Snowfall, school cancellations make for perfect storm at Wentworth

A fresh snowfall and school cancellations around Nova Scotia gave the ski hill in Wentworth almost double its typical Tuesday lift ticket sales. 

From Sunday at 8 p.m. to Tuesday at 2 p.m., around 25 cm of snow fell at Wentworth, nearly twice what the hill gets in an average week in January. 

With most elementary schools, high schools, and post-secondary institutions closed in response to the snowfall, Ski Wentworth owner Leslie Wilson said they sold over 550 lift tickets on Tuesday.  

Wilson said that with season pass holders, there were about 600 people at the hill. Just from looking at the parking lot, she could tell there was around double what Wentworth usually gets on a Tuesday. 

For the first time this season, the south section of the hill, which has no snowmaking machines, was open. Wilson says when that section is available for skiing, people know there’s a lot of snow at Wentworth. 

Spencer MacDonald, 20, an electrician for the provincial government, says his work start was first delayed, then cancelled. 

He said if he was called off first thing in the morning, he would’ve been the first at Wentworth.

“I’ve been living almost nine years in Truro, and I don’t think I’ve ever skied this much powder on the hill,” he said.

In some spots, the snow was waist-deep. Wilson said she too was “itching” to get on the hill. “Skiing on natural snow … there’s nothing quite like it,” she said. 

Her own skiing experience is just one of the reasons she appreciates the powder.

Considering staff, repairs and maintenance, expensive equipment, and the electricity required to run snow machines, Wilson said running Wentworth is not an “inexpensive venture.” Snowy weather reduces costs, she said.

Tuesday was 14-year-old Andrew Powell’s second day off from school and first at the hill this week. On Monday, poor road conditions meant he couldn’t get a family member to drive him to the hill. 

Wilson said she’s thankful snowy weather brings more people to the hill, but also mentioned, “it always amazes me people can somehow make their way here on a snow day.” 

Around 300 lift tickets were sold on Monday, a little over half of Tuesday’s ticket sales. It took Powell around 20-25 minutes longer than normal to reach Wentworth from his home in Truro on Tuesday. 

Though the final stretch to Wentworth usually gets cleared a little later than other sections of Highway 4, Wilson said the provincial government does a good job of clearing the major highways leading to Wentworth. 

MacDonald said the passing lanes on Highway 104 were “full of snow,” but he didn’t experience much difficulty getting to the hill. 

MacDonald said he’s endured worse drives to ski at Wentworth. He said, “I’ll drive through anything to ski here, and I don’t care what I got to go through on the drive home.” 

Another 20-30 cm of snow is expected to hit parts of Atlantic Canada late Sunday night.