Quebec ski resorts gear up for winter

Quebec ski hills prepare for winter Ski resorts hope for a better season as they invest in snowmaking and equipment upgrades.

Ski season is just around the corner and ski hill operators say they're getting ready for it and hoping it's better than last year.

West of the island of Montreal, Ski Mont Rigaud is installing a second chair lift just in time for the colder temperatures and the first snow. Luc Elie says “It's a total of $2.4 million investments that we've put in.”

With fluctuations in winter temperatures becoming the norm, Elie says his snow guns have to lay-down a metre-deep base of man-made snow before the natural stuff starts to fall.

“Last year was a bad snow season. it was only a hundred centimetres. But the season before that, there was over 250 centimetres in this region, says Elie.

Meanwhile, Yves Juneau of The Quebec Association of Ski Stations says his members are doing everything to adapt and need help.

“Snowmaking is definitely one of the tools that we have to response to climate change and weather warming up,” says Juneau.

“We would also like to be able to get the support of Hydro-Quebec because starting in January we have to pay a winter penalty so, the fee to produce snow in January and that costs double at that time.”

He adds that the way to bring in more paying costumers is to inform them that conditions in the city aren't the same as in the hills.

“We need to educate the people better because when they see browned grass in their backyard, they don't realize that they're going to be able to ski, you know, around Montreal,” he added.

An effective way to entice clients to make the trip to an area ski hill is giving them a view of what to expect.

Webcams at ski resorts show actual ski conditions in real time, helping clients know before they go.

“They now have really sophisticated webcams so that we can see live images from each of the ski areas. And I think that's going to be a good tool to explain to people that there's actually some really good skiing out there,” says Juneau.

Elie adds, “We have one that's 360 degrees on top of our cell. So, you can look at the parking, how many cars there are in the parking. You can see the line up at the chairlift. You can see the snow conditions.”

Yet, Elie says customers still tend to buy their season passes later, hedging their bets before they set their edges.