There’s no question that all the recent snowfall in Grande Prairie has been stressful for some, but officials at Nitehawk Year-Round Adventure Park are excited to welcome in the winter season with the hill’s soft opening scheduled for the end of the month.
Nitehawk General Manager Jonathan Clarkson says natural snow is always a welcome addition to the hill, especially as snowmaking continues to ensure fresh powder for all visitors once the hill eventually opens.
“Things are looking great out here, we’re definitely ahead of last year,” he says. “From year to year it comes in waves, and we always say Season Pass sales and community engagement kind of follow the previous year, so we’re looking forward to this dump of snow because it gets people in Winter mode here right off the hop.”
While the exact details of what the soft opening will look like for visitors remain largely unconfirmed, Clarkson says the hope is to have all three of the hill’s western lifts working to get skiing and snowboarding operations underway as soon as possible.
“We call it a soft opening because it’s limited terrain and everything on the first weekend, but as people come out, we will have the Aquatera Tube Zone open, we’ll have some features in the terrain park, some of our beginner terrain so we can get lessons going,” he says. “We’re hoping for all three lifts on the west side, so that means the 600-foot conveyor, the Bob’s Bump conveyor, and then also the platter lift.”
When it comes to what will be open for the full season, Clarkson says it depends on when snowmaking wraps up, but given the forecast, he hopes crews can remain on track to finish up snowmaking by Winter Break in December.
The hill’s soft opening weekend is scheduled for November 30th and December 1st, from 11:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. each day.
