Winter blast causes road chaos, closures
But ski resorts from Seymour to Whistler welcome ‘ pretty fantastic’ snow. More is expected
While nasty winter weather over the last few days has made commutes across the region miserable and closed schools in the Fraser Valley, the fresh snow is being celebrated at local ski hills.
Grouse Mountain reported 11 centimetres of new snow on Tuesday over the previous 24 hours, while Mount Seymour and Cypress Mountain had received 6 cm and 7 cm respectively since the day before.
More than 30 cm has fallen on each of the local hills over the past week and more is expected.
“Snow days equals get up here,” said Sarah Lusk, a spokeswoman for Grouse Mountain.
Conditions have been average so far this year, she said, noting a couple of unfortunate blips in recent weeks where temperatures rose and the snow base got rain instead of the white stuff.
“It’s pretty fantastic today,” Lusk said Tuesday. “Lots of powder. The visibility is pretty good.”
The forecast between now and the weekend looks good too, she said.
Environment Canada is calling for more periods of flurries and snow between now and Friday in Metro Vancouver, with the temperature forecast to hit - 8 C overnight Thursday.
At Whistler Blackcomb, the latest series of winter storm fronts has made the already consistent conditions even better, said resort spokesman, Peter Lonergan.
Roughly 4 cm of fresh snow fell overnight Monday, and it snowed through most of Tuesday, he said, adding it’s been “extremely cold” of late in Whistler — good for making snow with the resort’s 270 snow guns. “The colder it is, the more snow we can produce,” he said. “In a 24- hour period, the snow- making team can fill an NHL- sized rink to the top of the glass with snow.”
A big dump of snow hit the Fraser Valley as promised Monday night, prompting the closure of schools in Abbotsford, Chilliwack and Mission to close. The University of the Fraser Valley also closed all its campuses.
Snow and ice in the valley continued to cause problems on Highway 1 — especially east of Langley.
Around midday Tuesday, RCMP spokesman Sgt. Peter Thiessen advised drivers via his Twitter account to stay off the highway east of 264th Street if possible due to continuous snow and high winds. He also reminded truck drivers to chain up before heading east.