THE North Shore ski season may have as much as six weeks left in it thanks to a second year of unusually heavy snowfall, according to the community's ski resorts.
Grouse Mountain, which has seen more than 1,100 centimetres of snow since the fall, has made it to April with a base of about 5.6 metres at the peak, said spokeswoman Sarah Lusk, meaning the mountain will likely stay open until the end of May.
"We've just been getting continuous snow for the past few weeks," she said. "Conditions are amazing. . . . When it's raining in the city, it's dumping snow on the mountain."
The season is on track to be the snowiest since the record-setting 19981999 ski season, said Lusk, although she noted it might not beat last year's in terms of duration, when an especially robust base kept the resort open into the second week of June.
West Vancouver's Cypress Mountain has seen a similar bumper year, with 1,156 cm of snow falling since it opened in November. As of April 4, the ski hill had a 535 cm base, which should sustain it to the end of April, according to director of sales and marketing Joffrey Koeman.
The total isn't as high as it was last year, when the resort got about 14 metres, said Koeman, but that fell throughout the year, whereas this season's heaviest snowfalls have been focused in February and March, leaving the mountain better placed for spring skiing.
That, together with the early Nov. 8 opening, mean Cypress will likely have its longest ski season ever this year, he said.
North Vancouver's Mount Seymour, meanwhile, although it has seen a total snowfall similar to its neighbours and has started the month with an approximately six-metre base, will be forced to close April 15 to begin work on a new chairlift.
The resort plans to start dismantling its aging double fixed-grip chair the following day and replace it with a $5-million quad, which Seymour says will cut trips to its peak from nine minutes to four. The closure will be worthwhile, said spokeswoman Anna Rowinska.
"It's a lot faster," she said. "It goes at about five metres per second, and it doubles our capacity. . . . We're always looking to improve the experience for our guests." Follow us on Twitter: @ NorthShoreNews
