Edmonton ski hills ramping up to open for the season

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The ski hills in Edmonton are getting ready for the upcoming season but what they need right now is some cooler temperatures.

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“The hill right now is kind of a combination of brown and white,” Rabbit Hill general manager Derek Look said on Saturday, when the high hit 8 C.

Making snow requires it to be a little cooler in the city and it’s a similar situation over at Edmonton’s Snow Valley, with daytime highs over the past week of 9 C and 10 C and lows of -2 C and -5 C.

“We’ve begun to make snow but we’re pausing obviously because of the nice weather…we have a tonne of snow made but we don’t have enough to open yet,” said Tim Dae, Snow Valley marketing and communications manager.

Looking at the upcoming week’s forecast, the temperatures poised to be going down with highs only in the single digits.

“We need this plus 11 stuff to get out of here, minus 11 or even minus 20 would be ideal right now,” adds Look.

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Staff at both hills are excited for the upcoming season with less COVID-19 restrictions and both participating in the provincial restriction exemption program.

Last year due to capacity limits, Snow Valley day tickets were scarce or in some cases, not offered at all when all the hill’s programs had filled up.

But things are looking different for this year.

“We’re seeing schools book again which is nice…everyone here is feeling the same way the gut feeling is this is going to be a good season” said Dae.

This year at Snow Valley they are having a Welcome to Winter event on the first weekend of December and bringing back the Servus Food Bank Fridays.

New to Rabbit Hill this year is a tube park, expecting to open sometime in December with tube rides bookable online.

Look added that ski staff are just glad that people will be able to come by get a lift ticket and go riding when they want, and not be limited to online booking only like they were last year.

To see what protocols are in place for each ski hill you can go to www.rabbithill.com and www.snowvalley.ca and read up on any restrictions or recommendations before hitting the slopes.

Both hills are hoping they will be open around the third week of November.

nmartin@postmedia.com