“When you come out in November and see this huge cloud fill the valley from Lebret to Pasqua Lake, that’s us,” said Anders Svenson.
Svenson – who is the business manager of Mission Ridge Winter Park – has been involved with the establishment since 1999 and has been present to witness a majority of the park’s history.
First established in 1972 by John Smith and Co., the business has been family-owned ever since, now under the care of Mike, Angie and Lauren Smith along with Svenson.
“We bring around fifty thousand visitors to the valley every year … so we hear from businesses that it’s a huge economic driving force,” said Svenson
This year marks the 53rd year of operation for the park, and the team at Mission Ridge is still aiming to operate at the highest of standards.
Svenson said, “The level of instruction, level of snow quality, is at par with anything you’re going to experience out west.”
Employing approximately 145 people every winter, the park enjoys the luxury of being thorough with every operation it carries out.
“Those temperature fluctuations, midwinter, don’t affect us. We’ve got state-of-the-art grooming equipment, and we put so much manmade snow on the hill,” said Svenson.
When asked about the weather, Svenson added how the inconsistent and unpredictable climate affects the business.
Mission Ridge possesses 22 snow sticks and five fan guns, with the help of which they convert roughly ten million gallons of water into snow within two weeks.
“I’m glad southeast Saskatchewan has some hills to snowboard on,” said Jamie Hill, an avid snowboarder who has been visiting the park regularly for the past few years.
Hill added he’s compared his experiences with those from other snow parks he has visited.
“There are much steeper hills and better runs, but Mission Ridge is definitely more affordable for the equipment and services it has to offer.”
Mission Ridge has been making serious progress in their infrastructure over the past off seasons; they have added new staff accommodations, redone the entire electrical infrastructure and used this time for maintenance. “There is a lot of equipment out here, a lot of moving parts which have to be looked after. So, it’s a full-time job all summer.”
Mission Ridge continues to make skiing and snowboarding their number one attraction with the addition of tubing and snow school lessons being offered to the public as well.
Although there have been attempts at holding dirtbike tournaments and other events during the off-season, when snow is nowhere to be found.
“It’s been tried and failed so often in the prairies. We just don’t have the population base to make it worthwhile, same with Manitoba,” said Svenson.
Svenson added that the park is still hiring and looking for people to add to their team.
“We are not afraid to train people, in fact, it’s nice to see new faces every year and have a different flavour in the team every year. But it is definitely a challenge,” said Svenson.
With a majority of their staff being university and high-school students, the Winter Park struggles with staffing as most of it is on a seasonal basis.
“A good portion of our staff returns every year. Fort Knox helps us out with some staffing and whatnot, too,” said Svenson.
With climate change continuing to make weather forecasts more and more variable, a key element in the success of businesses like these, Mission Ridge has taken the necessary steps to future-proof themselves.
“The goal is to make sure that what we have is maintained, to continue investment in technology that will keep us weatherproof whilst increasing the [park] capacity,” said Svenson
