THUNDER BAY - While perhaps not as thrilling as racing down a snowy slope, two local ski hills are looking at other winter activities to get people out to enjoy the outdoors during the COVID-19 lockdown.
This weekend, Mount Baldy Ski Area and Loch Lomond Ski Area will be opening up cross-country ski and snowshoe trails and sledding areas.
“The feedback has been amazing. People are psyched,” said Daniel Kardas, co-owner of Mount Baldy Ski Area. “People know the position we are in and people want to come out and support us. The support in Thunder Bay has been mind blowing.”
Downhill ski hills have been forced to close under the provincial lockdown, which has left owners and operators frustrated, especially since other outdoor activities such as hockey rinks and cross-country ski trails can remain open.
“We continue to be left in an area of the unknown,” said Jason Gerry, co-owner of Loch Lomond Ski Area. “We don’t know when we can resume operations, if we can resume operations, how we will resume operations. That’s the difficult piece for us is dealing with the unknown.”
“It’s definitely a very hard pill to swallow these days,” Kardas added. “With this new order in effect, it’s a hard thing to handle right now.”
But both Gerry and Kardas are staying positive and still hoping to bring people out to enjoy the outdoors and get some exercise.
“We are pretty positive around Mt. Baldy. We have our heads up high,” Kardas said. “We are allowed to cross-country skiing, snowshoeing, and hiking. We have 300 acres out here you can enjoy. We are going to follow all the protocols.”
Gerry said he has been busy mapping out and grooming more than 20 kilometres of snowshoeing trails on the property that will be open this weekend. Both ski hills also plan to reopen their kitchens and bars for takeout service.
“We are going to start with this weekend and see what happens and see what the response is like and look at future weekends from here,” Gerry said. “If all goes well and is something worthwhile not only for us but for the people to come out to enjoy, we will look at expanding that.”
If the lockdown is lifted on Feb. 11, both Kardas and Gerry say the will be ready to go for people to enjoy the rest of the downhill season.
“We’ve been asking for a commitment from the province to let us know if this is something we are able to do come Feb. 11,” Gerry said.
“If we get that commitment, we will resume our snow making operations, we will resume preparation for the rest of the season. We are still talking about potentially six or eight weeks or possibly even more than that in the actual ski season.”
“I was ready last week. We thought we were opening up,” Kardas added.
“Everything is groomed and all the runs are ready to rock and roll. But now we are thinking out of the box. We hammered out a bunch of trails around the mountain and there are some gorgeous views of Thunder Bay and the Sleeping Giant.”
And just getting people back out to the hills, even if they won’t be flying down them, will be a welcome sight for Gerry and Kardas, because their businesses are built around people.
“That’s huge for us. We are in the ski business, which is the people business,” Gerry said. “We spend the whole year, nine months, building up for the three months of the people here. This for us is crushing. We run with about 120 staff in the winter season and right now we are at five.”
“Hopefully we can get some people out to enjoy the fresh air and get some exercise and follow the provincial mandates.”
