After a few runs on the fresh snow on Cypress Mountain Friday morning, snowboarder Mark Halliday declared: “Opening run [today was] better than any day last year.”
Halliday, who’s had a pass at Cypress for the past two decades, and other local skiers and snowboarders were all smiles on Friday as Cypress and Grouse mountains opened up under sunny skies and memories of last year’s paltry snow conditions quickly melted away.
“I never stopped believing,” said Halliday, about snow conditions at local ski hill operations.
The veteran snowboarder described conditions on Friday’s ski runs as, “Well-manicured, great grooming. It’s epic.”
Matthew Taylor of North Vancouver was also enjoying the fresh snow at Cypress on Friday. “First day of the season,” he said, grinning.
“[The local snow conditions were] dreadful last year,” said Taylor, a pass holder who only got in about a dozen days last winter. He’s planning for many more ski days this season including a trip up Grouse Mountain. “So my wife and I can go for a few turns.”
Cypress reported Friday the ski hill had already accumulated more snow at its base area — around 45 centimetres — than at any point last season.
While skiing opened around the same date last year, the snow on the hill then was mostly manmade.
“[Last year] it was a challenging season for sure. We relied heavily on snow-making to get some days… the natural snow never came,” said Joffrey Koeman, spokesman for Cypress Mountain. This year snow has come mostly courtesy of Mother Nature so far. “It’s definitely a different feeling for opening day,” said Koeman.
Just in case the weather doesn’t co-operate all season, both Cypress and Grouse have invested $500,000 each in additional snow-making equipment this year.
That’s dramatically increased Grouse’s ability to make snow, said Julia Grant, spokeswoman for Grouse Mountain. As temperatures have dipped over the past week, those snow guns have been firing.
Skiers and snowboarders also got their first taste of winter on Grouse Mountain Friday afternoon, as the ski hill opened its Paradise Bowl and Paradise Jib runs off the Greenway Chair.
“[Since Nov. 1], we’ve had a couple of good snowfalls,” said Grant. Snow depth on Grouse was about 35 centimetres at the mid-mountain plateau and 43 cm at the peak on opening day. “We’ve got some nice fresh corduroy. We’re pretty optimistic for this winter.”
Seymour Mountain, which doesn’t have snow-making equipment, opening its tobogganing area last weekend, but hasn’t opened any ski or snowboarding areas yet. “We’re getting close. We’re not quite there yet,” said Simon Whitehead, spokesman for the ski hill.
Whitehead said there has been about 57 cm of snowfall so far and there’s more snow forecast this week – welcome news for all three local mountains. Seymour prefers to have about a one-metre base on the ski runs off the main chair lift before opening, said Whitehead. “Last season we opened on a lot less.”
Understandably, the last ski season is one that local mountains aren’t keen to dwell on. A washout year with little snowfall left ski hills struggling, with Cypress and Seymour conceding to Mother Nature and closing before the end of March.
This year, a strong El Nino weather pattern shaping up in the Pacific could still present challenges. But that may not happen right away, said Doug Lundquist, an Environment Canada meteorologist.
“We think it will be a warmer winter but El Nino often comes with an early outbreak of cold air,” said Lundquist. “Warmer weather comes in the last two-thirds of winter. It can be cold at the beginning.”
Lundquist said the warmer temperatures that an El Nino weather system brings are usually more apparent in the Lower Mainland in the latter part of the winter — from the end of December onwards.
But Whitehead said Seymour has examined snow data for the last big El Nino year, 1997, and found the snow base in April wasn’t much less than a non-El Nino year.
Ski mountain representatives were thinking positive on Friday. “We’re thrilled [by recent snowfall], as I’m sure Grouse and Cypress are,” said Whitehead.
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