New ownership at loch lomond: thunder bay ski hill owners aim for year-round operation.

• Author: Ross, Ian

Two Thunder Bay ski enthusiasts have made their wildest dreams come true. Business partners Jason Gerry and Grant Brodeur are the new owners of Loch Lomond Ski Area.

The pair has ambitious plans to brush out more runs on the 290-acre property and transform the hill into a year-round destination.

Gerry, the hill's full-time general manager, and Brodeur, owner of Secure Store in Thunder Bay, finalized the asset sale in early September with long-time owner Ward Bond.

Located 10 minutes outside the city, the hill, with its 750-foot vertical, includes a 30.000-square-foot main chalet, 14 runs and three chair lifts.

Gerry and Brodeur are kindred spirits as lifelong skiers and avid downhill racers. When they heard rumours that Bond was considering selling the hill, they jumped at the opportunity.

"Grant and I were talking about it one day. I was keen to do it and didn't have any inkling that he was until he said, 'I would love to own the ski hill,' and it kind of just went from there."

After spending the past few months hiking and flagging the property. Gerry said most of their development work this fall has been spent enhancing existing runs and carving out three new ones.

"They're not your standard mow-down-the-grass runs, we've done some glade runs; clear out all the underbrush on skiable terrain that hadn't been open in the past."

Gerry said there are some "amazing runs" that were never maintained, including the 750-foot high Jolly Giant, a steep double black diamond run that was only consistently skiable in big snow years.

"This year we've put a snowmaking pipe on it and we're doing the final hookups now and we'll be blowing snow on it this winter as well as grooming it."

Twenty kilometres of trails will be opened this winter for fat tire cyclists and mountain bikers during the summer

"We have two downhill runs done and we're creating a BMX dirt jump track in the spring," said Gerry. "Our intention is to run the chair lift on weekends through July and August for downhill mountain bike access."

They will continue to develop cross-country, mountain bike terrain as well.

The larger...