Ski Stop 1 of 42 - Shames Mountain

48 km from Bluegrass Meadows Micro Village outside Terrace to Ski Stop #1 – Shames Mountain, located on Ts’msyen (Tsimshian) territory.

The western-most ski area in B.C. – a group of locals saved Shames Mountain in 2011. It became the first nonprofit ski cooperative in Canada.

Being our first day – our first stop of the 42 ski areas we’re going to visit in B.C. this winter – we were up early and ready to roll. We packed our last bags into the truck in the dark and started out from Bluegrass Meadows Micro Village - Canada’s first tiny house village, on the Kalum River outside Terrace. We had no shortage of energy flowing on our 40-minute drive to Shames Mountain. We bopped along listening to tunes on our Skadi Tour playlist featuring Canadian artists while we passed frozen waterfalls on rock faces alongside the highway and as we paralleled the Skeena River.

We found the turn-off to Shames and then crossed four one-way bridges up to the mountain. Our truck was the very first in the lot and highlighted just how amped up we had been to get into our first day. We parked directly in front of the Shames Day Lodge and geared up.

                                         

We got a good laugh when we realized that Hali had put on her ski boots before her ski pants - caught up in all the excitement - but our HEAD skis were still the first on the mountain. 

         

                 

Shames has 28 runs off of the Blue Chair, Red T-Bar, and very cool, barn-shed covered, Green Carpet. The phenomenal and expansive back-country skiing off the top of the Red T-Bar, 7800 acres of it, made us dream a little about what colour they're planning on naming their next lifts after. 

                

It takes going up two lifts to get to do their big runs, but there is some great skiing in over 100 acres of natural glades to play in.

And Shames gets big snow.

"Shames receives 475 inches of annual snowfall, laying claim to one of the deepest, most consistent snow packs in North America and its backcountry access is unrivalled."

Powder Magazine

When Shames gets the white stuff, and they can get a ton, there is some really fun terrain to play in. A quick little ripper down Eye-Candy or a good leg burner down The Void are great places to start.

Shames offers 1600 vertical feet with stunning views of the surrounding peaks of the Coastal Mountain Range. We stopped a few times to take in the cloud-filled valley spreading out below us.

We caught first chair with Christian Theberge, Shames Mountain General Manager. He led us to some of his favourite runs and told us a great story about how the locals saved Shames Mountain. Check out his chairlift story here:

Yet another amazing thing that people can do when they band together.

When it came to talking about food on the mountain, Christian smiled with his French-Canadian upbringing and touted the poutine in the Panhandlers Café in the Day Lodge. He admitted that maybe they didn't quite have the squeaky fresh curds that Christian grew up with in eastern Canada, but he proudly said they were the poutine pinnacle in the Terrace area. A lot of Shamers pair the poutine offerings with the famous Shames Sneaky Pete – a Rye & Kahulua concoction crafted in Galloway’s Mountain Bar.

Stop #1 in the books on our quest to ski all 42 lift-serviced ski areas in B.C. in 42 days – and now we are off and running skiing! As our good ski buddy Ted said at the end of the day, “Skiing is Fun!!”

K’a Ama Aygyedm Sah.

Follow along for updates on our progress on Facebook and Instagram @tidbitsofchange. View the Stop 1 Recap Video below:

The song featured in the video is Jump In by Roxanne Potvin. You can check out more of Roxanne's music www.roxannepotvin.com. You can listen to the entire Skadi Tour Playlist of Canadian Artists on Spotify. 

Shames Mountain can be found at www.mymountaincoop.ca