The holiday classic “Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!” did not account for El Niño with its first words: “Oh, the weather outside is frightful…”
This winter has been mild, to put things lightly.
This abnormality has not only been noticed, it has also had an impact on Alberta’s ski and winter resort industry.
“We have definitely noticed a change in our numbers,” explained Cole Fawcett, marketing and sales manager of Castle Mountain Resort in southern Alberta.
“And I truly believe that we are only open because of the efforts of our crews and our investment.”
Fawcett recently gave Global News a tour of his facilities and the investments he was referring to, two pumps — as well as all logistical piping to get the water to various parts of the mountains and hills the resort covers, some up to a kilometre and a half away from the main reservoir of the two they built between 2019 and 2021.
About $3 million was invested in total and on a day with a temperature of roughly 5 C, there were still a number of runs from the top of the hill near the resort’s weather station that it runs in partnership with University of Lethbridge to the bottom of the resort.
The investment also included several snow cannons that allow Castle Mountain Resort to create and spray snow throughout most of its runs, keeping them open and ready for visitors.
“Every ski resort is subject to the whims of Mother Nature, there’s no question about that,” Fawcett said.
“This season in particular has been challenging, as a result of above-average temperatures and below-average precipitation.”
Not everyone is suffering and facing such a challenge, however. Kendra Scurfield, the vice-president of brand and communications for Sunshine Village Ski and Snowboard Resort, said she knows just how fortunate her resort is.
“We are very lucky. We are Canada’s highest resort,” Scurfield said. “We are located 7,200 feet above sea level, high on the Continental Divide.
“So in these traditionally warmer El Niño winters, we actually do pretty well.”
Castle Mountain Resort has been hampered by a lack of snow and is relying on methods such as snow farming, where fixtures are set up throughout runs and high-wind areas to trap blowing snow and is then using machines to push that snow where it is most needed.
According to Fawcett, the investment is complex, but it’s well worth it.
“You need high volumes of water, you need high volumes of energy — expensive equipment like the one you see behind us — to make that snow,” he said, pointing to a new snow cannon behind him.
“Then you need infrastructure under the ground, so piping under the ground for that water to get it to where you need it on the mountain.”
The primary reservoir holds the equivalent of four Olympic-sized swimming pools of water. The pipes hold that water under 600 pounds per square inch of pressure and send that water wherever the teams deem necessary. But even the water has its challenges.
“We’re really only able to pull water from a limited amount of groundwater on site,” Fawcett explained. “Only when flows are high and above the water conservation objective (WCO) can we actually pull water from creeks and rivers.”
The machines mix the water with air, but there are no chemicals involved in the mixture. With mere weeks before the mercury really takes a dive, Castle Mountain Resort is expecting its cannon use to be limited from here on out and is expecting a busy end of the season.
“We are 30 days into a 130-day season generally at Castle, and so the bulk of good skiing and snowboarding I’m confident is still ahead of us,” Fawcett said.
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