Optimist Hill overcoming challenges with no snow on the ground

No snow is no problem for Optimist Hill in Saskatoon.

The hill is creating its own snow, so the facility can open its doors to the public next week.

The process of making snow is quite expensive, explained Maxine Tebbe, general manager of Optimist Hill.

“We are on city water, so we pay for all the water that gets made into snow,” said Tebbe. “We also use a product called Snomax, which allows us to make snow at a little bit warmer temperatures.”

Tebbe said they are looking at a price tag of around $30,000 to make artificial snow.

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The city also tends to help out Optimist Hill with snow as well, explained Tebbe.

“After that first major snowfall of the year when they’re cleaning out parking lots, a lot of that clean snow that doesn’t have dirt or salt in it yet gets trucked in,” said Tebbe. “Ice shavings from the arenas get hauled in here.”

The tools used to make the snow come from Blackstrap, and she said they present a few challenges due to their age.

“They’re very old and they’re not very energy efficient; we’re dealing with water pressure issues,” said Tebbe. “Because we are on city water, the water is very soft, very clean; it doesn’t have any minerals or chemicals in it.”

Because of the water being used, she said the snow being created for the hill is much softer than typical snow.

Staff at Optimist Hill have been working on covering the hill with snow for the last couple weeks.

Optimist Park producing its own snow do to a lack of snow during the winter. (Will Mandzuk/650CKOM)

“What we currently had on the hill was four days of making snow,” said Tebbe. “Then we had to stop for quite a few days because the temperatures got way too warm, and we resumed again last night making snow.”

Tebbe said she expects to continue to produce snow over the weekend up until Monday, when temperatures are expected to climb above freezing.

The terrain park isn’t expected to be open on time though, as creating jumps and ramps requires more snow than other parts of the hill.

Tebbe said she prefers to have two or three feet of snow at the start of the season, but right now there is only a thin skiff of snow on the ground.

Last year, Optimist Hill was able to open up on Nov. 26, but this year’s target date is next Friday.