Apex Mountain Resort is still getting snow as the last week of operations approaches on what has been a record-breaking year.
The year started early in late October with slalom, giant slalom and freestyle training getting underway on the mountain. Apex opened to the public a week earlier than normal due to prime snow conditions experienced across the Okanagan Valley.
“It’s not just the amount of snow, but the quality of snow that we got that was so good, really just phenomenal snow conditions,” said James Shalman, general manager at Apex Mountain Resort.
The entire mountain, over 75 runs, was ready to go for Dec. 5, which is usually opening day.
“That just made a huge difference in terms of getting lots of people up here,” Shaman said.
Apex was breaking records for visitors and revenue throughout the entire Christmas holiday, and continued to top their own numbers every month leading up to March.
With the season coming to a close this weekend, Apex has made over 20 per cent up on their best year ever for skier visits and revenue.
“That’s really substantial and that’s on our best year ever, that’s not over last year, last year wasn’t a very good year,” said. “That’s huge, that’s massive.”
It was an absolute banner year in every department that we have from my perspective it’s just been an amazing year in all facets,” Shalman said.
Currently listing a 281-centimetre snow base, Shalman estimated they have had nearly 800 cm of snowfall this year.
“Anytime we can get over a 200 centimetre base is phenomenal conditions, so this has definitely been one of our best years in a long time,” Shalman said.
Due to the fledgling Loonie, Apex has seen an increase in American visits from northern Oregon and all over Washington State.
“The American dollar has been a big driver of that, the other big one is the snow conditions and the ski-and-stay accommodations,” Shalman said.
Washington and Oregon ski areas are located in state parks, which don’t allow accommodations on-site, driving those who want the ski-and-stay experience northward.
“They (Americans) just rave about it. They say Apex in particular is such a family-friendly mountain in terms of the kids not getting lost, everything funnels back to the village, and snow quality. Being in the Okanagan we have lighter, drier snow than they are used to on the coast,” Shalman said.
Two new runs debuted this year, Sweet Louise and Golden Eagle created to mark the legacy of majority owner Louise Burgart who died in 2015.
Apex also added a new snow grooming machine, increasing the efficiency of grooming operations. The new grooming machine, called the Beast, is the largest on the market.
“It’s increased our grooming per night to four acres per hour over a general groomer,” Shalman said. “Our grooming machine operators all have 20 plus years experience, so they are very experienced operators already, but this new Beast has really taken us to a new level.”
Apex closes April 3, but that has little to do with Mother Nature, Shalman said.
“That has nothing to do with snow conditions, people just stop coming to the ski resort, it’s going to be 20 degrees coming up and people just start doing other things.”
Shalman said they would be open later into the spring if there were people up on the mountain.
“It’s always surprising to us too because the best conditions of the entire year are always at the end of the season. We’d love to be open later, but it’s just not financially feasible.”