The Maligne Lake Ski Club will be holding a lottery for the winter 2024-2025 cabin rentals. There are 59 two-night bookings and 1 three-night booking available this season. Shangrila will be available for rental from December 16, 2024 to April 19, 2025, conditions allowing. 

Lottery Rules

  1. Annual memberships will be sold from September 1st through October 31st every year.

  2. The lottery will open for members only on November 3, 2024 at 6:00 p.m. (MST) and close on November 17, 2024 at 6:00 p.m. (MST).

  3. Members will receive a password by email to login to the page where an online Lottery Application Form will be available.

  4. The lottery will be conducted on November 20, 2024 by members of the Executive along with one or more volunteer members to ensure confidence in and understanding of the process.

  5. Members may select any number of different dates from the 60 blocks available, indicating their preference from most desirable choice (#1) to least desirable choice (#60). You can not select more then one #1 choice, one #2 etc.

  6. The lottery will determine in what order the members' applications are considered for available booking dates. A random number generator will determine the order of members in each priority pool. The first available openings will be assigned to the first member in the highest priority pool, continuing through that pool prior to assigning the first member from the next priority pool.

  7. Members will be allocated the first available booking date in their order of preference. Members will only be allocated dates they have selected.

  8. Following the lottery draw, members will be notified of the outcome by 8pm, 48 hours after the lottery.

  9. The full payment of $400 will be due within 7 days of notification to secure your booking.

  10. The waiting list will be in order of who is next on the list (as determined by the random number generator during the lottery process). Openings that become available will be offered to the top ten members on the list.  The member who is highest on the list of those who have requested the available opening will be given the date.

  11. Those members who have been allocated and accepted their date will have their priority returned to the lowest level pool for the next year. Those members who have had to cancel for any reason, or who were not successful in obtaining a date will have their priority increased to the next level for next year. 

  12. Cancellations:

    1. In the event of a cancellation, please contact us. If the request is received 2 weeks prior to the  departure date, we will refund your payment in full. If not, you will lose your payment if we can not fill your date. Shangrila is a busy place, and if you have to cancel, there are others that would love to take your spot.  Please give us as much notice as possible.

    2. In the event of a safety-related closure, the executive reserves the right to cancel your reservation. A full refund will be paid in this situation.

    3. In the event of a road closure, safety-related closure, canceling due to severe weather (below -30C with the addition of wind, at Maligne Lake weather station) a full refund will be paid.

    4. In cases 12.1 to 12.3, your priority will be advanced to the next level in the following year.

    5. The Board of Directors must approve the transfer of Trip Leader to another club member within the group. This can only be done for unforeseen events just prior to a trip start. In the event of a change to Trip Leader, if the trip leader passes the Trip Leader within the group, the original Trip Leader loses priority and returns to lowest priority group in the next lottery.

  13. Membership must be maintained annually in order to remain in the lottery priority queue. If you skip a year without membership you will return to the lowest priority pool when obtaining a new membership.

NOTE: All bookings are subject to the road being open and safe snow and travel conditions. Bookings later in April have a higher chance of being cancelled due to avalanches or safety concerns; a full refund will be issued if that's the case.

Please add malignelake.skiclub@gmail.com to your "safe list" to ensure you receive emails from us. 

Please contact us if you have any questions.

Summary of the Priority-Based Lottery

Background 

  • Our membership is increasing yearly, resulting in a decreased probability of being selected in the lottery.  Many long term members have not won a date in many years or have never won.

  • During the 2023 AGM, a motion was passed directing the Board to explore options to renew the lottery selection process and explore a priority-based option. 

  • A committee was formed and its recommendations were considered by the Board.

  • The priority-based lottery was approved by a vote held at the 2024 AGM. 

Priority-Based Lottery 

  • In simple terms, provided you enter the lottery every year, the longer you have been unsuccessful in the lottery the greater your chance of being drawn and getting a date. 

    • Members who have waited longer will always be drawn before those who have had a cabin booking more recently.  

  • The model is priority-driven. Priority is assigned to members correlating to the number of successive years in which they have entered the lottery without getting a date. 

  • Each year, names are first drawn from among those in the highest priority group. 

    • Once all those from the highest priority group have been drawn, drawing continues at one priority group lower. 

    • Drawing continues in descending order through the priority queue until all dates have been  awarded. 

    • Within each priority group, drawing is always random.  

    • If you are unsuccessful in the lottery your priority increases and you move to the next higher priority group for next year’s lottery.  

    • Those who were drawn and awarded a date return to the priority group 1 for the next year’s lottery.

    • If you are drawn but none of your requested dates are available, your priority increases and you move to the next highest priority group. 

  • Here are some examples for clarification purposes:

    • New members start at priority group 1.

    • If you have not won the lottery in 2 successive years, you will be in priority group 3.

    • If you are awarded a date, you will return to priority group 1 in the next year, provided you renew your membership.

  • Over time, all members have the same chance of being drawn, provided they renew their membership annually. 

Implementation 

  • The initial priority pools for 2024-25 were created based on the previous two years' draw results.

MLSC Executive