The twentieth-century poet T. S. Eliot was wrong when he opined that April is the cruellest month for it’s actually January, especially for winter-loving Interlakers.
After a few weeks of extreme cold and snowy days across the province, the mercury rose near the end of January, taking out swathes of snow and ice and destroying our favourite wintry pursuits such as snowmobiling, skiing and outdoor skating. And yes, even shovelling.
Yvonne Rideout, executive director of Snoman (Snowmobilers of Manitoba), a non-profit organization that represents 53 snowmobiling clubs across the province with over 5,300 members, said she’s just crushed by the warm temperature.
Snowmobiling has “certainly been a victim of Mother Nature,” she said, adding that she’s been doing a “snow dance” every day to appeal to the icier side of Mother’s character.
“The warm temperatures are having an impact province-wide. As of today [Feb. 1], we have only three Snoman clubs with trails open. Yesterday we had 10 clubs with trails open,” said Rideout. “I’ve been talking to my counterparts in Saskatchewan and Ontario and they’re in the same situation. This morning I talked to North Dakota and Michigan – same situation. They haven’t turned on their groomer this year.”
There are 11 Snoman clubs in the Interlake region. Because all clubs are responsible for maintaining and grooming their respective trails, they incur costs even though they receive some financial support through the sale of Snoman passes.
“The warm weather is devastating to our volunteer clubs because they had put in all this work to get the trails signed, packed and groomed. They opened the trails and then shortly thereafter they had to close them,” said Rideout. “Although they can’t re-open because of a lack of snow, they still have payments to make, like loans on equipment. And they’ve already spent the money on signage and fuel for the groomers.”
And it’s not only the snowmobile clubs taking a financial hit, but also the economy of small communities that will consequently feel the impact of fewer visitors.
“This has a domino effect; it trickles into our rural communities, affecting businesses such as gas stations, restaurants and accommodations,” said Rideout. “We often hear from small business owners that snowmobile traffic is vital to their operations in the winter, which is the slower tourism season.”
Even if temperatures fall in the next few weeks, as they’ve been predicted to do, there’s no guarantee that snowmobile trails can be brought up to speed unless there’s sufficient snowfall.
“We have to hope we get snow along with cooler temperatures, and hope we don’t lose our base on the trails,” said Rideout. “When you lose the hard-packed snow that forms the base, it’ll go down to grass. The later it gets in the season, [clubs] will wonder if it’s even worthwhile putting in all that effort and cost to restore the trails when there’s only two weeks left and spring will be here.”
Rideout’s Snoman colleague Joe Thieven said it has been an “incredibly disappointing” winter for snowmobiling.
“I can’t remember us having a season like this. I can remember seasons starting late and continuing on and seasons starting early and ending early, but never just a wee snowstorm and getting shut down due to unseasonably high temperatures,” said Thieven, who also sits on the board of the South Interlake SnoRiders club, which has over 170 kilometres of groomed trails and covers the Stonewall, Stony Mountain, Balmoral and Argyle areas.
Snoman clubs in the south Interlake installed their trail signs, cut branches and groomed the trails after the snowstorm. But with the snow having all but evaporated, the trails can’t support a snowmobile.
That said, Thieven discourages people who own ATVs from riding on Snoman trails as that will rut them. Plus, there may be a chance in the upcoming weeks that the region will see enough snow to re-open the trails.
“ATVs will cut up the trails. And if there’s any winter to salvage – if we get a snowstorm in the next couple of weeks – we’ll certainly be out there again grooming the trails for snowmobilers. We hope the ATV riders would avoid our snowmobile trails until at least the end of February to see if the snow comes,” said Thieven. “That’s what I’ve said to the South Interlake ATV club. We have a very good relationship with them as to when they can and can’t go on them and they respect that. And Interlakers, overall, are quite reasonable people.”
Not only are warm temperatures ruining the trails for snowmobilers, but they’re also ruining them for people with horse and sleigh, cross-country skiers and hikers who like hard-packed snow, he said. And even though some people might be experiencing a little cabin fever at this time of year, they’re not coming out in droves.
“This is a huge hit to little communities such as Inwood, which relies on winter tourism to support their gas station and Rosie’s Café, and to places like Teulon which has Fry-Days Restaurant. Even Gimli; we’ll ride up to Seagulls [restaurant]. But none of that is happening right now,” said Thieven. “It’s got to be a big hit for businesses and for people who just want to get out and enjoy themselves in the fresh air.”
If this is the winter of discontent for snowmobilers, it must also be so for outdoor skaters.
In Gimli the skating trail and the rink that were built in the harbour are not faring well.
Adam Stringer, who was contracted by the municipality to build and maintain the popular outdoor venue, said last Thursday that there’s no risk of breaking through the ice on the harbour as he measures ice depth regularly and found it to be 24 inches, which is a “very safe amount.” But people will certainly have trouble keeping their skates dry.
“You won’t break through the ice, but it’s just that the ice is so soft with water everywhere and that makes it unpleasant to skate. The pooling water has made the surface uneven, eating away at what we had flooded,” said Stringer. “And I know this might sound counterintuitive for a skating rink, but it’s really slippery with water sitting on top of the ice. Even the ramp going down to the trail is very slippery right now because we’ve had some freezing rain: it’s almost like a sheet of ice getting down to the skating trail.”
A day later, the municipality decided to close the harbour trail and rink.
Stringer said if the temperature drops, he’ll be back out on the harbour flooding the ice to get it into peak skating condition.
Although the harbour is out of commission, Lake Winnipeg continues to support ice fishing.
“People are still able to go out ice fishing. There’s no issue there,” said Stringer. “The ice is safe and you can drive your vehicle anywhere you want on the ice and not worry about getting stuck in snow.”
Gimli resident Cheryl Buhler, who chairs the Gimli Chamber of Commerce’s Destination Brand Committee which helps oversee the harbour trail, said the ice fishing village on the lake is flourishing despite the mellow temperatures and disintegrating surface ice here and there.
“It was plus 7C in Gimli on Jan. 30, but that hasn’t affected fishing. There are so many ice fishing shacks on the lake. Experienced fishers know when they can and can’t drive on the lake,” said Buhler.
As for the snowmobile trails in the Gimli area, Buhler said the ones she walked on are bare grass.
On a more serious level, the lack of snow is not boding well for the environment. Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada’s Canadian Drought monitor for Dec. 31, 2023, showed “below-normal precipitation across much of western Canada” over the month of December. A good percentage of Manitoba is experiencing a moderate drought with some areas of severe drought.
Buhler said she and other people are concerned about the impact unseasonable conditions will have on the environment and wildlife.
“I’m not sure people are loving this warm weather. All the people I’ve talked to are nervous about it,” she said. “Even though some of us like the fact that it’s not freezing and we don’t have to heat up our cars, I’m personally worried. Some people I talked to are worried about the polar bears. We don’t want minus 40C, but we also don’t want plus 7C on Jan. 30.”
While Snoman does its daily snow dance and others lament the loss of winter, there may be hope on the horizon.
Manitoba Merv, a groundhog puppet who lives at Oak Hammock Marsh, saw his shadow last Friday morning (on Groundhog Day) and predicted there will six more weeks of winter. So don’t pack away the shovel quite yet.
