North Shore mountains closed to skiing, snowboarding Wednesday and Thursday due to weather

If you were planning on getting a few runs in at one of the North Shore mountains Wednesday or Thursday, you were out of luck.

Cypress, Mt Seymour, and Grouse all announced closures for the both days.

Grouse said “inclement weather” is behind its decision to close the downhill area for skiing and riding Wednesday, with Cypress also citing the same reason for its closure of its downhill and Nordic areas.

“We are closed today, Jan 31, due to inclement weather. We are scheduled to open tomorrow, Feb 1,” Mt Seymour adds.

This comes as rain continues to drench the region, as part of an atmospheric river that began days ago.

The weather system has also brought warmer temperatures to the B.C. South Coast, with temperature records broken in over three dozen communities across B.C. Tuesday.

Jordan Allen, the manager of North Shore Ski and Board in North Vancouver, says mountain closures have been impacting business.

“We usually have a big uptick in customers who are very keen before the season starts,” Allen said. “Definitely with the lack of snow, it has been a little slower in sales, but we have a lot of optimistic customers who are still shopping and looking for a good season.”

Allen says despite the lack of snow so far, mountain enthusiasts shouldn’t be discouraged just yet.

“We have been a lot better, but we have seen a lot worse as well,” he said. “A lot of people forget 2010, during the Olympics, we didn’t have any snow. But we had a great February, March, April after the Olympics. So yeah, we’ve seen it before.”

B.C. Minister of Tourism, Arts, Culture, and Sport Lana Popham tells snow enthusiasts there is still hope for the season.

“There are some challenges the mountains are having on the coast this year, with a lack of a snow base, but these are very seasoned businesses,” Popham said. “They have technologies with their snow grooming these days.”

Allen says Sun Peaks, Silver Star, and Big White all have good snow this year.

He says he’s not too worried about the coastal mountains, and he believes it will be only a matter of time before the North Shore runs gets a big dump of snow.

“Generally speaking, we have really good seasons into late February or early March even April,” he said. “So a lot of people are looking forward to those conditions that we always get.”

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