It is with great regret that Hidden Valley Highlands Ski Area must inform everyone that the Ontario Government has decided to once again close down ski hills effective Saturday, April 3rd at 12:01 am.
on Thursday, at the time of Premier Ford’s announcement, golf courses, parks and ski hills were not listed as being able to open in the newly invented “Emergency Break” category of restrictions. However, at about 2:30 p.m., the list of “Outdoor recreational amenities allowed to open” was updated and golf courses & driving ranges, parks and ski hills were added.
This information was widely shared on Ontario Government webpages. At some point on Thursday night, the information was changed and the Ontario Government removed ski hills from their list of outdoor amenities allowed to open while leaving golf courses, driving ranges and parks on the list.
“We were completely shocked to discover that ski hills were removed from the list of Outdoor recreational amenities allowed to open in the “Shutdown Zone”, says Andrew Rusynyk, General Manager of Hidden Valley Highlands Ski Area. “We listened to the announcements on Thursday, went to the webpages for updates and followed the information provided which indicated ski hills could stay open in the “Shutdown Zone”. Hidden Valley Highlands Ski Area is one of the few ski hills fortunate enough to have enough snow to operate for the Easter weekend but those plans have been changed with the removal of ski hills from the list.
“On Friday morning we had to retract the previous message about being open and inform people that Friday, April 2nd was the last day of our season,” says Rusynyk.
As a result of this decision by the Ontario Government, Hidden Valley Highlands Ski Area is forced to close for the season after operations on Friday, April 2nd, 2021.