Booking FAQs

MOUNT CAIN ALPINE PARK SOCIETY (MCAPS) RENTAL CABINS AND HOSTEL

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Mount Cain Hours: OPEN WEEKENDS, Select Monday's,  CHRISTMAS and SPRING BREAK.

Rate Per Night (plus Tax)

• Cabins: $300 per night, sleeps 10
• Hostel: $30 per room per night (regardless of one or two occupants)
• Kapitany Lodge Rooms: 1-3 people $87 per night, 4-6 people $140 per night, upper 2 floors (max. 33 people) $855 per night
• Kapitany Suite:  $300 per night, sleeps 10 – 12, self-contained suite
• MCAPS accommodations are available only on the nights preceding the ski lifts' days of operation. Please contact us for special functions.

ACCOMMODATION RESERVATIONS

• EARLY BIRD ON-SITE RESERVATIONS will be available one day only, and received IN PERSON ONLY, on the morning of Mount Cain's annual volunteer work party. Sign up for Mount Cain's newsletter for information on dates.
• Email reservations for groups will begin on the Monday following the AGM weekend.
• NO accommodation requests will be received or acknowledged prior to the first Saturday in October
• All requests received prior to the first Saturday in October will be deleted.

WEEKLY DEADLINE for ACCOMMODATIONS REQUESTS

• Accommodation requests are received until 6pm Thursday for each upcoming weekend. After 6pm Thursday, accommodation enquiries are not received until Saturday morning at the ticket booth.
• WAIT LISTS for accommodations are not kept.

PARKING 

For snow clearing purposes, overnight vehicles must park ONLY on the uphill side (the ski-lift side) of the parking lot. DO NOT PARK OVERNIGHT ON THE PARKING LOT’S LOWER SIDE. Make space by parking vehicles close together. Do not park in front of the entrances to the cabin roads or in front of the lower lift access ramp.

SHARING the WORK

Mount Cain is a volunteer-driven ski hill. Please share in the work to ensure Mount Cain’s ongoing community spirit and success as a North Island recreation destination. Feel free to shovel snow from stairs, walkways or the lodge deck, help park cars, take out trash, and/or bring in firewood, etc..

CAIN CAFÉ

Groceries are not available. The Cain Café offers:

• breakfast and lunch on days when the ski lifts are operating
• dinner on Saturday nights (approx. $15 to $20 per person). Sign up is required: sign up early—they sell out fast!
• vegetarian meals can be provided with advance notice
• Visa, MC and American Express accepted

EMERGENCY MESSAGES

Emergency email messages can be sent for someone on the hill: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .  A Skype phone is available in the Mount Cain Ticket Booth during the ticket booth’s hours of operation (8:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Saturday and Sunday) or in the case of an emergency. The cost is $5.00 per phone call.

BEFORE DRIVING TO MOUNT CAIN

• For Mount Cain road updates, check our Snow Report, use our contact page or call The Mount Cain Snow Phone at: 250-949-7669 (SNOW).
  
• For the local weather report, visit our Snow Report.

GETTING TO MOUNT CAIN 

 Approximate Distances and Driving Times

• Nanaimo to the Mount Cain turn off is approximately 270km; about 2 hours 45 min. on Inland Hwy by vehicle
  
• Campbell River to Mount Cain turn off is approximately 121km, about 1 hour 15min. on Hwy 19 by vehicle
• Sayward to the Mt. Cain turnoff is approximately 55km; about 30 minutes by vehicle
• From the Highway 19 turnoff to the Mt Cain parking lot is 16km on a gravel road; about 30 minutes by vehicle

When traveling from the south…

• The Highway 19 sign saying "Woss 14 km" is 6 km south of the Mount Cain turnoff.
• The small blue sign, "Mt. Cain Ski Area", is about 200 meters south of the turnoff.
• Mount Cain’s unpaved access road is on the left side of Hwy 19 as you are heading up island toward Woss.

When traveling from the north...

The Mt. Cain turn-off is about 50 min south of Port McNeill and about 5 minutes (8 km or 5 miles) south of the Woss turn-off. Look for the blue Schoen Lake Provincial Park and Mt. Cain Turn-off highway signs on your right.  Now you're on the access road, follow the signs to Mt. Cain.  

ARRIVING ON FRIDAYS

On Fridays, the Mount Cain access road will be cleared by 3:00 pm. Please do not drive up before this time.

Before the road is cleared, it is often not drivable, even with chains, due to accumulated snow. MCAPS equipment operators need to clear snow from the road and parking lot without the hazard of sharing the road with private vehicles. On any day when the ski lifts are operating, Uphill traffic is only permitted from dawn until 1:00 PM: Downhill traffic is only permitted from 1:00 PM to 6:00 PM. Drive with HEADLIGHTS ON at all times. Drive SLOWLY around blind corners and in single lane sections. Be prepared to stop in case you meet another vehicle, and be prepared to start on a hill in the event you must stop on one.

CARRYING CHAINS IS MANDATORY! You must have: chains that fit your vehicle, chains that you know how to use, chains that you intend to use! Chains may be required for going both up and down the access road. Vehicles without chains will be denied access. Make sure your chains are the right size for your vehicle and are in good repair. Actually putting tire-chains ON is often REQUIRED FOR ALL VEHICLES, including 4x4’s with good snow tires. Unprepared drivers put other drivers and their passengers at risk.

BRING A SHOVEL - You may need to dig your car out. 

RENTAL CABIN INFORMATION- Equipped for 10 people per cabin: 1 double mattress in the downstairs private bedroom, and a common loft upstairs with foam mattresses: (1 double mattress and 6 single mattresses). As you enter the parking lot, rental cabins are on the right. The name is on the front of each cabin. Your designated cabin should be unlocked. Check-in is not required.

MCAPS CABINS DO HAVE (See also "Cabin Inventory")  Propane lighting, propane stove and oven, propane fireplace heating (Please do not touch the fragile and expensive mantels in the propane lights.), a low flush toilet supplied by a small water tank and Two water containers full upon your arrival.

RENTAL CABIN INVENTORY Cabin guests must ensure the following items are in the cabin before departure.

MCAPS CABINS DO NOT HAVE…

• Electricity
• Wood fireplace
• Flashlights
  
• Running water (guests carry water from the day lodge, about 300 feet)
  
• Bedding, blankets, sheets, bath towels

LODGE HOSTEL INFORMATION

THE HOSTEL LODGE DOES  HAVE:

• One common sitting room, kitchen and dining table
  
• Gas range, small kitchen counter, small microwave, assorted pots and pans, dishes and cutlery
  
• Electricity
  
• Cloth-covered foam mattresses

THE HOSTEL LODGE DOES NOT HAVE:

• Pillows or pillowcases; bed sheets, linens or blankets

          Running water. Guests must carry water from the "Water room" in the lodge basement

• A maid (Kitchen clean up is shared by all hostel guests. Guests must carry grey water from the hostel to the appropriate sanitation facilities.) Each hostel room sleeps maximum 2 people, with just enough floor space for the 2 single foam mattresses. Each hostel room has the privacy of a door but the door does not lock. In the café on the main floor, a large wood stove heats the entire lodge. Hostel guests are welcome to stoke the fire using wood stored under the front porch. Enter the hostel by the main doors in the lodge then turn left and up the stairs. Designated room numbers are posted in the stairwell.
  
• Check in is not required.
  

WASHROOMS

Two composting toilets with sinks and cold running water are in a separate building right next door to the lodge.

KAPITANY LODGE DOES HAVE:

• Electricity
• bathrooms with flush toilets, sinks with hot and cold running water (2)
  
• pay shower
  
• kitchens
• boot drying racks
• dry room (1)
• living room (2)
• dining area (2)

KAPITANY LODGE DOES NOT HAVE:

• bedding
• blankets
  
• bath towels
• pillows
  

SNOWMOBILES

Visitors to Mount Cain should know that private snowmobiles are not allowed on Mount Cain Alpine Park Society property, nor in the cabin area. In the cabin area, the only allowed snowmobiles are those owned by cabin-owners and these snowmobiles must have liability insurance through the Snowmobile Association of BC.

FOR ENQUIRIES NOT RELATED TO ACCOMMODATIONS, and NOT ANSWERED BY THE MOUNT CAIN WEBSITE, please visit the Contact Us page.