Above seasonal temperatures have it made difficult for winter sport enthusiasts in Saskatchewan this year.
When it opened mid-December, Fort Qu’Appelle Mission Ridge Winter Park, a popular skiing and snowboarding facility, was only able to open one of its many trails.
“Getting snow-making down in these marginal temperatures is where it was challenging this year as opposed to others,” said Mission Ridge’s business manager, Anders Svenson. “We were able to open a few more runs than we expected with a brief window of snow making on Christmas day so that helped a lot.”
For skiers like Charlie Svenson, any chance to get out the slopes is one worth taking.
“I’m very, very excited,” she said. “I love it here and I hope that the business is just always going well.”
Anders said the business usually picks up in the last week of December.
Most trails are now open, but according to Anders, the park still needs to make a bit more snow to open the rest.
“You kind of learn after doing it for 51 years to be prepared for adverse weather conditions so it’s certainly nothing that’s going to affect us long term,” he said. “Most of our guests are just appreciative of the amount of work that goes into it and having a facility close by that has snow making capabilities that we are able to open, even though mother nature is not helping us out very much.”