ski hill

Downtown ski slope postponed over bonkers February heat wave

Today in Toronto, the scary-warm temperature has already broken another record thanks to, amongst other things, a very real climate emergency. It’s also a few days before a date upon which the Ontario Snow Resorts Association & Canadian Ski Council were hoping to build a ski slope downtown to get local residents dreaming of mountains and winter wonderlands.

Not going to happen. The event has been moved to the end of the month, closer to spring, when apparently it might be colder.

The Go Skiing Go Snowboarding activation will set up a full-sized snowy slope in Nathan Phillips Square on Feb. 28 and 29. It’s an opportunity for people of all ages who have never skied or snowboarded to experience their first time on snow.

First-time participants will receive access to this introductory experience with gear provided by OSRA resorts and partners.

And Ontario ski resorts surely need some new customers amidst what is likely one of the worst seasons in a long while with unseasonably warm temperatures for long stretches.

“This is probably the worst winter I’ve seen in about 35 years in this business. We’ve had slow starts before but as far as I can recall this is the slowest one that I’ve ever seen,” Batawa Ski Hill general manager Brian Diedenhofen told Global News. 

Up in Blue Mountain, where the vast majority of Torontonians ski, the temperature is expected to hit 12-degrees today but somehow the resort is expecting to have 89 per cent of its terrain open. An impressive feat.

Article exclusive to POST CITY