory where they were built, put together into larger units made quite beautiful. They come back with a LEED silver rating from an environmental standpoint. It’s quite high, super energy efficient and very cost-effective. So we’re working on that plan right now.”

Eleven units are in the first phase. Up to 20 people could be housed in the units.

Looking back, Oettli said he always hoped the ski hill would make it to this point.

“I always knew this place could be really great. And I think that it’s well on its way to being that, with the help of the community and all the people who have been a part of this place either in the past or still are here, or come and go. We have some people sometimes that were here at the beginning and now they’re back helping with some stuff because they just enjoy it. Everyone helps out and it just makes it the whole community ski hill thing here.”

Oettli added “I just want to say thank you to the community because without them this wouldn’t happen and you know, we’re all really super proud of what we’re doing up here and we want to continue to be the awesome ski hill that we are and the kind of cornerstone facility to the community here.

“I think the future looks bright.”