Manitoba's downhill ski hills are using plenty of artificial snow during this mild winter, but at least one resort has had to spend more money letting people know it's still open.
Holiday Mountain Ski and Golf Resort is shelling out thousands of dollars to encourage Winnipeggers to hit the slopes this winter.
"We've doubled our advertising this year just to convince people in Winnipeg that just because it's 2 C in February, it doesn't mean you can't go skiing," Bernice Later, the ski hill's operations manager, told CBC News on Monday.
Holiday Mountain's advertising efforts to date have included flyers, mailouts and advertisements on the radio, by email and on Facebook.
The resort has also spent about 931 hours making artificial snow to groom its runs — that's 250-plus hours more than last year.
Still, Later said staff receive several calls a day from people asking if the resort is open or if groups should cancel existing reservations.
"The phone's ringing off the hook: 'Are you guys even open? Are you going to make it until next weekend?'" she said.
"When you have mud on your shoes in the city, you don't think, 'Boy, I'd sure like to go skiing this weekend.'"
Staff at Asessippi Ski Area and Resort say they have had to make a lot more snow in order to open all of its runs.
On the bright side, both resorts have reported seeing more customers this past long weekend than last year.
A lot of those customers are new, they added, as families come out with young children because of the mild weather.
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