Snow problem: Saskatoon cross-country ski club wants to fight melting trails with snow-making machine

While unseasonably warm temperatures are welcomed by most Saskatchewanians with open parkas, avid cross-country skiers are watching their trails melt away.

The Nordic Ski Club in Saskatoon thinks it has found a solution to the problem.

It wants to buy a snow machine to make snow.

"Snow making is fairly common in some places in the world for cross-country skiing," Nordic Ski Club member Ivan English told CBC Radio's Saskatoon Morning host Leisha Grebinski.

"In Saskatchewan, typically — at least in my memory — we had cooler temperatures before when I was young, and we wouldn't lose our snow quite so easily.

"But it seems these days we are losing snow quite a bit every year and are not getting a lot of snowfall."

The idea is to create a loop, from a kilometre to a kilometre-and-a-half long, near the new sports facility being built at the Gordie Howe Sports Complex.

The club has launched a fundraising campaign to support the complex, with one of the goals being to find a way to make snow when Mother Nature doesn't co-operate.

English said the Nordic Ski Club would need infrastructure such as water lines and electrical outlets along the trail.

Then the club would be able to use a snow gun — which would cost between $45,000 and $60,000 — along the trail and shape it with grooming equipment.

He said the process would take several days but hopefully the trail would last for most of the year.

They'd probably start in November, or when it gets cool enough, and put down a base from 12 to 15 centimetres deep along the trail. The loop would be located close enough to the complex to have lighting.

If fundraising is successful, English said the club could be able to make its own snow within a couple of years.

"Having the ability to make snow would actually make it a lot easier for us to maintain our programs at the club," English said.