Snow machines 'a total game-changer' for Winnipeg cross country ski centre, manager says

A cross country ski centre is starting the winter season by experimenting with a snow machine to make ski trails after last year's poor weather made it difficult to continue operations. 

This year more than a dozen volunteers at the Windsor Park Nordic Centre have stepped up to create a preliminary 2.5 kilometre loop to push back against unpredictable weather conditions and ensure skiers will be able to suit up by early December. 

"The fact that we can manufacture snow is a total game-changer," ski centre manager Laurie Penton said Sunday while working on the trails. 

"The skiers wait all winter … like last year was very demoralizing to not really have much of a ski season after all the work and planning and training for the competitive season," he said. 

The centre started experimenting with snow machines in March to sustain its melting ski trails after an abnormally warm winter put an end to many activities like skiing, snowboarding, tobogganing and skating. 

Laurie said this is the first year volunteers plan to use the machines for the entire cross country ski season to keep the trail, which is approximately 10 kilometres long, open to the public — something he's dreamed of doing for about 15 years. 

"Well of course natural snow is always welcome … [but] we're suddenly in a position where we don't have to depend on it, slowly, and so if we do not get natural snow, we don't see that as a problem," he said. 

"So that in itself is a huge relief."

Volunteers have been monitoring the forecast for the perfect snowmaking conditions, which includes a mix of colder temperatures and humidity to create artificial snow, Laurie said. So far the group has spent three days preparing the base layer of a one-kilometre trail that should be ready within the next couple of weeks. 

Frosty experiments

The Windsor Park Nordic Centre is among a number of recreational facilities, organizations and resorts experimenting with snow machines this winter. 

Festival du Voyageur used snow machines and other materials like hay for the first time during its 10-day event in February to make sculptures and a wintry ambiance in Whittier Park. 

But this year the festival's head director Breanne Lavallee-Heckert is hoping the event won't need snow machines to make artificial snow. 

"Not many people have an expertise in this snow machine, especially in Winnipeg where we didn't think that we would have to use one," she said, adding that the festival is partnering with Anvil Tree to experiment with snow machines and test out new snow structures designs. 

"I think this last year we had seen the impact of what happens when we don't have snow in Winnipeg and I think Winnipeggers and Manitobans are really looking forward to a winter that actually feels like winter," Lavallee-Heckert said. 

As Manitoba continues to see the impacts of climate change, she said the festival has a responsibility to talk about winter and why it's important to protect the climate for future generations, in addition to using recycled materials for snow sculptures like hay, dogwood, willow and pine. 

The lack of snow in February paired with warmer temperatures that began thawing the ground made the site very muddy, she said. 

Volunteer crews at Asessippi Ski Resort have also been using snow machines to create a base layer of snow to kick off the season. 

"We want to have a base of about 100 centimetres, so we have to make our own snow," Shannon Johnston, assistant manager of the ski resort, said prior to a snow storm headed for the area on Wednesday. 

"We gotta be prepared for any weather, so if there's no snowfall, we gotta do it on our own so we can actually open in the winter."

During an interview on CBC's Radio Noon show with host Cory Funk, Johnston said Manitoba's largest ski hill has tentative plans to open for Dec. 13 and last until the beginning of April. 

"We always say tentative because you never know what mother nature is going to bring, and what the weather is going to bring, but we have a really good two-week window here of some cold temperatures and if this snow keeps falling, we are always prepared to open early if we can," she said.