There were families on the hill he hasn’t seen in years.
Hundreds of youngsters strapped on skis for the first time.
There were visitors setting foot on Marble’s terrain for the first time in their life.
It was a beehive of activity on the hill, and local businesses reaped the reward of an influx of newcomers on Easter weekend.
It was all at a cost of $10,000 because the provincial government offered free ski passes and rentals for the three-day weekend at the Steady Brook ski resort.
It was money well spent, Abbott was quick to point out when he looked at the great response.
“You would spend that in marketing, I would say,” Abbott, the new interim chairperson of the Marble Mountain Development Corp., said Monday while preparing for a break from the mountain after a hectic week to prepare the hill for Easter weekend.
He was surprised at the numbers when he took into account it was Easter weekend and a lot of people had other plans, but he’s looking to the future in a positive light.
Abbott knows changes have to be made to make the skiing experience better for all visitors and he knows the hill has to be busier to thrive, so he’s looking forward to rolling up his sleeves to help make that happen.
Giving people a chance to check out the mountain with free skiing is something he believes was worth doing when he realizes how much fun everybody was having at Marble over the weekend.
It’s been a hectic grind over the past month, and he’s looking forward to taking a few days to unwind.
He’s excited about taking on the challenge of making life better for visitors to the ski resort, and looks at the past weekend as a great start to showing people the great experience that awaits them at Marble Mountain.
A look at the numbers
3,500 ski visitors in three days.
1,350 lift tickets (season pass holders didn’t need a lift ticket)
1,172 rentals
$41,000 expenses
$31,0000 revenue (concessions/bar)
$10,000 deficit
