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The mountains are alive with the sound of skiing.
Jasper’s ski hill, Marmot Basin, opened for the season on Thursday, Nov. 12 to blue skies and a high of about minus eight degrees celsius.
More than 1,000 skiers and snowboarders hit the slopes that day to enjoy the three lifts and seven runs open - a good turnout for a midweek opening day, said Brian Rode, vice president of Marmot Basin.
“It was a bluebird day and people were having a great time,” he said.
“Clearly people were really looking forward to getting outside and back on their skis after such a long off-season.”
Marmot Basin ended its winter season early last season due to the COVID-19 pandemic - closing on Mar. 17 rather than the end of April or beginning of May.
But the management team has spent the summer working on Marmot’s safe reopening for the season ahead.
Rode said they have been working closely with the Canada West Ski Areas Association, “learning and sharing information”, as well as watching how ski hills have operated in New Zealand and Australia over the summer.
He’s confident that if everyone does their part, the hill will stay safe this winter.
“Most people understand the need to be personally responsible for themselves and others, and to be kind to one another, and that’s certainly what we’ve been seeing here at Marmot,” Rode said.
The Jasper ski hill looks set for a busy winter, as Marmot has seen “quite brisk” sales of season passes and discount Escape cards.
“It looks like more and more people are going to stay in the province and are looking for something to do and what better is there to do than go out to the mountains?” Rode said.
More of the mountain is open already, too, as just two days after opening day, on Saturday, Nov. 14, Marmot opened some of the upper mountain terrain with the start of the operation of the Paradise Quad Chair.
