THUNDER BAY — The cross-country skiing season in the Thunder Bay area had a late start and an early finish, thanks to mild temperatures and a lack of snow this winter.
Both the Lappe Ski Centre and the Kamview Nordic Centre are now closed, although Kamview officials are saying they'll groom the trails again if there happens to be a big dump of snow in the coming weeks.
At Lappe Ski Centre, owner Tuija Puiras believes this was the shortest ski season on record, even though there was skiing for a couple of weeks in November before trails were shut down again.
She said the conditions this year impacted attendance.
"We had the die-hards that always come out . . . The amount of kilometres skied was less because not all trails were even open for the whole year."
Puiras added that traffic from out of town was also noticeably reduced.
"I think we definitely lost on the day-pass skiers because it was not just something that people got excited about and came for a day. And we lost some visitors because we didn't have good conditions.
"I typically get, for instance, teams to train from the States during the Christmas season, or families travelling during Christmas, and we didn't have snow then."
Thunder Bay's two downhill ski areas remain open.
Loch Lomond is currently operating seven days a week, while Mount Baldy is open Thursday to Sunday this week.
Both ski areas plan to open every day during the March school break.
Skiers should check the respective websites for operating hours.
