Nature has been stingy with snow in Eastern Canada this winter, forcing ski hills in Ontario, Quebec and the Maritimes to rely on the artificial variety.

While ski hills in B.C. have been open since mid-November with bases of more than 200 centimetres, eastern Canadian hills such as Poley Mountain in Sussex, N.B., have had to work hard to whiten green and brown hillsides, said Poley Mountain spokewoman Isabelle Dasylva.

Winter has been arriving slowly at Camp Fortune in western Quebec's Gatineau Hills.
(CBC)

"We wouldn't have a season so far if we didn't have our snowguns," said Dasylva.

In the last two years, the hill has increased the number of snow-making machines to 26, expanded the pipeline that feeds the machines and installed a new pump that doubles the amount of manufactured snow.

The new equipment cost $150,000, but allowed the facility to open in early December the last two years, despite high temperatures and lack of natural snow.

"The snow [is] all man-made … we had traces of snow [Tuesday], but it wouldn't be enough to allow people to ski or snowboard," said Dasylva.

Ottawa area finally gets some snow

In Ottawa, residents also haven't been getting their usual winter view of snow-covered hills.

The Gatineau Hills that face the city from across the Ottawa River are home to Gatineau's Camp Fortune ski hill, which has been looking a tad dark, said spokesman Michael Hull.

"It was a little strange looking out at the hills in the last couple of weeks — everything was all green," Hull said Wednesday. 

The ski hill opened several runs with artificial snow, but Hull said earnings are a few weeks behind schedule because it takes snow to awaken people's skiing spirit and draw them to the hills.

Ottawa was finally dusted with white a few times this week, and Hull said that has changed the ambiance.

"Feels more like winter now after the snowfall."

Hoping for snow, cold  

At Poley Mountain, Dasylva is also counting on more snow and colder temperatures to open extra trails and bring more people to the hill.

"If it doesn't get better, it's going to make things difficult," she said.

Even with increased snow-making capabilities, Poley only has five of 23 trails open. At Crabbe Mountain near Fredericton, just two of 18 trails are open.

Dasylva said Poley is somewhat busy this week mainly because children's camps over the holidays are underway, but it needs more natural snow to open more trails, and also to remind people that it's ski season.

"A lot of people, when they don't see snow in the backyard, they say there can't be snow at Poley."