With a new chairlift and new attendance record set, it’s been a big year for the Whitewater Ski Resort — and other people are noticing.
The Nelson and District Chamber of Commerce has named the local ski hill its business of the year, because of its commitment to and positive impact on the community.
Chamber executive director Tom Thomson says the hill’s marketing campaign and recent upgrading have helped put Nelson on the map.
“There’s a number of people that come into [the visitor’s centre] and say, ‘well, I’m from the Eastern seaboard and I always go on an annual ski vacation. And one day I was skiing in Utah and I was riding a lift with somebody, and they said there’s this really cool place up in British Columbia that you should go ski,’” he says. “And those types of stories are the ones you can’t buy.”
Whitewater marketing manager Anne Pigeon says the award caps off a year that was “beyond expectations,” largely because of the newly opened Glory Ridge chairlift that boosted the ski area’s vertical drop to more than 2,000 feet.
“There was just a renewed energy in the community,” Pigeon says. “Renewed energy from our pass holders, from our visitors coming in from out of town. It’s been so good, so well received.”
With only two weekends left in the ski season, Pigeon says the hill looks like it will pass the 100,000 skier visits mark. Typically, it sees 80 to 85,000 in a season. The season also saw a higher than usual number of skiers from the Eastern U.S. — a market Whitewater hasn’t tapped into much in the past.
And though this season is winding down, the resort is already looking to bring more skiers from that area into town next year through a series of upcoming trade missions.
“We’re competing with some of the huge U.S. areas, and some of the more established Canadian areas, but we just have to really make the point of the things that set us apart, and why people should make the trip into the Kootenays,” Pigeon says.
“We want to make sure this isn’t just a honeymoon phase that we’re going through. We have to work hard to not only gain new skiers, but keep the ones that came to see us this year.”