The Pembina Valley Snowkickers have wrapped up another season that saw a good amount of snow. President Kory Van Damme said it was a good season.

"Good part of the season we got snow this year. We haven't had that for a couple of years of any amount, so that was the plus," he said. "Seeing some snowmobilers definitely out and about at times, even in Glenora, I think it was the free ride weekend, we actually saw as many as maybe even 100 pop through there. So, it was good to see people out and about.'

He remarked, compared to last year, it was great to get all the snow they needed this season but noted it wasn't without its challenges.

"The unfortunate side of things now was it was windy every week. I don't think there was a single week where we didn't have wind. Even though we were out maintaining trails, even if we tried to do it on Thursday/Friday, the wind would blow Saturday and it would still be rough come the weekend it seemed like. So, we couldn't really win for losing that way, and it made some of our valley entrances, tops of hills where the snow is blowing a little, a bit interesting to get in and out of, even with the groomers. So, there were some challenges, but I guess it's still better than the year prior where we weren't grooming at all."

With the wind playing such a significant role in this past season, Van Damme expressed the need to look at what changes could be made for next year.

"If we're going to be blessed with wind every day from every which direction, we might have to do a bit of trail changing just to make things easier to get in and out of the valleys. We noticed a couple of trails we haven't used for a couple of years, they are starting to get a little bit grown in, let's call it, so we'll have to do some tree shrubbing in the near future, this summer, so we can widen the trails a little bit to just keep everybody a bit safer that way as well."

The PV Snowkickers expect to come out even, or even a bit better, financially. Van Damme noted there was good support for the annual fundraising lottery which sold out and they almost reached their maximum of the trail passes for the year at eleven out of the possible twelve. He added once SnoMan (Snowmobilers Manitoba) tally up the kilometre usage of the groomers across Manitoba, they will have a better idea of how much extra cash they will have for next year.

Anyone wishing to volunteer over the summer and into next year can contact the PV Snowkickers.