The past year at Misty Ridge Ski Hill was down and up and then down again.
And not just from the skiers and snowboarders going up and down the ski slopes.
Kerry McElroy, Misty Ridge board chair, said the 2015/16 season was a challenging one for the board and staff for one main reason - weather.
“It just didn’t cooperate,” he said, adding while most area residents may have enjoyed the warmer than normal winter it wasn’t so great if you are running a ski hill.
“We had the worst conditions we have seen in years.”
McElroy said the season got off to a decent start with the hill’s opening being delayed by two weeks, opening to good crowds just before Christmas.
In January and February the hill did not receive a lot of new snow and staff were limited in what they could do because of the warm weather. Although Misty Ridge does have snowmaking equipment, in order to take advantage of it, the temperature has to be at least -8 Celsius, something that didn’t occur often.
“In February we even had a few days where it rained, which created some icy snow conditions,” McElroy said, adding despite the weather staff managed to keep the hill open more often than not. “Most holidays we had really good attendance, but it was our regular weekends where our attendance took a dip and having to cancel some of the school trips. We were open, but people knew the conditions weren’t ideal so they just decided not to come out.”
Despite all the challenges there were a lot of positives.
For the last two years, Misty Ridge has been actively working on improving their cross-country and snowshoeing trails it is effort that seems to be paying off.
“We had a really big increase in the number of cross-country skiers who came out to take advantage of our miles and miles of groomed trails,” McElroy said.
Another positive was the hill’s chalet. In the off-season a lot of work was done on the chalet, upgrading the kitchen and outside siding of the building.
“It looks great and we received a lot of positive comments from the people who came out last year,” he said.
As for plans for next year, they are looking into the possibility of adding shelters along the cross-country trails so skiers can get out of the elements for a few moments and continue adding to the terrain park.
“We find a lot of our younger patrons like the challenges of the jumps and things and with the addition of a few more obstacles, we are hoping to put on a few competitions over the next season,” McElroy said.
But as with most things on a ski hill, this is dependent on having the right weather.
“That’s why the most important thing we are putting on our to-do list is to make sure we have a lot of snow next season,” he joked, adding Morris Detert, ski hill manager, and his assistant Neil Osland did a great job of managing the ski hill last year under challenging conditions. “But I am sure they would be able to do even more if they had more snow to work with.”
Misty Ridge Ski Hill is a not-for-profit ski hill located 30 kilometres north of Barrhead, in the County of Barrhead, adjacent to the Athabasca River.
The ski hill opened in 1972 in an effort to provide a low cost outdoor recreational facility for skiers.
Barrhead County purchased the original 10 acres from Walter and Helen Neuman and the ski slopes were leased back to Jack and Jeanne Bozak.
The Bozaks made an agreement with the county to take over the lease during the the ski season, reverting back into grazing lands in the summer. In September, the board will be hosting a work party to prepare the hill for the upcoming season, and in October they hold their AGM.
