How did this ski hill make its snow last all year?
A look at the impressive snow pile at Ski Martock, covered and preserved from last winter to ensure an optimal 2026-27 ski season. Discover the technology behind this incredible feat of winter preparation.
When Martin Kejval hired a European company called Snow Support to design a snow storage layout that would help preserve last winter’s snow for this year's ski season at Ski Martock, he was hoping for the best but he knew it was an experiment.
Something on that scale had never been done in Atlantic Canada, and he was hoping 50 per cent of the pile would remain intact.
Well, I remember what was going through my mind when I initially came out to film this:
"This snow will never last. Well, I was wrong. Sixty-five per cent of the snow pile is still here.”
Ski Martock snow hill in Windsor Forks, N.S. (Nathan Coleman/The Weather Network)
And the resort even expects that number to increase as each season passes.
“Now, if we do it next year again, the guys tell us that we should save 10 per cent more just because the ground permanently freezes and it creates kind of a permafrost,” said Kejval, owner of Ski Martock.
The tarp itself is not made of plastic, but an insulation barrier that breathes, so when moisture got in, it could also get back out. It even worked during the hot summer months.
Ski Martock. (Nathan Coleman/The Weather Network)
“We can do full width of a half of a run, or we can do half of a full run. That is a decision we will have to make closer to the winter if we decide to open a little bit earlier, or if we decide to open the first day with two runs in stead of one," said Kejval.
The leftover snow has become so popular it even got its own name, Steve The Snow Pile.