B.C. snow-related businesses celebrate arrival of winter weather

Cooler temperatures and the upcoming forecast have some Metro Vancouver businesses that rely on snow rejoicing.

With the first longer-lasting blast of cold arriving in the region this weekend and stretching into next week, winter is finally arriving in B.C.

CityNews Meteorologist Michael Kuss says the area north of Squamish up to Whistler could see 15 to 20 centimetres into Saturday.

“With the transition and the cooler air on the way, we’re already getting into snow at those higher elevation locations,” he said Friday. “It’ll take a little bit longer but we are expecting snow working up over the Coquihalla and the mountain passes inland, as well, over the next 24 to 48 hours.”

The North Shore mountains are also expecting flurries. This is all good news for businesses like Destination Slope Outfitters, which has seen some parts of its operations hard hit by the warmer-than-usual winter so far.

“We have three categories in our business: we do rent skis by the day — that’s been impacted heavily,” explained Paul Zirk, president and owner of Destination Ski Rentals.

“We also have a long-term thing for kids, which has been only nominally impacted … and then we custom-fit ski boots and that has been only nominally affected until this week. The business up until Christmas Eve was very normal. From the 26th until now has been off by quite a bit.”

He tells CityNews many have been waiting for the snow to arrive before making purchases.

But, with the cold snap finally upon us, he says that interest is starting to pick up.

“Anytime you get past the Christmas rush there’s some slowdown. But we expect to see a recovery,” said Zirk.

Cypress Mountain was quick to celebrate the arrival of winter weather, announcing on Thursday that it would be opening more terrain and activities with the arrival of more snow.

“Despite Mother Nature’s initial hesitation this season, we received 5cm of snow overnight, with more in the forecast for the next 8 days. Alongside the expected snowfall, anticipated drops in temperature create an opportune window for snowmaking that our dedicated team and 84 high-powered snow guns are ready to leverage,” Cypress said on Thursday.

“The planned opening is pending expected snow, if we don’t get enough snow and can’t safely open the terrain, we may need to delay the opening.”

December was unseasonably warm, with Kuss saying the month saw an average temperature of 7°C, tying December for the warmest on-record at YVR.

-With files from Cole Schisler