By Taylor Chartrand

Weather having slight impact on Hidden Valley Ski-Resort

Dec 19, 2018 | 3:17 PM

Elkwater, AB – We’re less than a week away from Christmas and there isn’t a ton of snow on the ground. 

So, how is that impacting the Hidden Valley Ski-Resort in Elkwater? 

“We had a great opening weekend with tons of people out here,” said Hidden Valley employee Jayne Vierling. ” We have three runs going in addition to our beginner flats. We’ve got Main, Cowboy Up and the bottom half of Side-Winder open.”

Vierling added the terrain park is also open with some rails and boxes there for anyone to try.

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After 3 seasons working at the Ski-Resort, Vierling said she has seen a little bit of everything weather-wise.

“We’ve certainly dealt with this in the past. Two years ago it was warm like this, last year it was quite the opposite. Even with these warmer conditions, we will be open no matter what. We will make as much snow as we need to have at-least half of the hills open.”

Head of Visitor Services Mike Ractliffe said although there hasn’t been a ton of natural snow, conditions out in Cypress Hills have been just right to create snow and crews have been working diligently each day.

“Thanks to the elevations, we’ve had a few weeks where we’ve had consistently cold temperatures where we can actually make the snow” explained Ractliffe.  “Right now, we’re sitting at about 6 million gallons of water out on the hill. As far as snow making goes, we’re about halfway there.”

Ractliffe said to cover the total skiing-area of the resort, it takes between 12 and 14 million gallons of water. That is requires roughly 600-800 hours of work.

“The colder the better. Often when temperatures are about -10 or -20, we can make quite a lot of snow. As long as the humidity is right, anything below -3 is good for making snow.” 

He added conditions for the next week are perfect for snow-making, which should give them time to complete the park.

Ractliffe said they hope to have the remaining runs opened in the coming days.

“Now we’re just waiting to complete McGee and Hidden Valley and the rest of Side-Winder. Side-Winder requires a lot of manufactured snow because that’s where we build a lot of our terrain features and that’s typically the last place that gets snow on it”

Believe it or not, the man-made snow actually handles the warmer temperatures better than the natural stuff.

“Man-made snow forms slightly differently than natural snow and is more dense. So, when it comes down to actually keeping snow on the base, it doesn’t actually shrink when the warm weather comes and it doesn’t evaporate as easily.”

The park itself is currently closed as they prepare more snow and gear up for their busiest time of the season. They will re-open Friday, be closed on Christmas Day and then remain open afterwards through January 6th.

To check the snow-conditions on the hill, Hidden Valley has a live webcam which can be found here.