King of the Hill: Meet WinSport’s most dedicated pass holder this season

On the day that WinSport’s winter hill opened for this season, King Wa Tam clipped into skis for the first time in his life. A few days later, he first tried snowboarding.

Four months later, Tam could call himself WinSport’s King of the Hill for 2025-26.

He was the most dedicated of our winter pass holders, missing only a handful of days. He scanned in for 108 visits from Dec. 5 through March 29.

“It’s the best thing Calgary has to offer, I would say,” Tam beamed.

He certainly made the most of it this winter.

By Tam’s count, and he created a spreadsheet to track his progress, he totalled almost 400 hours on the hill and occasionally in the terrain park at WinSport — 167 hours on his skis and 231 on his snowboard.

That’s the equivalent of almost 17 straight days on the slopes, and that doesn’t include his commute to and from Canada Olympic Park on Calgary Transit.

“I came to Calgary two years ago,” Tam explained. “I have spent much of my life in Australia, but I’m originally from Hong Kong. So I never saw snow until I came to Canada.

“I took up figure skating the first year. And then this season, I wanted to try skiing and snowboarding. I am in between jobs right now so I thought, ‘I’m going to take a little bit of a break while I look for work and focus on this.’ I wanted to commit to it. I usually like to put everything into what I intend to do, and I really wanted to learn both because I thought I’d be more well-rounded in skills.”

He not only learned both — he transformed from a first-timer to a fixture at WinSport, where we welcomed 180,350 guests on the hill during the 2025/26 season.

Tam was one of two pass holders to rack up over 100 visits.

As the winter was drawing to a close, he reminisced about how “steep and scary” the green run seemed on his first day on skis and estimated he must have fallen 50 times on his first day on a snowboard. He is a shining example of how quickly you can improve when you mix the right amounts of patience and perseverance.

Tam is grateful for how he was embraced by the community at WinSport — including regular chit-chats with a lift operator who also has a distinct Aussie accent — and expressed appreciation that the second floor of the new Day Lodge was open from the start of the season, providing a place to connect with friends and to warm up on those especially chilly days.

While he may be moving back to Australia soon, he is determined to continue to ski and snowboard in the future. He’s hooked.

Whatever comes next, Tam will carry fond memories of his winter as WinSport’s King of the Hill.

“It’s been indescribable,” he said. “I will always remember this for the rest of my life. It’s been ups and downs, but mostly ups. Every time I might struggle or something else hits me, then I’ll be on the chairlift and I’m just looking at the hill, at the snow, and I just feel at peace.”