There’s snow doubt about it.
The winter storms that have brought power outages and flooding to parts of Metro Vancouver have cash registers jangling in the mountains.
“It’s just dumping — it’s unbelievable,” crowed Whistler Blackcomb’s chief operating officer Dave Brownlie yesterday. “We broke the record for November with 11 days to go.”
Whistler has recorded 418 centimetres of snow so far this month, the highest amount in November since records started being kept in 1979.
The previous record was set in 2006 when 416 cm fell in November.
“This is my 22nd winter and this is phenomenal,” added Brownlie. “Knock on wood, the forecast looks very good.”
He said the early snow, which is getting attention worldwide, is a very good counter to the Olympic “aversion factor,” which tends to deter visitors to ski hills that are hosting the Games.
“People are pumped,” said Brownlie. “They can’t remember a start that’s been this incredible. There’s a lot of smiling faces up here.”
He said the forecast is for cold and snow through the weekend, when another metre of snow is expected.
Whistler Mountain opened last weekend and Blackcomb opens Nov. 26.
North Shore mountains are doing just as well.
Cypress Mountain got 64 cm of snow in the last 24 hours, said spokesman Kent Rideout.
“We are really pleased to be up and running,” he said. “This year was our third-earliest opening ever. It just bodes well in an Olympic year.”
Cypress, which already has a 176-cm base at mid-mountain, is hosting the 2010 freestyle skiing and snowboarding events in February.
“We want to make sure we have a good snow base,” Rideout added. “This is great for our customers as it gives them a little longer season before the Games closures start on Feb. 1.”
Mount Seymour is celebrating a 44-cm dump of snow and will open today, two weeks earlier than forecast.
“Now that everyone knows the mountain has lots of snow, the buzz around skiing and snowboarding is just huge,” said spokeswomen Julie Mulligan.
Grouse Mountain, which opened last Friday, got a 33-cm dump in the past 24 hours, said spokesman William Mbaho.
dinwood@theprovince.com
