A recent snowfall on the North Shore mountains has ski hills gearing up for the winter season.
So far there are no predi ctions about when skiers will likely be able to hit the slopes.
Cypress, Grouse and Mt. Seymour all had a dusting of snow within the past week.
The mountains have seen relatively warm temperatures, but cooler weather could be on the way.
"Essentially Environment Canada is predicting that from about now until March... the temperatures are going to run below average, which is really good," said Emmalee Brunt, communications coordinator for Mt. Seymour. Predictions also include the possibility of higher than average precipitation from November to January, she added.
Cypress Mountain and Mt. Seymour have already received around five centimetres of snow, though most of it has already melted.
Joffrey Koeman, director of sales and marketing at Cypress Mountain, said temperatures that fell below freezing at night allowed
Cypress to make snow with their snow guns on Nov. 3 and 4, but it melted the following day.
Grouse Mountain saw a bit more with seven centimetres of snowfall. Jacqueline Blackwell, public relations manager at Grouse, said more is predicted for the coming days.
"Winter is well underway here at Grouse Mountain as we opened our ice skating pond this past Sunday," said Blackwell.
Mt. Seymour has already had newsletter subscribers as well as social media followers anxious to know when the hill will open, Brunt said.
"Our predictions are end of November up until mid-December," said Brunt.
Koeman said in the past, Cypress has usually opened around the beginning of December. However, last year the mountain opened Nov. 14 and the year before that Nov. 8, which Koeman said was their earliest opening ever.
"The improvements that we've made to our snow making system over the past couple of years I think have really allowed us to open earlier," he said. "So we're sitting right around the time. It could happen any day now."
