Snoasis

The development of Snoasis was initially predated by the Regina Ski Club's Tor Hill. Tor Hill was a small ski hill developed on a golf course in the early 1960s. As the popularity of Tor Hill grew, a rope tow was installed and the ski club's membership rose significantly.

The founder of Snoasis, who was a member of the Regina Ski Club, learned two valuable priorities from Tor Hill: wind protection and convenience. While Tor Hill grew, the ski club eventually outgrew the facility. Thus, the developer acquired contour mapping of the Qu'Appelle Valley and spotted a secondary valley that could potentially be used as a bigger ski area site.

The founder monitored the snow conditions for a winter and then formed Snoasis Properties Inc. along with three other partners. The group acquired funding from a provincial government lending program to cover the cost of two Dopplemayr triple chairlifts, a snowmaking system, and a day lodge. These were all constructed in 1973.

While the ski runs were easily cleared, the biggest challenge was finding a water supply for the snowmaking system. After drilling several holes, a well that could produce significant volume was not found. As an alternative, a reservoir was developed which would be filled with the spring runoff of the stream in the bottom of the valley. However, the reservoir lost water during the summer and had to be replenished in the fall.

Due to this, a temporary irrigation line was laid north of the river, but the Piapot Band refused access to the river after a new council was elected. A permanent pipeline was needed, but the request to increase the loan from the provincial lending program was denied.

As Snoasis could not operate in this manner, they could not pay back their loan to the provincial government. Thus, the keys were handed over and Snoasis was abandoned — after it had operated at a great profit, enough even to clear all construction debts and make one payment on the government's loan program. However, this was not enough. By 1978, the developers of Snoasis walked away, leaving all assets sitting. SEDCO, one of the creditors for the ski area, took control of all assets.

Hidden Valley

The ski area sat unused until 1980, when a new development group purchased the land, and renamed the ski area to Hidden Valley. The ski hill reopened in December of 1980 with both chairlifts operational. A new corporation, Hidden Valley Ski Resorts Ltd. purchased all assets from SEDCO.

Hidden Valley unveiled grand plans for condos, a new day lodge, and additional terrain expansions. The future was looking bright for the ski area, and the mountain initially attracted respectable visitation from Regina.

However, the second year of operations was a disaster. Low snow totals, paired with rising expenses ate away at any profit that Hidden Valley made. By the summer of 1982, both triple chairs were removed, and the ski area was perminantly closed.

One chairlift ended up at Blackstrap, Saskatchewan (removed 2018). The other chairlift ended up at Beaver Mountain, Ontario (still operating). These triple chairlifts were the first ever Doppelmayr triples to end up in North America.