Looking to hit the slopes in Byron this winter? You’ll now have to buy your tickets online.
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Looking to hit the slopes in Byron this winter? You’ll now have to buy your tickets online.
Content article
For the second straight year, Boler Mountain has moved to a reservation-only model, with three groups of visitors on the hills scheduled throughout the day in a bid to keep people safer and ensure traffic flow.
“The new restrictions have us closing down the chalet for food, so we just wanted to get a handle on the flow of people,” Marty Thody, a manager at Boler Mountian, said, adding they were “crammed” during the last weekend.
“We wanted to get (traffic) under control. We feel we’ll probably be able to ease up on the reservation system as we move along here, but just for the time being, we want to make sure we’re doing the right thing, ”he said.
Effective Tuesday, visitors will be limited to one three-hour time slot each day, with about three groups of visitors scheduled throughout the day. Visitors with scheduled lessons will not have to reserve their time slot.
Like last season, visitors must buy their tickets online or by using Boler’s mobile app before arriving at the site.
The move comes a day after the Ontario government announced new restrictions and capacity limits across the province to curb the spread of the highly transmissible Omicron variant. Starting Wednesday, indoor gatherings are limited to five people and outdoor to 10, social distancing is required at outdoor spaces and sports and fitness facilities are closed
The voluntary changes at Boler means there will be about 1,000 people – or nearly 75 per cent of capacity – on the hill at once.
Though not mandatory, managers at Boler hope the new measures will ensure that hills can remain open throughout the season.
“There’s definitely a pent-up demand right now and definitely a lot of new people because other things are closed down,” said Greg Strauss, who’s part of the management team.
“It’s just unfortunate we don’t have unlimited capacity. We’re just trying to be proactive and make sure people aren’t turned away when they get here. ”