Winter tourism worries in northern Ontario

A warm December is having a significant impact on some northern Ontario tourism operators.

"When you're a ski, cross-country ski and snowshoe lodge, snow is very important, it’s crucial," said Susan Byker, the owner of Stokely Creek Lodge in Goulais River, with a laugh.

There is very little snow on the grounds of Stokely Creek Lodge in Goulais River in late December 2023. (Cory Nordstrom/CTV News Northern Ontario)With little snow on the ground, the lodge, which is known for its snowshoeing and cross-country skiing trails, is having to arrange for alternate activities for its upcoming guests, said Byker.

"We're going to hike to Stokely Lake cabin for a lunch, we're going to have bonfires on the trail for S’mores,” she said.

“We have a paint night scheduled, we have... a night yoga on the trails."

Byker told CTV News that some guests have even pushed back their bookings and it is frustrating for the business.

"There was 17 inches of snow a couple of weeks ago and it got rained away and that is disappointing," she said.

Another northern business that has been unable to work around Mother Nature is Forest the Canoe – a company that hosts snowshoe tours and ice cave guiding throughout Algoma in the winter.

The company’s co-owner Ryan Walker said they have "had to cancel multiple 'Snowshoe with Santa' tours throughout the month of December and the verdict is still out for other events in the new year."

For some in the industry, it is a different story – like Searchmont Resort.

Searchmont’s operations manager Kim Burkhardt told CTV News that the resort has 3 lifts and 14 runs open, saying it is a benefit of colder temperatures there in additional to some equipment that has become a necessity with milder weather.

Searchmont Resort has 3 lifts and 14 runs open as of Dec. 22/23. (Supplied/Searchmont Resort)"One of the things that we do have going in our favour is that because we're a little bit more north than other resorts we do get some good night-time lows, which helps us to keep our snowmaking going,” said Burkhard.

“We're very fortunate we've have a lot of snowmaking guns on the hill, over 220 of them. So we have a lot of ground that we can cover with those guns."

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Meteorologists are predicting that spring will arrive early this coming year – however, most of these tourism operators said they hope that prediction is wrong.

Each business is crossing its fingers that a return to the snowy, cold winter is seen soon as in years past.