Berry pickers seek for uncommon fruit at Fortress Mountain Resort – Lethbridge

It was a berry picker’s delight on Saturday at Fortress Mountain Resort. The situation, oftentimes recognized for its ski hills, noticed lots of of individuals arriving searching for uncommon fruit.

Huckleberries aren’t simply present in southern Alberta, besides within the excessive elevations of the mountain resort.

Cole Fawcett, gross sales and advertising supervisor with Fortress Mountain, stated the berries are plentiful in areas reminiscent of northern Montana, Idaho and the inside of B.C., however not in Alberta.

“In southwestern Alberta, they’re fairly uncommon, actually, the citadel area, Waterton and maybe additional north are the one locations you will discover them,” Fawcett stated.

For the reason that mid-nineties, the resort has welcomed lots of of friends in the summertime months to participate within the Huckleberry Pageant.

“Huckleberry Pageant is the someday, actually the someday all summer time we open up the huckleberry chair elevate and spin it,” Fawcett stated.

The selecting adventures usually embrace traversing the mountainous terrain because the berries like a subalpine space of elevation.

“Should you’ve ever had huckleberries you’ll know that they’re definitely worth the effort,” stated Marie Cameron who has labored with Fortress Mountain Resort for twenty years.

She added this 12 months’s crop isn’t fairly as strong as earlier years however famous the workers’s enthusiasm for the day makes up for any missing’s.

“If their berry-picking bucket isn’t full their different bucket may be full of the character and the expertise and the great jokes that I inform them right here,” Cameron laughed. “The leisure, the meals… There are a number of alternatives for buckets to be stuffed at this time.”

The competition was additionally house to music, a market and even some video games for kids to take pleasure in.