Not-for-profit, a win for the community

 

Boler Mountain is a not-for-profit that has been adding to the richness of the living-in-London experience for more than seven decades. Boler opened originally as a small ski hill with very little going for it other than location. For London area skiers, Boler was close and that was its major drawing point.

A trip to Blue Mountain near Collingwood on Georgian Bay takes a full three hours. When the day is done there is another three hour drive to be tackled before one is finally back home. A day trip to one of the ski hills near Pontiac, in Michigan, demands more than another hour behind the wheel. The distant hills may be bigger and the runs longer but the time spent on the road drains a lot of fun from the day.

Five years ago, Boler expanded its existing forty-year-old chalet and that is using the word chalet rather generously. The resort likes to brag that the new chalet has a large modern kitchen. The young skiers could care less. Steaming hot chocolate, crispy French fries plus hamburgers, cheese burgers and hot dogs keep the kids happy. 

And if one prefers bringing their own hot chocolate and brown bagging it to keep skiing cost down, Boler mountain allows that too. But, when one comes in off the hill, a serving of the traditional French Canadian ski hill standby, poutine, is awfully hard to resist. 

Poutine, for those who are unfamiliar with the term, is a serving of French fries sprinkled with fresh, cheese curds and then smothered with hot gravy. The cheese curds immediately start melting and the poutine is ready to eat. Oodles of calories but skiers can handle it.