London’s Boler Mountain hoping for early start to season

It may be another few weeks before Londoners can hit the slopes, but officials say an early start to the season is still possible at Boler Mountain.

Boler Mountain has made great progress in making snow amid what’s been a colder- and whiter-than-usual November, but a brief spell of milder temperatures hampered production on Thursday and Friday, said Greg Strauss, a member of the recreation club’s management team.

“There is a chance of a November opening, but we won’t know until after the weekend after snowmaking resumes,” Strauss said.

“It’s encouraging right now but still a little too early to get overly excited and be able to think of an opening day.”

Recent forecasts have kept London mostly wrapped in subzero temperatures, which Strauss sees as a good sign for providing Boler Mountain with an early opening.

“In a perfect world, we’d be staying with -3 C, -4 C during the daytime,” Strauss said. “Once we hit -2 C, -1 C, we’re looking at shutting down because now the snow you’re making is very marginal.”

“The colder the better,” he said.

Apart from the season opening, another thing Boler Mountain has to look forward to is the number of extra workers it will need once Londoners start hitting the slopes.

“Right now, Boler Mountain runs around 60 employees. For the wintertime, we jump up to about 360 employees,” Strauss said.

To help with the oncoming work, the club will be holding a job fair this weekend that aims to fill full- and part-time positions. The job fair takes place Sunday at Boler Mountain. More details can be found on the club’s website.