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Wapiti Valley Ski Park
Tisdale
January 11, 2016
by: Timothy W. Shire
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It takes only forty-five minutes from your door in Tisdale to reach the Wapiti Valley Ski Park just north of Gronlid above the Saskatchewan River. Between Christmas and New Years, our family spent three outstanding days at this remarkable resort downhill skiing. The runs angle toward the West Northwest, so that even at this time of the year, they were able to ski until after 4:30 each afternoon and the weather was ideal, as were the snow conditions.
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Right beside the Chalet and its parking lot, is a little village of houses and cabins. There are also cabins available to rent for folks who live a little further away.

The Chalet is really big, offering complete rentals of excellent equipment with a helpful courteous staff to get you safely into the sport. The resort has a staff of thirty and offers lessons for both downhill skiing and boarding.

A restaurant, fast food outlet, huge dining area and lounge, make this the perfect environment for a family outing. We caught a few minutes of the International Hockey tournament during a lunch break (below).
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In front of the Chalet is the bunny hill with a magic carpet to move skiers and boarders up for each run. On the south side of the lift is the snow board area with obstacles and each day, the area was busy with people of all ages in various stages of mastering their downhill skills.

The main chairlift is a four place system that takes about seven minutes to rise to the top of the many runs. The only problem our people experience was getting on the lift since many people are new to the sport, they did not fill up the four seats and that lengthened the wait and the line up. Also, snow board people often had problems fitting their equipment on to the four place seats and a lot of the time, the lift was running well below capacity.
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The ski runs and snow conditions were really excellent, and since we had a five year old and nine year old on their first ski adventure, they were able to cope and have a great time, just as did the eight year old who had skied in the rockies in both Canada and in the States. Because there are lots of runs, with a wide range of challenges, the mix of skis and boarders was not really a problem. If someone took a tumble, there was always room to navigate around and continue the fun of a challenging run.

Besides the children, our two dads were able to have an outstanding time, while the two beginners were taking a needed rest.

Below is a dramatic video that shows the overview of the ski park with its various runs. The video was shot and edited by Andrew Shire.

(Click on the video title in the little frame below and the video will play at YouTube at a better size.)
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