High winds blow away snow needed for Marble Mountain to open
Hill appears snow-covered but there are bare sections that could be dangerous for skiers
Staff at Marble Mountain in Steady Brook say the slopes need a little bit more snow before the hill can open to the public.
"Unfortunately on the bottom and the top we're looking at four to six inches," said Tony Abbott, Marble Mountain's chief operating officer.
"In the centre we have a lot of snow. There's no doubt about it, two to three feet, but that's not much good. The problem is we need it on the top and we need it on the bottom."
Wanted: more snow
Abbott is certain the hill will open after one more large snowfall.
"We need 12 or 14 inches of snow straight down, and that would get us open," he said.
Abbott has been driving around the hill in a groomer for a week now, checking certain spots where trees and shrubs are popping out of the snow.
He blames the 100 km/h-plus winds earlier this week for clearing out the snow-covered slopes.
"It never let up," he said.
The popular ski hill announced plans to open on New Year's Day but the weather conditions are not ideal, he said.
Poor weather conditions
Abbott says staff could start to make snow, but the temperature isn't cold enough and there's too much humidity.
"The dryer the air, the faster water will develop into snow. Basically, snow-making is blowing water up in the air in very small crystals and the longer it holds in the air and the colder it is, it forms into snow," he said.
"If we tried to make snow here today we would make a mess. It would just be a lot of water over the hill and wouldn't do much good."
Abbott says Marble Mountain doesn't have a lot of snow-making gear compared with other ski hills in Canada.
There are only 20 snow guns on the hill, and it takes 12 hours to turn on the snow-making system.