It's shaping up to be a whale of a new ski season at Mount Joy Snow Resort which is hoping for a Jan. 4 opening in the new year.
Whales are piles of manmade snow with humps of the white stuff ready to spread on the slopes throughout the season when needed.
"We've got lots of snow piled up there. We've had a really successful start to the snowmaking," said resort president Dean Peters.
"We'll see what the temperature does here in the next little while. We'll get another good snowmaking session when the temperature drops.
"We're leaving some whales out there."
Crews discovered some whales made last year using a Snowmax additive lasted into May.
The reservoir is currently refilling for another snowmaking session when the temperature drops.
In the meantime, crews have been packing down natural snow for a good base.
"We're happy with how everything's going," said Peters.
The start of the 2024/25 season will be the 59th for the resort that is lucky to dodge a bullet.
The T-bar rope recently passed a special non-destructive test, delaying the need to replace it right away as initially feared.
A new inspection method showed damaged parts of the rope were significantly less than the previous test earlier this year.
"Replacing it would have been almost catastrophic," said Peters. He estimates a new rope wouldn't arrive until the end of February at the earliest.
"Thankfully, we don't have to worry about that anymore," he said.
Certifying officials will check all the lifts over on Dec. 16 to ensure another year of safe operations.
Ski passes are one sale now with no increase from last year when the resort only opened one weekend due to an unseasonably warm winter in Western Canada.
"We were charging $5 for lift tickets and $5 for rentals," recalled Peters. "It was kind of like avoiding turning the lights off altogether."
The hunt is on again for new volunteers who can sign up for various duties on the resort website.
Mount Joy has also hired a part-time employee thanks to a $150,000 grant of $50,000 a year over three years awarded by Strathcona Resources earlier this year.
"It's good to have an employee out there that we can assign tasks," said Peters.
"He will make snow when it's the best time. He's doing a lot of maintenance on the facility and the lifts."
Peters says he's also cleaning up a lot of details for the lift inspection.
"So there's a few items that need to be checked and verified," he said.
"We're ready for another great year."
Read more: Mount Joy perfect for land-based teachings
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