Yesterday’s storm may have created headaches throughout the south coast and Vancouver Island – but it was latest bit of good news for the region’s ski hills.
“Very good news for North shore skiers, for the mountains, hopefully for water next spring,” said Trevor Smith, Environment Canada Meteorologist.
Cypress Bowl said 75 centimetres of snow fell on their mountain last night – the biggest storm in two seasons. And in Whistler, 42 centimetres fell over a 24 hour period.
“The snow conditions were superior. People were raving, literally raving about the conditions in lift lines,” says Adam Francis, Whistler Blackcomb Mountain Manager.
“I think people are really missed it last season and when they see the powder on the ground and they see the accumulation that we had and the conditions get out, people are up here and enjoying it.”
While Whistler still had a relatively successful 2014-2015 ski season, mountains on the North Shore and Vancouver Island were closed for much of the winter due to the lack of precipitation.
READ MORE: Mt. Washington suspending operations due to lack of snow
But Smith says it appears that season was an outlier and not a harbinger of things to come.
“I think what it puts into perspective was last winter was so unusual for its lack of weather. This is more what we’re used to seeing on the coast, storm after storm.”
And while the weather was calmer today, Smith says another storm is expected later this week.
“It looks like the pattern is going to get a little bit calmer, so we don’t see any major systems coming on to the coast until next Friday. It should stay fairly cool, so freezing levels will be low and people should be able to get to the mountains and enjoy the snow,” he says.