More snow on wish list for hills in South Okanagan
Both of the South Okanagan’s ski resorts are open for business this weekend, though they would admittedly like some more snow. Mount Baldy, just outside Oliver, is heading into its second year after being bought out of receivership. This year, staff had a bit more time to get their ducks in a row, compared to the four months the team had to get the resort running last year.
“It’s exciting to see it all coming together the past few days,” said Andy Foster, general manager of the Baldy Mountain Resort.
Last year “was really quite a rushed process. Put it together, throw it together, make it happen and we did a wonderful job at doing that. So we really spent the summer looking at what worked and what didn’t work last year.”
With the luxury of a bit more time, realignments and adjustments to programs and customer experiences occurred over the spring and summer, as well as work on some new runs, exploring some gladed areas, which have not been open for some time.
“Up at Baldy, we’re blessed with these perfectly spaced gladed areas that are just amazing for powder, just to carve through, but some of them have over the years have been closed. Years prior to that, the company was struggling, so they’ve really allowed it to get overgrown,” Foster said.
The snow situations on both Baldy and Apex mountains are fairly similar. Most resorts, Foster said, were quite excited by the snowfall in early November, but some good and bad news came from the rain that followed.
“It takes the snow level down, but that moisture does create a really good, compact, solid base. So that’s great news. We ideally would have liked a bit more snow going into the opening weekend,” Foster said.
The Magic Carpet lift and Sugarlump runs will be open at Baldy, with a bit more snow needed for the Eagle Chair to open up.
“That’s a lot rockier, kind of stone-based terrain, so we need a bit more snow on that mountain to really fill in the gaps, fill in the holes and cover up the boulders,” Foster said.
“It is completely based on Mother Nature. We would hope by next weekend we have the snowfall to be able to do that, but we’re waiting on the skies to give us what we need.”
Returning this year from Friday to Sunday is the First Chair Festival with free snowshoeing, guided tours, a fun slalom course on the magic carpet, a disc golf competition and a morning yoga group, as well as representation from Hoodoo Adventures and Pentagon Board Shop.
Meanwhile, it was a blue-sky day for the opening of Apex Mountain Resort west of Penticton on Wednesday, for its first year under new ownership, after its purchase by Apex Mountain Resorts Partnership Ltd., earlier this year.
About 300 freestyle athletes, 100 alpine athletes and the public took to the slopes Wednesday, with the triple chair, T-bar and magic carpet lifts open, bringing the total to 15 runs.
“Lots of happy, smiling faces up here,” said James Shalman, general manager of Apex.
Apex is sitting at a 74-centimetre alpine base, a little better than average, Shalman said. The snow base got a bit enhanced by the recent rainy weather.
“Sometimes, without getting technical, you have 70 cm that skis like 25 cm. This is 70 cm that is skiing like 100 cm. It’s a very solid base. Now we just need some more fresh on top,” Shalman said.
A few new runs, as of yet unnamed, are ready to make their debut this year, and the village area has some new features as well, including a new wine and tapas bar, a new artisan gift shop, a new Japanese noodle house called Kamakura, and the Frosted Snowflake bakery and cafe.
Looking ahead, the upcoming high-pressure ridge means cool and sunny weather for about a week.
“In fact, it’s actually more like spring skiing up here — it’s gorgeous,” Shalman said.
The full mountain should be open sometime prior to the holiday season, and the staff is looking forward to a good season.
“The feeling is really good,” Shalman said.
“Good, positive vibe, everyone is excited and happy.”