The North Shore’s mountains may not look like white elephants yet but there’s enough cold in them thar hills for tobogganing, skiing and snowboarding.
Mt. Seymour’s tobogganing and learning areas are ready for fresh tracks, but the mountain is about one foot of snow away from opening the rest of their runs, according to Emmalee Brunt, the resort’s communications co-ordinator.
The resort needs enough snow to safely carpet stumps and rocks before letting skiers and snowboarders head downhill, Brunt said.
A dusting over the weekend gave Seymour a base of about 33 centimetres, bringing the resort halfway to last year’s opening day base of 66 cm.
Grouse Mountain got 35 cm of snow for Christmas, bringing the base to 99 cm and allowing the resort to open Paradise Bowl, The Cut, the Upper and Lower Peak, and snowshoeing trails, according to public relations manager Jacqueline Blackwell.
“Looking ahead to this week, it’s supposed to be clear and cold,” Blackwell said. “That’s great news for our snowmaking efforts.”
“We’re happy that winter’s arrived,” she said.
Despite fears El Niño might drop wet warmth on Cypress this January, the current cold snap has allowed for round-the-clock snowmaking, according to spokesman Joffrey Koeman.
The resort had six of their 53 runs open by the beginning of the week with plans to open more each day.
Low temperatures have allowed the resort to make enough snow to cover 125 football fields, according to Koeman.
There’s a 40 per cent chance of more snow Friday afternoon and evening, according to Environment Canada meteorologist Colin Tam.
There’s also a “vague” chance of snow Saturday as weekend temperatures are predicted to range from 3 C to –1 C.
While the cold snap is good for the ski hills, it’s not so welcome in other corners of the North Shore.
As the temperature drops, more homeless people are expected to seek refuge at the Lookout Emergency Aid Society shelter on West Second Street and Bewicke Avenue, according to the society’s executive director Shayne Williams.
“We’ve got more room so we’d encourage the general population, if they see somebody on the streets, to redirect them to any Lookout location and we’ll get them to a bed that night,” Williams said.
The shelter has 45 beds and 20 additional mats ready to be rolled out in cases of extreme weather. There is a waitlist for a bed but Williams stressed they had 12 spare mats Monday night.
One of the major risks for homeless people during winter is sleeping next to a fire or a burner, said Williams, referring to the tragic death of Douglas Lalonde.
North Shore carpenter Lalonde died in 2012 when a candle lit fire to a chair, spreading through the abandoned shipping container he’d made his home.
The Metro Vancouver homeless count recorded 119 North Shore residents without shelter this March, but that number is likely the result of a “severe under-count,” according to Williams.
“For folks that don’t want to come in, they’ve gone farther out,” he said, referring to makeshift homeless camps on river banks.
Williams urges anyone in danger to come to a shelter this winter.
“We’d sure like to see anybody who’s on the streets come in and stay warm,” he said.
“We don’t want to see anybody expire from the cold weather.”
