Boler Mountain quietly launches season in London, Ont.

Ahead of the official start of winter, Londoners can now hit the slopes as Boler Mountain opened its ski hills for the 2022-2023 season.

Reopening on Wednesday, Canada’s most southern ski hill had enthusiasts hit the slopes over the weekend in what officials called a “soft launch.”

“We decided that we should go out and try to join some snow piles together and see if we can rework it and get it back to a good product,” said Marty Thody, a member of Boler Mountain’s management team.

“As we were pushing it out, we ended up having enough snow to open. We were able to stitch a couple of trails together and were happy to do a quick little opening on Sunday for some guests.”

Late last month, the ski resort announced that it was looking to combat Ontario’s fluctuating temperatures through its new Positive Temperature Snowmaking Unit, reportedly the first machine of its kind in the country.

With the capability of making snow in 17 C weather, Thody said that Boler is still hoping to get some flurries overnight before opening again on Wednesday.

“It can be 0 C or -1 C with low humidity and that will give us a -2 wet bulb, or it can be – 2 and 100 per cent humidity,” he explained. “That’s a tough one but that’s a temperature where we make a lot of snow, and we’re fortunate that we have a pretty sophisticated system that will allow us to do that.”

But Thody, who’s been in the ski hill industry for 40 years, said that he’s never been through a normal winter.

“We’re going to get rain here, and we’re going to get warm temperatures and we’re going to get some cold ones, and when it’s cold, we capitalize on it.”

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He added that this year’s opening is a “little earlier than normal,” but Boler Mountain can’t wait for the season ahead.

“We’ve certainly received a few congrats from our friends up north about getting open before them,” Thody said. “But we’re a better place when we’re all open and all of the people that enjoy the sport can get out and get doing it.”

For more information about the ski resort, check out the Boler Mountain website.