The contrast between summer and winter was noticeable at Horseshoe Resort on Wednesday. The grass of the golf course was still green while a few steps away the snow was two metres deep.
Snowboarder Cole Cummins at the resort and can’t wait to start his 12th season.
“We grab snow from hockey arenas and do our own set-up things, find a hill somewhere and dump some snow on. It’s what we do for now until these guys get their snow up and going.”
But Cummins won’t have wait long now, the resort started up its snowmaking guns Tuesday night for the first time this season and the snow is piled high on one run already.
Horseshoe is almost always the first resort in our area to begin making snow and get open for the season because the slopes are away from the relatively warm waters of Georgian Bay and one or two degrees can make all the difference.
In Collingwood, the overnight low reached -3.7 degrees on Tuesday but Horseshoe’s Jonathan Reid says it was a full 4 degrees colder at Horseshoe and the resort is now starting to take advantage of every opportunity to make snow.
“Last night we saw that we could get a 10 hour window of snowmaking in and it looks like it's going to go down again from 12 to 24 hours Saturday night and into early next week, so it gives us an opportunity to get some good consistent snow down. “
Reid isn't making any promises about when opening day might be but this snow is getting Vanessa Allen's attention. Allen says she just started snowboarding last year and is keen to keep learning.
“I always try to visualize myself making it down the hill without falling... yet to happen, but I definitely visualize myself making it down a decent hill this year and maybe get into some park stuff.”
The earliest Horseshoe Resort has ever opened was November 14th back in 1995.
