Who needs cold weather to ski?
The world’s ski industry will be watching the most unsuspecting small ski area this winter in London, Ont. That’s where a possible game-changer for the entire ski industry is being tested at Boler Mountain, the southern most ski resort in Canada with a mere 200 feet vertical.
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The Not-For-Profit outdoor adventure park doesn’t look like a ski hill, more like a golf course surrounded by residential homes, but it employs roughly 400 local residents.
“We’re the only resort in Canada with this leading-edge snow making technology called WeSnow from France and HKD of Quebec,” said Marty Thody, Director of Operations at Boler. “We can make snow at almost any temperature.”
As a matter of fact, it was plus 20C on testing day and some snow stuck around despite the warm ground. Typically, ski resorts need the temperature to be -5C or colder to make snow, so this new technology makes a dramatic difference.
Basically, the unit is a refrigerator in a huge shipping container with nine ice compressors and nine generators that flash freezes water but without the dry ice smoke and then pumps it on to the hills. It’s almost like your household refrigerator ice-maker but the ice isn’t hard. Instead, the resulting snow has a soft consistency that takes longer to melt and doesn’t bunch in warm temperatures like the heavy “mashed potatoes” snow famous during spring skiing.
“It’s not synthetic snow,” Thody said. “We just received this million-dollar machine three weeks ago and we’re learning everyday but so far so good.”
This could be a huge game changer for the entire industry especially with global warming.
“This could easily extend our season another couple of months, especially for a ski area that’s not in the traditional snow belt and exposed to incredibly powerful winds,” Thody said. It’s so strong, hill-side residential neighbours never worry about snow on Christmas day… “It looks like Christmas every day and they love it!”
The WeSnow machine will get a good test next week when unseasonable warm temperatures are expected but Thody says, “bring it on, we’re ready.”
HIT THE SLOPES AT MOUNT SAINT LOUIS MOONSTONE
The ski season in southern Ontario officially kicked off this past weekend with the opening of Mount St Louis Moonstone just 15 minutes north of Barrie off the 400. We enjoyed a magnificent blue bird day with amazing snow conditions and 75% coverage despite the milder weather.
The family run business owned by the Huter family, are outstanding and have spent millions on snow making so they can open early and stay open later with some of the best and most consistent snow in the province. Conditions were spectacular and like mid-winter thanks to the snow making team headed by co-owner and hill general manager Andre Huter, “We’re the only ones open right now and this is why we invest heavily in snow making.”
I also noticed something different in the upstairs cafeteria with the addition of some cool dishes and quicker service.
“We’ve inked a multi year agreement with Sodexo Live, a best-in-class hospitality provider that’s popular at 15 resorts in the United States plus at the Tim Hortons Field in Hamilton,” said co-owner/operator of Big Louie, Robert Huter. The group specializes in revitalized menus with warm comfort food and tastes of the region. The new menu includes build your own Pho and Ramen station, Nathan’s famous (and delicious!) regular and foot long hot dogs, and Austrian-Hungarian Debrazzini sausages served on a pretzel bun. There’s also a grab-and-go area including the usual hamburgers and pizza.
“We want to double down on visitor experience with a memorable dining experience,” Huter said.
Leave you money at home. Mount St Louis Moonstone has gone cashless everywhere in the resort. As Sarah Huter, vice-president of operations says, “this makes life easy for everyone and the customers love it.” You can try out the new menu this weekend as Big Louie which will likely be the only resort in southern Ontario open once again.
I wanted to thank Kevin Nichol for giving me a heads up on this story. He’s President of the Ontario Snow Resorts Association with an incredible history in helping make Ontario such a great place to ski for the entire family
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