NS: Former World Cup skier wants to take ski resort to new heights

[INGONISH, NS] — Paul Mahre, a former member of the U.S. national ski team, has his sights set on buying Ski Cape Smokey from the Nova Scotia government to develop it into a year-round resort.

Mahre has been struggling to find financial backers to invest in his ambitious plans for the northern Cape Breton ski hill, which has been closed for several years although it boasts breathtaking ocean scenery as well as the highest vertical drop and longest run in Nova Scotia.

The Ski Cape Smokey Society, which is managing the ski hill while trying to find a buyer, is hoping Mahre’s plans succeed. Mahre had submitted a bid in 2008 that was accepted by the society, withdrew it last year both because there were no investors on the horizon and for some personal reasons but has been revising it recently while seeking investors in Canada and the U.S.

“I am reworking it, trying to scale it down a little bit . . . trying to decrease the budget and am looking for potential investors again,” he said Tuesday. “That’s where we are right now.

“Ski areas are a very niche market. You could call them a boutique industry. They take a lot of courage and risk to get going.”

Ski Cape Smokey would be a year-round business offering activities like mountain biking, hiking, alpine sliding in which people would ride carts down the ski hill, zip lines which offer raised tree-top level hiking walkways, rock climbing, summer concerts and elder hostels, if all his plans succeed.

“That’s really one of the best ways that you can run a ski area rather than have everything sit for five to seven months a year,” he said. “I think the main business could actually be during the summer. I mean, we have over a million people going by the front door in the summer there and you don’t even have to advertise to get them.”

Mahre’s winter plans for the ski hill could include adding additional chair lifts, expanding the downhill runs, developing some lengthy trails for snowmobiles and offering competitive snowmobile competitions.

He thought the Ski Cape Smokey project would require about $1 million to $1.5 million to get started but he couldn’t be as clear on the long-term cost for his ambitious proposals.

Ski resorts are making money all around the world, especially when they have year-round operations, he said.

Mahre, who was on the U.S. national ski team and skied the World Cup circuit, lives in northern Washington state and is the executive director of a non-profit group called the Pacific Northwest Ski Association, which organizes skiing competitions in several U.S. states.

Local volunteers working through the society hope to reopen several runs at Ski Cape Smokey this winter using natural snow, which so far has been in short supply.