Mount Baldy Ski Area
Mount Baldy Ski Area is an alpine ski area at 375 Mount Baldy Road in Shuniah, north-east of Thunder Bay, Ontario. It sits on a granite upland rather than one of the diabase-capped Nor'Wester Mountains south of the city.[1][2]
Members of the Port Arthur Ski Club began cutting trails on the hill in the winter of 1933–34, and the club took over formal operation in 1946; civic officials opened the hill on 13 January 1947.[3][4] The Spiess family later took the hill over, and Craig Spiess sold it in 2016 to brothers Kristof, Daniel and Jason Kardas, sons of the ski jumping coach Slavomir Kardas.[5][6] The Kardas brothers opened a used quad chairlift, the "Stanislav Express", in January 2023.[7] The hill has a 145 m vertical and is home to the Port Arthur Ski Club's alpine racing programme.[1][8]
Under the Port Arthur Ski Club the first downhill run was cut in 1935 and a slalom trail in 1936; after 1946 the club built a road to the hill and a long rope tow, and Baldy hosted the Central Canadian Championships in 1951 and the National Junior Ski Championships in 1954.[3] Bayview Magazine dates the Spiess family's takeover of the hill to the 1960s, and in 2017 reported the Kardas family "now at the helm".[3] The Port Arthur Ski Club had moved to Baldy permanently from its Strathcona Heights jump in the 1940s.[9]
See also
Thunder Bay Museum material (October 2026)
- 1962: The Port Arthur Ski Club hosted the Canadian junior championships at Baldy on 23–25 February. Thor Hansen wrote that the downhill took 40 to 50 seconds, but the Hornet and Vertical runs were "tricky".[10]
- 1963–64: Baldy had the Lakehead's first double chairlift. Plans for 1964–65 included widening the Draft and Lookout runs, grooming the Vertical, lighting the Gold Run and a new ski-patrol run behind the hilltop chalet.[11][12]
See History of skiing in Thunder Bay: Thunder Bay Museum material and Big Thunder.
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 "About Us". Mount Baldy Ski Area.
- ↑ Ontario Geological Survey (2011). 1:250 000 scale bedrock geology of Ontario, Miscellaneous Release–Data 126, Revision 1; queried by point through Macrostrat map_query API (bedrock unit and DEM elevation), 25 October 2026.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Imrie, Diane. "High flying". Bayview Magazine, November 2017.
- ↑ Imrie, Diane. "Skiing is in fabric of area's city". The Chronicle-Journal, 26 January 2021.
- ↑ Diaczuk, Doug. "Mount Baldy welcomes new owners". TBNewsWatch, 3 October 2016.
- ↑ "1945 – 2021 Slavomir Kardas". Ski Jumping Canada, 2021.
- ↑ "Mount Baldy ski lift opens". TBNewsWatch, 15 January 2023.
- ↑ "About Us". Port Arthur Ski Club.
- ↑ Imrie, Diane. "Life on the links". Bayview Magazine, June 2022.
- ↑ "Visitors May Have Trouble With Baldy". Fort William Daily Times-Journal, 15 February 1962; clipping from the Thunder Bay Museum archives, supplied by Emma Hurley Warren (archival assistant) in an email to Michael Currie, 26 October 2026 (personal communication). Scan.
- ↑ Patola, Roger. "On the Slopes: Local Clubs Geared For Snow". Port Arthur News-Chronicle, 23 November 1963; clipping from the Thunder Bay Museum archives, supplied by Emma Hurley Warren (archival assistant) in an email to Michael Currie, 26 October 2026 (personal communication). Scan.
- ↑ Patola, Roger. "Big Plans Ahead For Skiing Areas". Port Arthur News-Chronicle, 28 April 1964; clipping from the Thunder Bay Museum archives, supplied by Emma Hurley Warren (archival assistant) in an email to Michael Currie, 26 October 2026 (personal communication). Scan.
