Little Red, Wapiti Valley ski hills reflect on snowy and successful seasons

During the cold spell in January, Shaw said elementary schools with planned trips to the Park were forced to be cancelled. But thanks to some help from Mother Nature, they were able to reschedule all the trips at later dates, saying she’s thankful no students were left out.

She added those days were some of the only days throughout the season where they were forced to close the park entirely.

“I think we were only closed for maybe five days in total, maybe seven. Most of it was in January and then a couple of days during the February break, which was too bad.”

With all the snow that fell during the storm in February, she said it was welcomed by the staff as there’s rarely ever a time when there’s too much snow.

“It worked out good. That the second day that it was storming, some workers were able to groom that day and get it kind of packed down and left some of it for powder skiing. We were actually glad to get it.”

The same couldn’t be said for the Kinsmen Ski and Snowboard Centre at Little Red River Park, according to general manager Nathan Stregger.

“I’d say that was too much snow. We had probably two days of cleanup, just from snow being blown in and getting that snow processed back into our base.”

However, aside from that one major dump of snow, he said the weather played into their favour this year with only a handful of day closures like at Wapiti Valley.

“With the natural snowfall, it’s probably one of our better years that I can remember. We got off to kind of a slow start, it was pretty mild and we got a lot of snowmaking done in the last weeks of November, first weeks of December. And then through the winter, we had good temperatures it seemed this year, not too many days closed for the cold.”

Minus the weather related closures, the Centre has been closed this past week for reasons related to equipment maintenance.

“Recently, we’ve had some little hitches in our operation with some mechanical breakdowns with our Sno-cat, but we expect everything to be repaired this coming week and hope to have a strong finish to the season.”

The hill at Little Red River Park also saw some competitions this season, even as the end of skiing season looms.

Last weekend, the Centre hosted the Propaganda Throwdown and are now preparing for the final event of the year in the Sweet Ski Showdown, which is a wind-up for youth skiers to celebrate the season, show off some tricks or skills they’ve learned, and get some experience under their belts.

The final day for either hill is coming up quick.

Wapiti Valley Regional Park’s last day of operations will be this Saturday, March 28, where they will be building a slush-pit for anyone brave enough to try and ski or snowboard across it.

Meanwhile, the Kinsmen Ski and Snowboard Centre in P.A. normally closes on March 31 but this year, if the weather remains favourable, they will try to postpone their closing date to sometime during the Easter Break in April.

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loganc.lehmann@pattisonmedia.com

by Logan Lehmann

Little Red, Wapiti Valley ski hills reflect on snowy and successful seasons

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