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Mount Cain launches kids ski free program
By Kathy O'Reilly, North Island Eagle, January 9, 2026
Kids 12 and under are skiing for free at Mount Cain this winter.
“This is something that we’re really excited about,” said Mount Cain Alpine Park Society Chair Eric Sprenger at the Regional District of Mount Waddington board of directors meeting Dec. 16.
“As a community run ski hill, I want to be very family oriented and make skiing more affordable for families, or approachable, seemed like a really easy decision for us to take to be able to make that happen,” Sprenger said.
Last year, Mount Cain had around 55 employees and 7,500 skier visits, 151 seasons passes, just over 1,600 memberships and were open 61 days “which is definitely on the higher end of operating days for us which is great”.
“Working with ’Namgis First Nation, we entered into an agreement to offer management services to ensure their cabin is available to ’Namgis members and the public when the ski hill is operating. This has been very helpful as accommodations are limited at the hill.”
A capital project Mount Cain has been working on is a major retrofit of the front and back of the ski shop to address some mould and water damage to “keep the building maintained to make sure that we can continue to use that facility for many years to come,” Sprenger explained.
“We also had a grant through BC Tourism’s Sustainability Network that allowed us to install some solar panels that will provide lights for two of our cabins. Previously those were using propane lanterns, some pretty old school technology, so now we have electric lighting in there which is nice. It’s also much safer which is a big plus,” he continued.
Solar panels were also installed to keep power on in the ticket booths so that communications are available anytime even if generators are not up and running. That was a big upgrade,” he said.
This fall, the society purchased a used snowmobile to help its ski patrol and maintenance people get to the top of the hill.
Over the last few years, Mount Cain replaced the motor at its upper L3 lift.
“After about 40 plus years the old engine finally decided it had enough,” Sprenger said.
Mount Cain continues to explore the feasibility of expanding into summer operations.
“It seems like every year, winter arrives a little bit later, so this is definitely something that we’re thinking about going forward. It is going to require a lot of discussions, a lot of grants, revenue, this kind of stuff, just to be able to transition into being able to do more in the summertime,” he explained.
“Every year, we’re making small steps to make that happen.”
The society is also working with the Synergy Foundation on an assessment of its operations as far as waste management and energy usage goes.
“We’re hoping that they’ll be able to line us up with some grants to help in those areas. We have to haul out all of our recycling and garbage. Any way that we can manage that better is good for everybody,” Sprenger continued.
Another thing the society is working on is improving accessibility at Mount Cain.
“Right now, unfortunately, it’s not very accessible for people with disabilities so that’s something that we want to look at improving.”
The total revenue last year was $105,000.
“So, for sure, being open 61 days was good for our bank account. Unfortunately, the year before that we had a deficit of $125,000. It really highlights how critical being open is for us,” he said.
“The good news is we still have lots of money in the bank. COVID was amazing for us, so we do have just over half a million dollars. Part of that is our contingency fund which we increased to $200,000 years ago. The remainder we’re using to save up to purchase a new groomer,” he said.
“I also would like to just take a quick moment to thank our amazing Mount Cain community and all our volunteers. Mount Cain is a community run ski hill which I think is very unique as far as the ski industry is concerned. We have hundreds of volunteers that provide from a couple hours to well over 200 hours per season and without them we wouldn’t exist. It would be just impossible to run the hill,” Sprenger said.
“Having 12 and under free is absolutely amazing,” said Port Hardy Mayor Pat Corbett-Labatt.
Photo —Mount Cain Facebook
Off to a good start this year, Mount Cain is hoping to follow up a positive 2024-25 season with another one this year. Mount Cain was open for 61 days last season and has added free skiing for kids 12 and under.
Seven Hills golf course scores banner year
By Kathy O'Reilly, North Island Eagle, January 9 2026
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The Seven Hills Golf and Country Club has finished its busiest season in recent memory.
“I believe this was a result of several factors - one of which is a continued surge in the popularity of golf. This is a global phenomenon. I think that Seven Hills benefited from that,” said General Manager Scott Mitchell at the Regional District of Mount Waddington monthly Board of Directors meeting Dec. 16.
Mitchell was there to ask for Seven Hill’s annual grant in aid of $40,000.
Golf popularity has been on the upswing since COVID when people were looking for something socially distanced and enjoyable to do.
“I think we saw a boost in regional tourism resulting from the strained relationships between ourselves and the United States,” Mitchell said as another factor in the increase in numbers.
The club also launched a new website and did some advertising in some regional tourism brochures and maps.
“I think that we are increasing the visibility of the club and we’ve been holding some new activities, and I think generally the sum of all that was a positive vibe at the club that drew more people out,” he said.
“Whatever the cause, we’re thankful to all that supported our business and we’re hopeful that we can sustain similar levels of activity in 2026 and beyond,” said Mitchell.
“Revenues were up this year from last season across every category - our driving range, power cart, club rentals, greens fees, RV rentals, sales in the golf shop, membership,” Mitchell said.
In 2023, the club had 144 members.
This increased in 2024 to 151 and grew again in 2025 to 175 members.
“An encouraging subset of these numbers is that our junior membership category continues to rise - from 45 kids in 2023 and 2024, up to 60 this past season, which really bodes well for the future of the club,” he continued.
“We enlisted Tara Roden, who is a local small business owner and CPGA professional, to offer some junior clinics this summer. For the first time in over 20 years, we were able to host and award a junior club championship which is pretty neat,” he said.
The club has plans to continue working with Roden and hopefully expand junior programming this coming season.
North Island and Port Hardy secondary schools are running golf programs for students.
“We hope these school programs continue going forward and the club will do what we can to support those initiatives,” Mitchell said.
In addition to golf, the clubhouse is being used for a variety of events such as grad dinners, ceremonies, etc.
“We celebrated the 40th anniversary of the loggers’ tournament in 2025 with 195 golfers attending. We hosted three other private golf tournaments,” he continued.
“We had our inaugural interclub challenge with our friends at the Port Alice Golf Club, and this is something we want to turn into an annual event with the interest of doing a better job to support each other’s neighbouring golf clubs.”
The increased golf traffic, event bookings, etc. translated into a successful year for Peggy’s Kitchen.
“We’ve renewed Peggy’s contract for two more years and are really excited to have her back providing food and beverage services at the club again this year,” he added.
Seven Hills received many compliments about the course conditions thanks in large part to their experienced greenskeepers. They hired summer students, recruited a part time mechanic, and the weather helped as well.
“It was really gratifying for me, now that I’m at the club a lot, to hear plenty of positive feedback. We had lots of visitors from Vancouver and points beyond who were pleasantly surprised to discover such a high-quality golf course in the wilderness so to speak,” he said.
Seven Hills purchased a used mini excavator at a cost of about $35,000.
“It’s been running reliably and providing an invaluable tool for us. We’re fortunate up here. We have lots of trained excavator operators that are willing to lend us a hand,” he said.
Thanks in large part to an annual grant of $40,000 from the Regional District of Mount Waddington, two large infrastructure projects were completed and several smaller capital investments at the club were made.
The first project was a large remediation of #8 fairway with Orca Sand and Gravel donating approximately 100 truckloads of sand with support from Port Hardy Bulldozing and North Island Rock Pro who contributed to low-cost affordable trucking and use of some machinery at a good price.
The second project of significance was the replacement of the last three original 1980 power poles on the property and some critical repair work in the transformer boxes.
North Island Electric Ltd. donated the poles and completed the associated work.
Club cart rentals are a good revenue source for the club and are in high demand during tournaments and on summer weekends.
Recognizing the opportunity to gain more revenue, the club purchased three more used carts.
“That’ll bring our rental fleet up from 10 to 13 units,” said Mitchell.
In January and February some long overdue upgrades will be done to the lower level of the clubhouse.
These include enlarging the golf shop, putting a fresh coat of paint on the walls, and replacing all the carpeting.
“We’ll have that work done, we hope, before we open in March. We’re also replacing several of the windows upstairs in the restaurant,” he explained.
“We’ve been working with Telus locally and are very close to having a fiber optic connection to the clubhouse which will allow us to make our Wi-Fi available to the public. Hopefully with some additional investment, we can extend the coverage to our RV sites as well,” Mitchell said.
“Lack of Wi-Fi has come up in the context of making the meeting space less desirable for groups so that’ll be resolved here in 2026.”
The access road continues to be an issue.
“We’ve essentially lost the outside lane due to a gradual slope failure, so we’re working with one of the local forestry companies on a proposal to cost out a rebuild.
“Once we get that information, we will be investigating partnerships and potential funding options,” said Mitchell.
“I hope that the board representatives and regional district staff see the value of your past investments at the club and will continue to support the work that we’ve been doing.”
“I just think you are doing a great job,” said Port Hardy Councillor John Tidbury.
“This has been very close to non-viable for a period of time and the fact that you turned it around this much is very admirable and I think it is great for the region, and the area,” said Chair Andrew Hory.
The request for funds will be addressed during budget deliberations.
Photo — Seven Hills Facebook
The Seven Hills Golf and Country Club has finished its busiest season in recent memory 175 members in 2025.