I’ve been enjoying almost daily trips up to the trails at Hiawatha for about ten days now. The arrival of winter weather has been somewhat variable over the years but I’ve usually been able to start skiing by mid to late December, sometimes with marginal snow conditions. One of the benefits of living in the Soo is that we tend to get frequent lake effect snowstorms in the early part of the winter. In 2014 I was able to start skiing in mid November thanks to cool weather and frequent snowfall. This year there is plenty of snow and the trails are in excellent condition. As of December 22, we have received 119 cm of snow so far this month. I looked at Environment Canada climate records for Sault Ste. Marie as far back as the year 2000. This has been the third snowiest December over the 16 year period. In 2008 we received 149.1 cm of snow for the month of December and in 2004 we received 128.8 cm of snowfall accumulation. I expect we will surpass the 2004 December snowfall amount over the next week or so.
Conditions have been great for both classic and skate skiing techniques.
I’m hoping that the great skiing conditions continue for the next few months.
