There's no business in snow business in Newfoundland this winter
Warm weather, rain and wind making for a rough season at province's ski resorts
This winter's mild weather, heavy rains and strong winds are wreaking havoc on the local skiing season in Newfoundland.
Both Marble Mountain, near Corner Brook, and White Hills, near Clarenville, have had significant trouble keeping snow on the slopes so far this season.
"I've never seen this, not in my career, and I've been here most of my life," said Tony Abbott, chief operating officer at Marble Mountain.
The province's two ski resorts were both closed Tuesday due to the effects of rain and wind, a frequent occurrence on both sides of the island so far this winter.
How much more damage can we take here?- Tony Abbott
Provincial Tourism Minister Chris Mitchelmore acknowledged the effects of the recent weather on Marble Mountain in a statement Tuesday, saying the situation was being monitored.
"These conditions, especially the washouts from January's rainfall and flooding, have been demanding on the Marble management team and staff, and I commend their hard work and effort to conduct necessary repairs and get the hill operational as conditions permit," Mitchelmore said.
Recurring rain, 'brutal' wind
White Hills closed last weekend after a stretch of rain and warm weather, but work being done to both make new snow and preserve what's still there could allow the hill to open this coming weekend, manager Chris Sheppard told CBC's Central Morning on Tuesday.
"Our goal there this morning is to get in there and push out that snow that's there, and re-cover the hill again," Sheppard said. "We're on track for this weekend coming up. In fact, we're open tomorrow. We have a couple of school groups coming in."
The remaining snow at White Hill is being preserved as best as possible, Sheppard said, by pushing it into large piles to prevent melting.
"It's no different than if you look at the snow is piled up by the plow," Sheppard said. "That snow is still left behind even though the rest of my lawn is green."
Things were less certain at Marble Mountain, where Abbott spoke to the Corner Brook Morning Show from the top of the hill.
"It was bad," Abbott said of the weather in the area the previous night. "I'd estimate at least 60 millimetres of rain last night, winds were roughly about 130 to 140 [km/h] here last night."
The wind brought down tree branches, Abbott said, and the combination of that with the heavy rain significantly reduced the hill's snow cover.
"Unfortunately we lost quite a bit of snow — manmade, of course. We never had natural snow this year," Abbott said.
The rain has been not only frequent, but some of the heaviest he's seen in his career, Abbott said. High winds and overall mild temperatures have worsened the problem.
"This is about our sixth round now with the rain so far this year," Abbott said. "The wind this year has been brutal, there's no doubt about it."
Alternate activities
Normally under these situations artificial snow reserves would be used to replace what was lost, but those reserves are largely gone at this point, Abbott said. From where he stood at the top of the mountain there was only about 10 centimetres of manmade snow on the ground, and no reserves.
The crew at Marble Mountain was working to open for Wednesday but things are uncertain for the rest of the week, with Thursday's forecast for the area calling for potential rain or snow. Abbott was hoping for the latter, to give the resort's snowmaking budget a break.
"We're going to keep our fingers crossed because we really need natural snow," Abbott said. "If the rain comes Thursday that's what I dread the most, because how much more damage can we take here?"
While preservation efforts have allowed the White Hills staff to hang on to some snow at that resort, Sheppard said business has taken a hit.
"I would say our attendance is probably down," Sheppard said. "Part of it is the warm weather and the fact that with the lack of snow that we've had, we don't have a lot of runs open. People are kind of waiting until there's more runs opened, and that just hasn't been happening."
Right now the plan is to work on creating snow when the window exists to do so, and preserving that snow when the weather allows for it, Sheppard said.
In the meantime, White Hills has planned activities that don't require snow-covered slopes, including a beer-and-poutine tasting and events during Clarenville's upcoming Wintertainment festival, which runs Feb. 8 to 17.
"There's more to do than just skiing and snowboarding," Sheppard said. "That's what we're trying to tell people."