Jamie Martin needs two things - cold temperatures and snow - to get things back on track at Stokely Creek Lodge.
With nary a centimetre of the white stuff on the ground, things are pretty bleak at the Goulais River cross-country skiing facility, north of Sault Ste. Marie.
"It's starting to affect us quite a bit," Stokely's manager said Saturday. "We're just trying to ride this thing through."
The lodge and six chalets have the capacity to house 65 overnight guests, but the rooms were empty on Saturday and Sunday.
"Two people are coming in Monday," he said. "Most people are rescheduling and waiting for snow. If it doesn't snow, a lot won't be coming."
Although he began managing the facility only in August, Martin has lived and skied in the area since 1980.
"I've never seen anything like this.
There's been a few years where snow has been scarce this time of the year, but not so you can't ski."
Stokely, which has 120 to 150 kilometres of groomed ski trails, is considered one of the premier cross-country facilities in North America.
It employs a staff of 32 part-time and full-time workers who are feeling the impact of a winter with no snow.
"There's certainly been a cutback on staff, especially waitresses, and reductions in hours," Martin said.
While many people are re-booking, some are cancelling.
"The forecast is so iffy. Nothing says we're going to get a real dumping of snow."
Martin said Stokely could get some trails operating with an eight-to-10-inch accumulation of snow.
But the majority of the trail system is on old logging roads and about 14 inches is needed to pack the snow on these trails.
"We need it to turn colder and snow at the same time," he said.
With Stokely's proximity to Lake Superior, Martin is optimistic that lake-effect snow, caused when cold winds move across the warmer waters, could soon bring the much-needed white stuff.
"A lot of the time we'll get snow that they don't get in town from the lake effect."
Stokely has twice been forced to change its annual open house due to what the facility's website calls "persistent, stubborn and obnoxious weather conditions."
The open house, already rescheduled to Jan. 13, now is slated for Jan. 20.
"It's just not a good situation," is how Martin sums up the record-shattering weather conditions of early 2007. "I don't think this is a pattern. It's just a fluke."
While the cross-country trails are bare at Goulais, the folks at Searchmont Resort are faring a little better thanks to man-made snow.
On the weekend, eight of 18 downhill runs were open, offering what inside operations manager Dan Missere described as excellent skiing. But the number of skiers hitting the slopes is down with 400 people there on Saturday - half of what there normally would be, he said.
"It's still tough," Missere said, adding it is difficult for people looking at grass on their lawns to believe conditions are good.
Like Martin, he is hoping the mercury will dip and the snowflakes will fall and fall and fall. With colder temperatures the snowmaking machines can at least be fired up and the runs replenished.
And "if we're really lucky we will get some natural snowfall," Missere said.
