Wapiti Valley Ski and Board Resort had an active winter. Wapiti Valley Ski and Board resort/Facebook

By Doug Lett

Wapiti Ski Hill has good year

Wapiti Valley finishes winter looking up

Apr 9, 2023 | 8:00 AM

After a couple of rough winters buffeted by weather and pandemic restrictions, things are looking up at the Wapiti Valley Ski and Board Resort north of Melfort.

“The weather was very cooperative…so that helped us out an awful lot,” said Eileen Shaw, general manager of Wapiti.

It’s a much different story than the 2021-22 season, when the hill was closed over virtually all of Christmas because of brutally cold conditions.

And the year before that, the hill was hit hard by pandemic restrictions.

“We had really nice weather over Christmas,” said Shaw, adding they only had to close a handful of days in February because of cold weather.

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“Because the weather was so nice,…there was more chances for them to come. We didn’t have a lot of those real crazy days with huge lineups, but we had nice good turnouts every weekend,” she said.

Shaw estimates on a decent weekend they would have 800 people a day on the hill. And that was just people who bought tickets.

“That doesn’t include all the people in the chalet, the drivers that aren’t out skiing, …then we have the snowmobilers that come in all the time, so it’s a busy place.”

Overall, number were high enough that the facility is ending the year in the black, although final numbers are not in.

“We made a little money. We haven’t got the final numbers in yet. But it was better,” she said.

Wapiti is one of the province’s largest ski hills, and people come from a fairly wide area.

“A lot from Saskatoon, Prince Albert, kind of in a circle around there, and then we get the northern communities as well. And over as far as The Pas (Manitoba), Hudson Bay, up to Flin Flon,” she said.

Wapiti had between 30 and 40 employees at work on an average day, she said, with 60 staff overall, although many are part time.

Wapiti is part of Wapiti Valley Regional Park, and is a community based non profit organization.