Photo courtesy of Chris Bogue.
Mount Joy Snow Resort is revelling in a fresh dump of off-season news.
The headline item is the rollout of summer operations on its network of trails for mountain bikers and hikers.
Users can now purchase a single-day ticket, a 15-day pass or a Renegade pass for the full season from Grindin’ Gears Bikes ‘N Boards in Lloydminster.
“We’re doing a soft launch. We’re not blowing doors off of it,” said resort president Chris Bogue.
“A lot of work went into the land usage agreement, insurance, how it’s all going to work and who’s going to do it.”
Amendments to the land use agreement also move the resort’s boundary lines to create more rideable and skiable terrain.
Mount Joy now has 205 acres of recreational terrain across four seasons.
The new summer operations are part of an existing five-year plan to create a four-season experience to generate much-needed revenue.
“If people want to come out and hike or run or bike, they have to get tickets. It helps fund the hill and will help to cover our costs. We have to,” said Bogue.
“Our insurance went from $7-8000 a year to $33,000 a year and now actually a little bit higher again for summer operations.”
Bogue says the summer season will go from late spring when the trails are dry and safe to about Nov. 15, weather permitting.
The opening date will be announced at the end of each ski season.
Bogue says the new summer operations are gaining the right amount of traction with mountain bikers.
“One of the main loops is about 7 kilometres. It offers very challenging elevations, so within that 7 kilometres, there are about 300 metres of elevation gain and loss,” said Bogue.
He says mountain bikers in the Lloydminster area have built the trail system over 20 years, improving it, cutting new trails and really getting it to where they are today.
Bogue says they have been given a solution by the Alberta Elevating Devices and Amusement Rides Safety Association (AEDARSA) that inspects lifts, to use the T-bar to take users to the top for downhill bike events or races.
“But that’s kind of in the future,” said Bogue.
The plan this summer is to make spot patrols to ensure users have a valid pass on their person or in their vehicle in the parking lot.
The resort is also ready for its AEDARSA rope inspection following one of its most successful seasons on the slope in years.
“It opened 30 days; we put a little more money into the coffers for upgrades for maintenance we need around the hill,” said Bogue.
Volunteers Sheldon Gallagher and his dad have recently installed nearly 2 kilometres of fence posts for permanent snow fencing.
The resort is adding about 1 km of barbed wire fence (cows) with the new summer operations agreement with the private land owners.
Crews have also installed a new tin roof over the snow groomer shop and a tech building will be added to the rental shop to utilize a new ski and snowboard base grinder.
A wraparound deck at the chalet is on the list of potential off-season improvements.
“We’ve formed a couple of committees to take on these projects,” said Bogue.
Volunteers are also welcome to show up every Thursday at 7 p.m. for a worker bee night.
“We have more organized work tasks now to be able to chip this list away,” said Bogue.
Looking ahead, ski and snowboard season passes for next season will go on sale starting Oct. 1 along with registration for ski and snowboard school.
The resort also plans to form a ski club that will run every weekend.
“I’d really like people to give Mount Joy a shot this year. We are one of the only places, if not the only place in the midwest, that there is open backcountry skiing and it’s a blast,” said Bogue.
