Spring puts an official end to what was a unique year for Sask. ski hills

Now that the snow has disappeared, the operators of ski and snowboard hills in Saskatchewan can reflect on a very unique year.

Saskatoon’s Optimist Hill was the first place with snow this year — because its operators made it themselves.

“Once it actually snowed in January, it was great overall,” said Maxine Tebbe, the facility’s general manager.

In a part of the world where the winters are long and cold, people look forward to spring so they can enjoy the outdoors. But Optimist Hill gave many residents the opportunity to enjoy the winter weather.

Despite the delayed start to the season, business was good the entire way.

“The overall year was actually pretty good,” said Tebbe.

The hill closed March 24 after a Slush Cup event and Tebbe said that was right on schedule.

“This was actually very normal for us to be ending,” said Tebbe. “Last year, we were open a little bit later; we closed Easter weekend.”

The warmer weather near the end of the season was actually a benefit for the hill.

“I think we were closed for five days in March in total,” said Tebbe. “Only being closed for a total of five days in March was monumental.”

The hill was only closed for seven days the month before, too.

“This was the first February break that we were actually open for the entire break,” said Tebbe.

A major snowfall in March helped Optimist Hill extend its season well into that month.

“We had been losing some snow at that time and we probably wouldn’t have been able to stay open,” said Tebbe.

The hill did have a weekend event that saw the final day get cancelled.

Table Mountain west of the Battlefords also had to close that weekend due to the snow.

“It closed us down for the Sunday,” said Lawrence Blouin, Table Mountain’s general manager. “We lost one day out of it.”

The snow made people think of snowboarding and skiing, so Blouin believes it helped the facility attract more customers in the long run.

The overall year for Table Mountain was a success despite the late start.

“We didn’t get open until the middle of January and we shut down a week earlier than we normally would,” said Blouin. “The attendance I thought was really good for the season, so actually the season ended up not too bad at all.”

Table Mountain’s last day was also March 24.

Blouin says the weather had a major impact on the facility this year.

“In all the years that I’ve been here, this is the first year where we were not open for Christmas,” he said.