Searchmont Resort prepares to open Saturday

If all goes well, Searchmont Resort aims to be open for daytime skiing and snowboarding on Saturday.

“We’ve been working to get the hill up and running, but Mother Nature has certainly done a great job helping us with that,” said Kim Burkhardt, Searchmont Resort’s interior operations manager.

The resort began spraying its own artificial snow once temperatures cooled enough, but said recent natural snowfall played a big role in the potential opening Saturday.

Night skiing and snowboarding will begin to be offered closer to the Christmas holidays, Burkhardt said.

The 12 additional suites renovated this year bring the resort’s total number to 30 suites. These suites can support up to 300 people in total and will be especially attractive to out-of-town skiers who want to stay close to the top, Burkhardt said.

“Who wouldn’t want to wake up on a hill and catch the first traces there?” He said: “The suites are beautiful and also include two new accessibility suites that will be available.”

The resort is also building its ski school, as well as increasing the number of camps it hosts on weekends, Christmas holidays and March break.

“It’s actually going to be a lot more camping than we’ve ever had before,” Burkhardt said.

This year, a new triple-triple season ticket is being offered for about half the price of a full season ticket. It allows skiers and snowboarders to access day and night skiing on Thursdays and Fridays, day-only skiing on Wednesdays, and night skiing on Saturdays.

Burkhardt said the hope with the triple-triple switch is to increase daytime users of the hill.

“This is a great way for students and even retirees or people who work from home to have the opportunity to come in during the day during the week,” he said.

Last year’s winter was warmer than normal, causing many ski resorts across the province to close their hills for a while. Burkhardt said Searchmont is one of the few resorts in Ontario that can stay open all winter long.

“Many resorts saw a decline of about 40 percent in skier visits. We remained stagnant. We didn’t increase, but we didn’t decrease, which was a win for us,” Burkhardt said.

“We have never had to close due to weather. We opened every day and every hour on our schedule, never closed, and stayed open until April 6.”

Burkhardt said with the cooler temperatures expected this year and the facility’s snowmaking capacity, there are high hopes for a successful season.

“It’s going to be a great year for everyone to ski and snowboard,” he said.

Early bird pricing for season passes and triple-triple passes will be available through November 30, and Burkhardt said some Black Friday discounts will be announced facility website briefly.