Photos & Quotables

Shames Mountain is one of North America's best kept secrets. For the locals, it's a legend! Shames lies 13 km off Highway 16 between Terrace and Prince Rupert, in the Coastal Mountain range of British Columbia, Canada. Enjoy the massive amounts of snow without the line ups or crowds! Shames allows skiers & boarders easy access to an amazing backcountry environment! If you like tree skiing, steeps, terrain parks, big mountains or just powder... Shames has it all! And it’s right outside your doorstep!

Hey, don't just take our word for it....
"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 unrivaled."
-Powder Magazine

" Shames holds the record for the most annual snowfall of any lift-operated ski area in North America.  On average, 15 meters of snow pound this part in coastal mountains every winter.  In its first year of operation, 22 meters fell.
(Think about it: How high is your house?)"
-The Globe & Mail

" This mountain (Shames) is blessed by the snow gods... The first year it opened (1990), 72 feet fell from the heavens. We’re talking about some pretty fun-packed powder days... Some people spend thousands of dollars to find powder, but at this mountain, all you have to buy is a lift ticket."
-Snowboard Core magazine

" December 15, 1990, was the opening day of this magnificent, new area with its heart thumping, drop dead view that just doesn’t quit at the 1,177 meter level.... With all it has to offer, this jewel in the tiara of western Canadian slopes will undoubtedly become known mainly for the snow, which is one of the resort’s most valuable assets. A week after the hill’s 1990 opening, 300 centimeters of snow fell from the heavens in just eight days. Some of the local snorkel skiers I talked to said they were up to their armpits off-trail that week.... "
-Ski Canada magazine

" ... the easily accessible outlying area offers some delicious off-site possibilities and then some. After a short hike, that’s where we found ourselves, rolling over some powdery tree-lined hills down to an unbelievably huge, 50-degree horseshoe-shaped bow. It was one of nature’s ready-made snow parks sitting there, with any number of lines available.You could hurl off just about any spot on the rim, or cut hard-guy extreme turns down the face.  The possibilities, as they say, were endless, this feature alone making exploration worthwhile, but it’s the Shames backcountry–incredible, sonnet-inspiring peaks rolling on and on into the distance–that make it worth the trip."
-abstract from editorial feature “The Other Canada”,
-TransWorld Snowboarding magazine

" It’s all monstrous evergreens, deep snow packs, massive granite slabs and precious slopes rising into those ever-stupefying West Coast clouds and for all one knows, towards infinity. "
-Ski Canada

"Best Kept Secrets: Powder King, Mackenzie, B.C. and Shames Mountain, Terrace, B.C. (Well, they may be short-lived secrets now that we’ve run the Grunge Tour feature this issue)."
-Ski Canada December ‘95

"5 best bets for drowning in powder: Shames (15 to 23 meters)... The Powder 5 include typical seasonal average depths.
Top 5 out-of-bounds: Shames was one of them! You’ll have to head for the Alps if you want anything better off-site."
-Ski Canada December ’96

Warning: "Shames Mountain Ski Corporation’s snowfall will make you want to quit your job, quit your family, quit your friends, and head for British Columbia. The talent in Coastal Disturbance is “B” list and the videography is sub-par, but that doesn’t matter. WASP films, an acronym for “We Ain’t Spielberg Productions,” has accomplished its goal–to make you want to ski, and more specifically, ski Shames."
-Coastal Disturbance video review January 2000

" It's the same Coast Range in which Whistler/Blackcomb nestles several hundred miles to the south, but the height alpine there resembles the Selkirks. In fact, Shames feels like a ski area shoehorned into the grandeur of Rogers Pass. It's a back water, a legend, and, to many, a persistent myth. Fifty-one feet of snow a year is more than enough to sustain such a status, but he terrain rocks as well. You can believe everything you hear or read about it."
-Powder Magazine, 1996

Top 10 annual average snowfall 1378(cm) in North America is
Shames Mountain, B.C.
Washington, D.C. - based
-National Ski Areas Association

" The woods at Shames Mountain are lovely, dark and deep. And Shin Campo's could give a flake about promises because he’s riding epic, dry, light powder. Wha-hoo! "
-TransWorld Snowboarding magazine

Photos Credits: Jamie Hahn, Jamie Hahn, Sarah Russell, Gordon Russell,
Brenda Feldhoff, Cam Eby, Sarah Russell, and Gordon Russell.