People in northwest B.C. will soon be able to check out a Shames Mountain Ski Area lift pass with their library books in Terrace, Kitimat and Prince Rupert.
Starting Jan. 6, and continuing for the rest of the season, there will be four day passes at each library in each community.
Passes will be free and are only valid for the day they are checked out. They are also exempt from the ski area’s daily capacity limit.
“We are excited to partner with My Mountain Co-op to loan out day passes. These passes help to reduce barriers, and make it easier for community members to discover skiing,” said Fiona Bruce, director of the Terrace Public Library in a media release.
Dave Gordon, board member for My Mountain Co-op, the non-profit community co-operative that operates the ski area, said that libraries quickly emerged as the best option to support the initiative and that Shames Mountain would like to see the program continue past this season.
“It came out of one of our board meetings about thinking of ways to make skiing accessible for those that might see price as a barrier to entry,” Gordon said.
“We’d like to keep it going, we’re going to see how it goes this year, and whether we need to tweak it for next year. We’ll learn through the efforts of over the next three months.”
For information on how to check out the day passes, contact the Terrace, Prince Rupert or Terrace public libraries.
Increasing accessibility has been a priority for Shames Mountain this year. The ski area has a new beginner conveyor lift called the green carpet which is free to use, and snow tube lanes which can be accessed by people who are unable to ski and snowboard.
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