'100 per cent ready': Marmot Basin opens for season next week

Undated image of a skier at Marmot Basin in Jasper National Park. (Courtesy: Marmot Basin)

Marmot Basin will be ready to welcome guests back to the slopes next week.

Brian Rode, vice president of Marmot Basin, told CTV News Edmonton on Thursday the entire community of Jasper is eager to return to the popular tourist attraction.

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"People are super excited about getting back on the hill, back on the slopes and, quite frankly, back to Jasper," Rode said. "We have a lot of loyal skiers that really love Jasper and love Marmot, and they're thrilled that we're opening next Friday."

Rode said the hill is about 98 per cent ready to go; staff will survey the terrain before it's open for the season to see how much they can open up to the public.

"The good news is we've had above average snowfall in the upper part of the mountain, and that's what we want to go look at," he said.

"The challenge that we've had is it's been a really, really warm fall, so we haven't been able to make snow in the lower part of the mountain the way that we typically would have," he said, adding dropping temperatures should allow for snow making before opening day.

Another challenge Rode and his staff were faced with was not having power for the majority of the summer, which prevented any maintenance from being done.

"Atco came in (and) buried all of our power lines (which) got done one week ahead of schedule … We had to get really busy doing all of the maintenance that we typically would have done in July and August," he said.

"The maintenance crews have been working really hard since we got back on the mountain. All the testing has been completed … we passed with flying colours," he added.

Rode said more natural and artificial snow over the next week will ensure that the hill will be "100 per cent ready to operate."

He suggests visiting during the week rather than the weekends, as accommodation can get tricky – and if weekends are your only option, book well ahead of time.

Visitors should always check the Marmot Basin website for updates.

Marmot Basin is open for the winter season on Nov. 22.