The abundance of snow this winter has been good for business in northern Cape Breton.

Tourism accommodations and ski facilities north of Smokey are reporting increased visits over previous seasons.

“We’ve been having a spectacular winter. The snow has been exceptional,” said Katie Fougere, manager at North Highlands Nordic (NHN) ski club in Cape North.

“Every weather storm we have been getting has been coming from the west, which means drier snow and better skiing conditions.”

Traffic at NHN has been trending upward every season, said Fougere.

The same is true at Cape Smokey in Ingonish Beach, where CEO Martin Kejval is seeing a 15 per cent increase in visitors year over year.

That growth may have been helped this winter by Cape Smokey’s recent acquisition of Ski Martock in Windsor.

“Being able to offer one pass which covers both ski hills kind of incentivized people to come up and see Cape Breton for the first time,” said Kejval.

Some of those visitors have been staying at Knotty Pine Cottages just down the road from the ski hill, which has seen a 50 per cent boost in business over last year, said owner David Li.

Li jokes that the extra revenue is helping to cover the cost of all the snow clearing.

While the unusually dry snow has been easier on shovellers, it has also been a treat for skiers wanting to explore off piste.

“It’s been like British Columbia powder dry. Champagne powder. It’s been exceptional,” said Bricin Lyons, owner of the Highlands Hostel in Cape North.

Winter upswing

“This year we’re getting record numbers of people that are doing outdoor activities in the back country,” said Lyons. “They’re skinning up ridges and they’re snowboarding and skiing down.”

For the first winter in years, the hostel is seeing an upswing in business.

He thinks the internet has helped to spread the word about what the region has to offer.

“It’s just a playground,” he said.

One improvement Lyons would like to see to the area’s winter tourism offerings is for the Cape Breton Highlands National Park to open its trails year-round.

Meanwhile, more tourist accommodations are staying open through the winter, and a few restaurants are now opening around the weekends.

“I feel like it’s taken over 30 years for a lot of these seasonal operators to realize that there is a market here for winter tourism. And we’re definitely seeing a very good trend upwards,” said Fougere.

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