By Dylana Milobar

Snow permitting, Harper Mountain could open this weekend

Dec 21, 2018 | 2:24 PM

KAMLOOPS — While many in Kamloops aren’t missing the snow that covered the city last year, those at Harper Mountain are still hoping for a white Christmas.

The local ski hill has yet to open for the 2018-19 season, as they wait for another snowfall to put the finishing touches on runs.

With a warmer December than usual, Harper Mountain Owner Norm Daburger has been keeping an eye out for those elusive white flakes, so they can host the yearly influx of holiday visitors.

“That’s a much more crucial time for us, but we want to be open as soon as we can, so people are out there on their holidays having fun.”

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Despite near record temperatures in Kamloops and the surrounding areas, it won’t take much snow to get the ski lift turning.

“Well if we get a big dumping of snow tonight, we’ll probably be open partially tomorrow,” Daburger says. “But every day we get snow, we go out and assess, make sure things are safe, and once we deem it’s safe, then we are good to go.”

The ski hill attracts people from all over the world, including Simon Travers, who moved to Canada from England five years ago.

Travers says Harper has become a favourite for those, like himself, who live in the Paul Lake area.

“It’s great yeah, because you can come up after work, there’s really good night skiing up here, and they’ve got the park open and stuff at nights, and you can just pop up here,” he explains. “And there’s always locals. You know, it’s good for having a couple drinks, a couple of runs, it’s a good little mountain.”

Turns out, the actual depth of snow is less of a factor when resorts are on the verge of opening. Whether or not the hill can welcome skiers depends heavily on how those flakes stick.

“You can have 60 to 100 centimetres of soft, fluffy snow and still break through to the bottom, or you can have 30 centimetres of a hard packed snow, and you have a much better base,” Daburger explains. “And that’s what we’re looking at right now, we just need a little bit of the frosting on top.”

Even without a heavy dumping of snow this evening, Daburger says tomorrow the mountain will still start up daily operations for their tube park throughout the holidays.

“Your best bet is the check the website for our hours, because they will be changing as soon as we get some more snow.”