Photo Gallery: Exploring British Columbia's Ski Areas "Lost In Time"

This story originally appeared in the print magazine POWDER 2026 Photo Annual. Copies are still available while supplies last. Click here to get yours.

Photos by Kari Medig.

Lost in Time

This gallery is from a road trip through northern British Columbia at the beginning of 2025 and was originally shot for a feature that appeared in one of Canada’s regional magazines, Mountain Life.

I landed in Prince George, the main city in B.C.’s north, and drove to eight ski hills sprinkled off of Highway 16.

Ski resorts in northern B.C. are remote and spread out over long distances. I did a lot of driving—around 3000km in ten days. The longest drive was a harrowing seven hour stretch on the icy highway between Prince George and Terrace. 

Most of the northern towns in Canada are industry based. People make a living mostly through logging, mining, and pipelines. I grew up in a little northern town called Granisle, so I’d always known about these towns and hills. My dad worked at a copper mine, and we used to go on weekend ski trips to Hudson Bay Mountain. Back then, Granisle had a tiny hill with a rope tow I learned how to ski on, but it no longer exists.

The eight ski hills on my list were Hart Highlands in Prince George; Troll, outside of Quesnel; Mount Timothy near Lac La Hache; Murray Ridge in Fort St James; Shames, near Terrace; Hudson Bay Mountain in Smithers; Powder King near Mackenzie, 200km north of Prince George; and Little Mac, a small community hill in Mackenzie.

The common theme between the ski areas was that they all fed a simple, unpretentious ski culture. Some of the mountains, especially Troll and Mount Timothy, had a strong sense of nostalgia for an earlier era. I felt like I had ventured back into a 1970s ski scene. It was refreshing to see skiing like this still existed. A few of the hills, particularly Shames, Hudson Bay Mountain, and Powder King, rival any of the more popular resorts in Southern B.C. for terrain, mountain views, and snow quality. 

At Troll, there is a little suburb of transient ski lodges that the ski community has built in a plot of land across from the ski area. It’s a bit of a drive to get to the hill, especially on wintery roads, so families lease a section and park their buses or RVs, or even build semi-permanent structures so they can stay for a couple of nights and not have to drive back and forth. I get the sense that a lot of fun is had after a powder day in that zone.

The people I met along the way were extremely friendly, modest, and open to being photographed. (I think it gave me a little bit of street-cred having lived up there as a kid). 

This attitude was shared by an old gold miner who I met early on in the trip. He was on his way to work early one morning in Wells, B.C., a community of just 218 people. He posed for a portrait in front of a big snowbank and asked me to send the print general delivery to the local post office. It would find its way to him.

This summed up the vibe I got from locals in northern B.C: easy going, lost in time.

This story originally appeared in the print magazine POWDER 2026 Photo Annual. Copies are still available while supplies last. Click here to get yours.

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