Snow seekers will have new thrills to experience this winter at Mt. Timothy Ski Area.
Adam Piccolo, general manager of MTSA, said work is nearing completion on a new tube park at the hill, which will be ready to ride this season.
“I was at a conference last spring put on by the Canada West Ski Association and I was listening to a speaker talk about tobogganing and how that introduces kids to snow and sliding,” Piccolo said.
“That transfers into skiing and snowboarding but our policy, because of insurance, had always been no tobogganing. His talk got me thinking about it, but at the time we had no money to do anything.”
That all changed this year when MTSA was awarded a $30,000 grant from the Northern Development Initiative Trust for the construction of a tube park.
“They were really excited about [the project],” he said. “The people I’ve been working with are actually from Williams Lake originally and moved to Prince George for work. They’d all learned to ski at Mt. Timothy.”
After finding the right location, landscaping and removing all the brush, things are all coming together on the new tube park.
“We’re using a handle tow the mountain already owned to get people up the hill and we’ve done a bunch of upgrades to it,” he said.
The tube park is located next to the current terrain park and mad platter lift and will offer three separate runs — all more than 800 feet in length.
“The further you get away from the lift towards the day lodge, the less pitch there will be,” he said. “We’ll have more of an adult one that will be overly fast, and then a medium run and another one more for kids who don’t want to go so fast.”
An existing logging road to the tube park and mad platter lift has been cleaned up and a logging landing has been turned into a parking lot.
Piccolo said the parking lot will also be a bonus for skiers and snowboarders who just want to ride the terrain park.
“I think it’s going to be a whole new experience for people,” he said.
“It looks really good right now. Hopefully it brings people to the mountain who normally wouldn’t and they’ll come up, have a look and see that it’s a nice mountain with an amazing day lodge.”
The cost to ride the tube park will be $15 per person for two hours. Kids under five are free with the purchase of an adult tube park pass.
For more on MTSA visit www.skitimothy.com.