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Mother Nature has been no great friend to winter sports this year.
Yesterday, Antoine Mountain, a popular ski resort off Highway 656 outside of Mattawa, decided to make it official – it is closing for the season. “Our team has always taken great pride in the conditions that we’ve provided for our guests,” emphasized Sarina Goad, who takes care of Social Media and Marketing for the ski hill.
Now, those conditions can no longer be met. It’s too warm to keep making snow, and there’s a large puddle ever growing at the base of the beginner hill. With rain in Saturday’s forecast, staff decided to call it a season, for safety’s sake.
Usually, the season runs until the end of March. The season opened on December 27, after a special open house event on Saturday December 16.
See: Antoine Mountain hosts open house before ski season
“The snow base is just starting to thin out and the temperatures aren’t going to be right to groom,” Goad added. “We only open when we have exceptional conditions.”
The warmer weather this winter has “taken the whole ski industry by surprise,” and “these conditions have led to a disappointing season for everybody, snowmobilers, ice fishers, cross country skiers,” and all who enjoy getting out to enjoy traditional winter weather.
Despite the shorter season, everything went well this year when the slopes were open. There were a lot of Southern skiers visiting this year, and many season pass holders came out on the regular.
“So, this season did bring a lot of great, great things,” Goad said. “Maybe not as long as we wanted, but we had excellent conditions and people visited from afar.”
“Thank you to the community that joins us every winter,” she added. “I call them our winter family, and Antoine Mountain wouldn’t be where it’s at without its season pass holders and the ski racers and those people that make the long trip and stay in the hotels, and the musicians who provide the ambience and our kitchen staff that come and get it.”
Now, the crew will turn their thoughts to a spring and summer of preparing for the next season.
Hopefully Mother Nature will prove a better friend.
David Briggs is a Local Journalism Initiative reporter who works out of BayToday, a publication of Village Media. The Local Journalism Initiative is funded by the Government of Canada.
