The Overlander Ski Club says it lost a full month of the cross-country ski season because of a lack of snow in December

Club President Chelsea Francis tell Radio NL they were only able to get their season going on Jan. 6, despite attempts to open up ahead of New Year’s Eve.

“Our start was about a month later than it typically would be but now that we’re open and we got that last dump of snow, you wouldn’t know at this point,” Francis said on NL Mornings.

“The trails are in a really great shape.”

But Francis notes the delayed start to the season cost the club financially, as they are down about 200 members when compared to last year, when the season got underway in late November.

“Our membership early bird deadline was in November so we do get a lot of people purchasing before that,” Francis said. “We have at this time about 1,200 members but last year we would have had about 1,400. Christmas and the Holidays is a huge revenue time, so being closed over the holidays was definitely impactful.”

“We had a huge boom in COVID where we went from about 800 members to about 1,800 members in a season. Since then, we’ve held sort of steady around 1,500 members a season. So, a lot of people did stick around.”

And while the cross-country ski season is finally in full swing, Francis notes more snow is always welcome.

“We had about 20 cm of snow cumulatively before the deep freeze and we got everything groomed up,” Francis said.

“More snow is never a bad thing but if we didn’t, we do have a very talented grooming team that makes the most our of whatever challenges are thrown at them snow-wise. We should have pretty excellent conditions regardless.”

The club is closed today because of extreme cold in the Kamloops area with a post on Facebook saying people who ski will be doing so at their own risk.

“The weather forecast had called for it to be -25 C by now, but the mercury wont move. -30 C is a bit risky for the staff to be out in, we have decided to stay closed for today.”

“The forecast for tomorrow looks more forgiving, we are planning to be open [9 to 4] tomorrow and Sunday.”