The 100 Mile Nordics and Mount Timothy are getting back to shredding the powder following last week’s polar vortex.
While the unusually cold weather brought plenty of snow to the South Cariboo, the low temperatures kept most of the community indoors. In response, the Nordics reduced their lodge hours while Mount Timothy outright closed for several days. But with the weather warming to more reasonable temperatures this week, both have resumed normal operations.
“Unfortunately we had to close from Dec. 25 to Dec. 31, it was just a little too chilly to operate with the cold snap,” Launna Bell, Mount Timothy’s general manager said. “We opened New Year’s Eve and we’ve got a lot of die-hards out here. It’s champagne powder up here.”
With the holidays over, Bell said the resort will be switching to its regular hours of 9:00 a.m. to 3:15 p.m. Thursdays to Sundays as of today (Jan. 6). She’s hopeful the public will come out to enjoy the 112 cm of snow the blankets their slopes, which has already attracted well over 100 die-hard skiers since reopening.
It’s a similar story out at the Nordics where lodge manager Kristi Iverson said they’ve been steadily busy with people coming up to enjoy all the snow. When the cold snap hit, they reduced their hours from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. to 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.
“Things are picking up again because -18C feels a lot better than -30C,” Iverson said. “We’re averaging maybe 30 to 40 people a day.”
Iverson said that, throughout the season, if daytime temperatures stay below -20C, they’ll switch to the reduced hours. At the lodge she said they have both skis and snowshoes available for rent and the lights on their tracks stay on until 10 p.m.
Overall the Nordics are keeping things quiet this season next to being set to host the Northern Cup Teck Race on Jan. 22. Iverson said they expect up to 100 skiers and are looking forward to putting it on, if Covid-19 regulation allows.
While Mount Timothy still plans to end its season by the end of Spring Break, Bell said they may add an extra week afterwards to make up for lost days. Such a decision will be made based on the weather and interest but she said they want to make it up to their season pass holders.
Bell said they also officially opened their tube hill on new Years Eve. For $25 she said families can ride a magic carpet up to the top of their hill and tube down for two hours and have “lots of fun.”
patrick.davies@100milefreepress.net
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