Marmot Basin will be ready to welcome guests to the slopes next week.

Brian Rode, vice-president of Marmot Basin, told CTV News Edmonton on Thursday that the entire Jasper community is eager to return to the popular tourist attraction.

“People are very excited to get back on the hill, back on the trails and, frankly, back to Jasper,” Rode said. “We have a lot of loyal skiers who really love Jasper and Marmot, and they’re excited that we’re opening next Friday.”

Rode said the hill is about 98 percent ready to go; staff will survey the field before the season opens to see how open they can be to the public.

“The good news is we had above average snowfall in the upper part of the mountain, and that’s what we want to look at,” he said.

“The challenge we’ve had is that the fall has been very, very warm, so we haven’t been able to make snow on the lower part of the mountain like we usually would,” he said, adding that temperatures were dropping. should allow snowmaking before opening day.

Another challenge Rode and his team faced was the lack of electricity for most of the summer, making maintenance impossible.

“Atco came in (and) buried all of our power lines (which) was done a week ahead of schedule…We must have been very busy doing all the maintenance that we usually would have done in July and August,” he declared.

“The maintenance teams have been working very hard since we returned to the mountain. All the tests are completed… we passed them with flying colors,” he added.

Rode said more natural and artificial snow over the next week will ensure the hill is “100 percent ready to go.”

He suggests coming during the week rather than the weekend, as accommodation can be tricky – and if the weekend is your only option, book well in advance.

Visitors should always check out the Marmot Basin website for updates.

Marmot Basin opens for the winter season on November 22.