by Karina Hunter

Close-up of one of the snow guns blowing up the T-bar lift path.

As Christmas holidays draw near, preparations at Kiwissa Ski Centre continue at full speed. In November, the hill got a kick start on clean-up when B&M Hauling provided them with an excavator and operator who spent four hours doing clean-up, adding a platform to the base of the access run to the main hill and building jumps to be appreciated by skiers and snowboarders alike.  Since the beginning of December, daily snow making continues with 8 snow guns now blowing artificial snow on the Main Run, T-bar lift path and Pine Run.  This, in addition to natural snow which has fallen has Manitouwadge Public Works employees predicting that, barring any unforeseen circumstances, Monday, December 21^st will be opening day for the 2009/10 season at Kiwissa.  Though all of Kiwissa will not open until Mother Nature puts in more hours, enthusiastic skiers and snowboarders can expect both the Practice Hill (Easy – 129m) and the Main Run (More Difficult – 380m) to be open with hopes of the Pine Run (More Difficult –
375m) will open not long after. The Practice Hill offers great fun for an entire family of skiers and/or snowboarders for just $10/day while more experienced skiers can challenge themselves on the main hill at an incredible $15/person.

This season promises to be great at the Kiwissa Ski Centre as a new run, approximately 1km in length, is also in the works on the North Side of the mountain running parallel to the Bunny Run and crossing the Power Line near Gog Lake.  Kiwissa continues to welcome area skiers from the East (Wawa, White River, Dubreuilville) and West (Marathon, Heron Bay, Schreiber, Terrace Bay) but expects these numbers will increase significantly in the 2009-10 season with the closure of Marathon’s Ski Hill.