Cross country skiers and snowshoers rejoice – the Stake Lake ski trails will open for the season this Saturday, Nov. 26.
Overlander Ski Club President, Jen Stewart, says this season’s opening comes about two weeks earlier than normal, owing to the snow that fell earlier this month.
“We just kind of had to get the team rolling a little bit earlier than we expected to, but I think it is a really good problem to have and we were ready to go when the snow fell,” she said. “We’re also busy getting our staff trained and ready to go.”
“We had close to two feet in some areas. Usually, we aren’t able to take our snow cat out with the first snowfall. We usually have a team that runs smaller machines but we got so much snow we’re able to take the groomer out and start grooming the network right away.”
Stewart tells NL News they’re raring to go ahead of what will be the first “normal” season since before the COVID pandemic. The club she says has about 1,272 members signed up.
“That is on par with with we saw in 2020 [when cross country skiing soared in popularity]. It is down a little from last year, but I don’t think that is unexpected given that we’re exiting out of COVID and people who had been skiing are maybe starting to travel or do some other activities.
“2020 was a big year for the club and we saw significant growth from 2019 and so I think as of right now we’re pretty happy with the membership that we’re seeing.”
Stewart also notes the Overlander Ski Club decided to keep the prices of memberships and day passes the same as in years past. An adult or senior membership will cost you $175 for the season, with kids 9 to 18 and TRU students 19 and older paying $82.
“We know that gas is costing a lot more for folks,” she said. “Everything is a little bit more expensive but we really wanted to make sure that skiing would continue to be affordable for families.”