There's no business in snow business in Newfoundland this winter

This winter's mildweather, heavy rainsand strongwinds are wreaking havoc on the local skiing season in Newfoundland.

Both Marble Mountain, near Corner Brook, and White Hills, near Clarenville, have had significant trouble keeping snow on the slopes so far this season.

"I've never seen this, not in my career, and I'vebeen here most of my life," said Tony Abbott, chief operatingofficer at Marble Mountain.

The province's two ski resorts were both closed Tuesday due to the effects of rain and wind, afrequent occurrence on both sides of the island so far this winter.

How much more damage can we take here?- Tony Abbott

Provincial Tourism Minister Chris Mitchelmore acknowledged the effects of the recent weather on Marble Mountain in a statement Tuesday, saying the situation was being monitored.

"These conditions, especially the washouts from January's rainfall and flooding, have been demanding on the Marble management team and staff, and I commend their hard work and effort to conduct necessary repairs and get the hill operational as conditions permit," Mitchelmore said.

Recurring rain, 'brutal' wind

White Hills closed last weekend after a stretch of rain and warm weather, but work being done to both make new snow and preserve what's still there could allow the hill to open this coming weekend, manager Chris Sheppard told CBC'sCentral Morning on Tuesday.

"Our goal there this morning is to get in there and push out that snow that's there, and re-cover the hill again," Sheppard said. "We're on track for this weekend coming up. In fact, we're open tomorrow. We have a couple of school groups coming in."

The remaining snow at White Hill is being preserved as best as possible, Sheppard said, by pushing it into large piles to prevent melting.

"It's no different than if you look at the snow ispiledup by the plow," Sheppard said."That snow isstillleft behind even though the rest of my lawnis green."

Things were less certain at Marble Mountain, where Abbott spoke to the Corner Brook Morning Show from the top of the hill.

"It was bad," Abbott said of the weather in the area the previous night. "I'd estimate at least 60 millimetres of rain last night, winds were roughly about 130 to 140 [km/h] here last night."

The wind brought down tree branches, Abbott said, and the combination of that with the heavy rain significantly reduced the hill's snow cover.

"Unfortunately we lost quite a bit of snow manmade, of course. We never had natural snow this year," Abbott said.

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The rain has been not onlyfrequent, but some of the heaviest he's seen in his career, Abbott said. High winds and overall mild temperatureshave worsened the problem.

"This is about our sixth round now with the rain so far this year," Abbott said. "The wind this year has been brutal, there's no doubt about it."

Alternate activities

Normally under these situations artificial snow reserves would be used to replace what was lost, but those reserves are largely gone at this point, Abbott said. From where he stood at the top of the mountain there was only about 10 centimetresof manmade snow on the ground, and no reserves.

The crew at Marble Mountain was working to open for Wednesday but things are uncertain for the rest of the week, with Thursday's forecast for the area calling for potential rain or snow. Abbott was hoping for the latter, to give the resort's snowmaking budget a break.

"We're going to keep our fingers crossed because we really need natural snow," Abbott said. "Ifthe rain comes Thursday that's what Idread the most, because how much more damage can we take here?"

While preservation efforts have allowed the White Hills staff to hang on to some snow at thatresort, Sheppard said business has taken a hit.

"Iwould say our attendance is probably down," Sheppard said. "Part of it is the warm weather and the fact that with the lackof snow that we've had, we don't have a lot of runs open. People are kind of waiting untilthere's more runs opened, and that just hasn't been happening."

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Right now the plan is to work on creating snow when the window exists to do so, and preserving that snow when the weather allows for it, Sheppard said.

In the meantime, White Hills has planned activitiesthat don't require snow-covered slopes, including abeer-and-poutine tasting and events during Clarenville's upcoming Wintertainment festival, which runs Feb. 8 to 17.

"There's more to do than just skiing and snowboarding," Sheppard said. "That's what we're trying to tell people."