Mt. Dufour Ski Area operations director and treasurer Dave Brunet said Monday officials are hoping to keep the ski hill running for another two weeks depending on weather conditions.
Officials took the opportunity to honour some of its donors for making a difficult season due to COVID-19 lockdowns and restrictions, workable.
Those thanked included ELNOS, Elliot Lake Retirement Living for a $25,000 donation for a new snow making gun, and Sarich Source For Sports owners Clair and Paul Eldon associated with Cleta and Pam Sarich who donated $10,000 to assist in keeping runs and trails open.
“Mt. Dufour would like to thank you for the generous donation to allow us to continue snowmaking in mid-February this year,” he said of the financial contributions.
The facility reopened on Feb. 20 after the last provincial pandemic lockdown.
“It has been a very difficult year dealing with COVID-19 and not having our local ski hill open,” he said.
The reopening meant that work had to be done quickly to welcome visitors under strict pandemic conditions.
“We needed to get more terrain (and) runs open for this late start in the season,” he added. “Your contribution has made this happen and results have been fantastic. We did manage to make the balance of snowmaking to get 95 per cent terrain open.”
The non-profit facility now has six snow making guns which is the maximum needed.
“We’re pretty much at capacity with the system we’ve got,” Brunet said.
He said the 250 members and residents who use the facility, “are more than happy that we were able to open and our plan on operating safely is working.”