WILDWOOD, Mo. – Sunday was the last day for people to hit the slopes at Hidden Valley Ski Resort, and lots of families took advantage of the mild temperatures and artificial snow on the ground.

“It’s really fun,” said Margot Walsh, 9. “You just feel free. It feels like you’re flying.”

Kate Walsh took her kids, Margot and Ted, out to Hidden Valley to get in their final run of the season.

“They love skiing,” Kate said. “It’s a great way to be outside with the family. Their dad loves to ski, too, and so it’s a fun way to get out as a family and enjoy the outdoors.”

“We started skiing when we were like 3 or something,” Ted said.

James Kummer and his 11-year-old daughter had the same idea.

“We always try and get out here for the last day,” Kummer said. “It doesn’t matter really if there’s not a lot of snow, but yeah, just get that last final run in before the end of the year is important to us because we won’t be able to do this again for another probably 6, 7, 8 months.”

It hasn’t been cold enough for the snow guns to make any new snow in about two weeks, but there was still enough of the slopes for people to enjoy the last day of the season. The air temperatures surpassed 60°, and several people decided to ski wearing shorts.

“You don’t need a coat,” Ted said.

This was Tony Santora’s first year as general manager. He previously worked at Park City Mountain in Utah, and says one of his greatest passions is growing the sport of skiing. He has met so many new skiers in St. Louis.

“We had a lot of great people come out and visit us,” Santora said. “Our team was amazing. It is a little bit challenging with the warm weather that we’ve had all year, but our snow surfaces crew has been just unbelievable, and they were able to make snow and groom, and just really put out a product that we could all be proud of.”

Hidden Valley’s 40th season is now in the books.

“We’re just going to focus on getting the resort ready for the winter and getting ready for skiing and riding and tubing next year,” Santora said. “We’ve got a lot of preventative maintenance and capital projects that we work on through the summer to get this place back ready for next year.”

And families are looking forward to it, too.

“This is such a cool Saturday and Sunday activity, so I’m looking forward to getting out to Park City for spring break and hitting a big mountain,” Walsh said. “We’ll be back next season. They’ve done a great job here.”