(Image Credit: Overlander Ski Club)

By Victor Kaisar

Winter Recreation

Stake Lake ski trails to close due to mild weather, insufficient snow

Jan 14, 2026 | 11:37 AM

KAMLOOPS — The Overlander Ski Club will be temporarily closing the Stake Lake ski trails as it laments the lack of snow and warmer temperatures in the Kamloops area.

In a post to social media, the club says the ski and snowshoe trails will be closed indefinitely starting Thursday (Jan. 15) as conditions are thin and icy around the lodge near Stake Lake.

“Unfortunately all this warm weather is melting the trail base and making it very difficult to provide safe skiing,” the club said. “Our priority is always to provide safe, high quality skiing, and mother nature is making that very difficult for us at present.”

Less than a month after the cross-country ski season began, the Overlander Ski Club was forced to cancel this Sunday’s (Jan. 18) Teck Okanagan Cup #2 race because of “challenging weather conditions.”

“Our grooming team was consistently putting out really amazing skiing for a low snowpack year in our region until we got hit with this warm spell this week,” General Manager Chelsea Francis told CFJC, noting all club programs were sold out with waitlists.

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“We still have some great tools that can put out good grooming in ice, but when the base is too thin to even use said grooming tools, that is when it gets a bit tricky. As soon as we get a little bit of snow, we will resume doing just that.”

Francis said the “last several years of reduced snowfall” has made the club’s operations team think differently as it goes about grooming the trails.

“While we always wish we had more snow, I would say we have adapted quite well while keeping our programming flexible,” Francis added.

In their statement, club officials said volunteers were doing their best to groom the trails Wednesday.

“The groomers are out scratching up what they can so we can have some skate skiing available for experienced skiers,” the statement added. “When it is warm later, the trails will be soft and a bit more ski able in the sweet spot, while still quite variable.”

“We will be on stand by eagerly awaiting more snow so we can resume regular scheduled programming.”

The closure at Stake Lake comes one day after Harper Mountain announced a pause in ski operations because of a lack of snow.