The ski and snowboard hill in Centennial Park will not open at all this winter, thanks to snowmaking malfunctions and a shortage of natural snow.
The city will reimburse the roughly 2,000 people who signed up for lessons and other programs at the Etobicoke landmark. In a normal winter, the hill would also get about 4,000 drop-in visits.
Undergound lines that circulate water and air in the snowmaking equipment have suffered five separate breaks in the past couple of months, said Matthew Cutler from Toronto’s parks, forestry and recreation department.
Most line breaks have been under turf, and were fairly easily fixed by city staff who do welding and plumbing, he said. But last Thursday a line broke under a concrete pad and a city facility, which would have required a major repair job.
That, combined with warm temperatures that have seen no lasting natural snow, prompted city staff to make the call that the hill should not open.
There are more snowmaking line breaks at Centennial than at Earl Bales Park hill in North York, which has been open since Dec. 17, likely because Centennial was built using garbage as fill and the ground frequently shifts, Cutler added.
“If all the technology stuff was working, we probably would have opened the Centennial Park hill around mid-January,” Cutler said.
Environment Canada predicts freezing rain, rain and flurries over the next week, with high temperatures mostly above 0C. A chance of snow is predicted only for Friday night.
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