Remote Kootenays towns voted best ski locale in North America in online contest
December 25, 2012 - 2:54 PM
NELSON, B.C. - A pair of southern B.C. Interior communities have been jointly crowned best ski town to "throwdown" in North America by readers of a 40-year-old ski enthusiasts' magazine.
Nelson and Rossland in the mountainous region known as the Kootenays beat out the city of Bozeman, Montana in the contest held by Powder Magazine.
The magazine seeded 32 ski towns to mimic the NCAA March Madness basketball tournament, asking readers to vote at each stage.
Nelson and Rossland came out victorious with nearly 11,500 votes in the match, and the results were published online on Christmas Eve.
The California-based magazine refers to the winners as a "Canadian paradise," making mention of yam fries in local poutine, rowdy terrain and smoky B.C. powder.
It says Nelson Mayor John Dooley even went door-to-door to remind residents to vote, which may have helped clinch the title over other Canadian towns in the competition that included Whistler and Revelstoke.
"It validates why most of us have given up the big careers and the paychecks that went with them, to live in this hard to get to place, where nearly 40 per cent of the population has a ski pass hanging from their jacket,” Anne Pigeon, the general manager of indoor operations and marketing at Whitewater ski resort, told the magazine.
News from © The Canadian Press, 2012