Twenty years ago, the first skiers hit the slopes at Asessippi Ski Area and Resort in Manitoba. To celebrate the big anniversary, the resort is making some big changes and planning big celebrations for the anniversary year.
“We started planning about a year ago, we said that we should use the 20th anniversary as a springboard to plan for the next 10-15 years,” said Daymon Guillas, president of Asessippi Ski Area and Resort.
That plan includes planning for the summer, building new mountain biking trails for the summer season. They’re bringing back river tubing and horseback riding for the summer season as well and are establishing campsites for the people who use the programs.
But we’re in winter, and this is a ski resort. To have as many runs open as early in the season as possible, the resort has put significant investment into snowmaking, and the result is that right now they’re opening with more ski runs available than ever before.
“By Christmas we will have the whole resort open. This is the first time the resort has been fully open, all runs, all lifts, all jumps, by Christmas,” Guillas said.
To celebrate this Christmas milestone, they will have fireworks each night, from Dec. 26 to 31. They will also have fireworks during the Saskatchewan mid-winter break, something that Guillas said they’re doing because they want to recognize how important Saskatchewan skiers and snowboarders are to their resort. With about 45 per cent of the guests at Asessippi being from the province, Guillas said that this province is critical for the resort to keep functioning.
“Saskatchewan people have the highest readership of ski magazines per capita in the country. They’re die hard winter people.”
They are celebrating the anniversary through renovations as well, completely redoing the food court and gift shop to make them both more enjoyable places to spend time. They invested in things to do when people are not skiing as well, with new VR games.
Running a ski resort hasn’t gotten easier over the past couple decades, and Guillas noted that a changing climate has forced them to adapt, forcing them to invest significant investments into snow-making.
The other constant change is how people use the resort. Guillas said part of the challenge of running a ski and snowboard resort is to keep up on what the trends are each year so they can meet people’s needs.
“People are so creative, they can find more ways to have fun and slide on snow.”
