Our Snowpark Society is working towards the creation of Calgary’s first urban snowsport facility that will be central, admission free and accessible by public transit. Currently, many Calgarians are excluded from participating in snowsports due to financial, locational and cultural barriers. With rising lift ticket prices, remote destinations and an exclusive lifestyle, snowsports participation is currently limited to a minority of Calgary’s population. By removing present barriers to local snowsports participation, Our Snowpark Society hopes to increase access to snowsports to improve the health and wellbeing of Calgarians and their communities. 

The establishment of an urban snowpark facility following a proven hikepark model would not only improve the social, mental and physical health of Calgarians, but the facility will also become a community gathering space that fosters unique connections and partnerships. Hikeparks are understood as the winter complement to skateparks, offering users a variety of terrain park features on a snow-covered slope to be hiked. Considering Calgary’s Olympic legacy in wintersport and the City’s significant investment in skatepark amenities for summer use, all Calgarians should have access to snowsport facilities for winter recreation.  

Montreal is already home to many snowsport facilities of this nature, and since both Canadian cities share similar meteorological, geopolitical and sociocultural conditions, winter recreation projects happening there can be used as an accurate example of what can be achieved here. In fact, Calgary’s sprawling hills and vast river valleys already create the perfect landscape for an inner-city snowsport facility that would offer Calgarians unstructured and spontaneous active recreation close to home for the winter.