SEASONAL SUFFERING
Lack of snow has ripple effect on winter tourism and snowmobile clubs
Snowless winter causing problems for Baddeck businesses.
Sheldon Garland has never seen a winter this bad for business.
Garland, the president of the Crowdis Mountain Snowmobile Club and owner of Highland View Snowmobile Rentals in Baddeck, hasn’t been able to open his business this year because of a lack of snow.
“I’ve been in the snowmobile business since 1991 and I’ve never seen a winter like this — it’s disappointing,” said Garland, in a phone interview on Tuesday.
“What happens with these winters, is it really affects the dealers — I’ve seen it first-hand myself — they may have sold their product this year, but now this is going to have a ripple effect for years down the road because people bought new machines and never got to use them.”
Although some snow recently fell in the Baddeck area, Garland said the problem now is the snow does not last very long, which doesn’t give snowmobilers the opportunity to enjoy it.
“These types of conditions the snowmobilers are driving on now we usually see in late April, early May,” said Garland. “The sun is so strong … the snowstorms have kinda gone all around (the trails) and by midday it’s pretty well gone.”
Garland’s business isn’t the only one facing a disappointing season.
Darren Baker is the owner of Baddeck Forks Golf Course and Restaurant. Since 2011, he has been opening the restaurant for snowmobilers, snowshoers and cross-country skiers during the winter months — he wasn’t able to open this year.
“We would open in midJanuary when the snow got to a level that was sufficient for snowmobiling and we would stay open until late March, early April, just on the weekends,” said Baker, noting this was the first winter the restaurant hasn’t opened.
“We’re so disappointed because we always try to plan for the second week in January (to open) because usually there is sufficient snow cover to be open — this year every week we’d get snow then rain and snow and rain.”
In previous years, Baker’s business would serve between 150-200 customers a weekend during the season.
He said one of the biggest disappointments this year was the cancellation of the Ride for Dad, a fundraiser in support of prostate cancer, which draws about 200 snowmobilers to the Baddeck area every March.
“There are a lot of places, not only myself, that rely on winter tourism,” said Baker.
“We’re trying to build a base for winter tourism … but without snow it’s very tough.”
Mike Eddy, general manager of the Snowmobile Association of Nova Scotia, has never seen a year where there hasn’t been snow in the Cape Breton Highlands until this year.
“It’s been a bad year,” said Eddy. “I talked with some people in their 60s and they don’t recall the highlands being bare through the winter.”
The first snowmobile was sold in the province in 1965. Today, the Snowmobile Association of Nova Scotia has 21 clubs and about 1,200 members.
Despite the lack of snow across the province, it hasn’t stopped clubs from being active, said Eddy.
“I know one club that I live close to (near Truro) they spent $19,000 and over 500 hours of volunteer time to completely rebuild their groomer and although it’s out now grooming, they had the opportunity with the time and not having to spend money on fuel,” he said.
“There are a number of places where bridges were built, a lot of trail work has been done and better signage installed, so clubs have kept busy.”
Eddy said the real winner this year has been the province of New Brunswick, which has seen ideal snowmobiling conditions.
“You can’t even get reservations in New Brunswick for any weekends and March break forget about it because of the number of snowmobilers,” he said. “To be a snowmobiler in Nova Scotia you have to expect we have some funny winters — we’re use to periods of lack of snow, but this year has been one of a kind and we don’t want to see it again.”
As for Garland, his snowmobile club has between 60-70 members and membership has increased this year.
Although snow was expected in Cape Breton Tuesday night, Garland wasn’t expecting the snowfall to save the season.
“You will get the diehard guys go out, but this time of year it’s hard to get the groomers out because there is no base, a lot of the brooks are open, and nothing is frozen,” said Garland.
“If we get a bunch of snow we will put the groomers out and you will see people out, but the snow we get now, it doesn’t last.
“Right now, you should be able to only see the top of stop signs and road signs (in the highlands) because there should be four or five feet of snow up there — there’s probably only six or seven inches there right now.”
For more information about the Crowdis Mountain Snowmobile Club, visit its Facebook page by searching the club’s name.