by Keith and Heather Nicol
On a recent trip mid February trip to Vancouver, B.C. we decided to check out the alpine skiing at
Cypress Mountain which is just a 30-45 minute drive from many parts of the
city. We had been there at Christmas and were treated to near perfect cross
country skiing conditions at the Nordic centre (see: http://keithnicol.blogspot.ca/2016/01/perfect-cross-country-conditions-at.html). We were accompanied by our son
Michael who likes to ski and often heads to Cypress Mountain to get some turns since
it is so convenient from his downtown Vancouver residence. Plus Cypress has the
most vertical (610 meters) of any of the local ski areas on the North Shore
Mountains and it has 53 runs served by 6 chairlifts, 2 of which are high speed
quads, as well as 2 surface lifts. Cypress Mountain was also the site of the
freestyle skiing and snowboard events for the 2010 Winter Olympics and we noted
that the 5 rings at the base the mountain were a frequent backdrop for people
posing for pictures. We rented skis and were impressed by how fast we were in
and out and on the snow. We wish all ski rentals operations were as speedy!
The Olympic Rings are a popular backdrop for pictures |
Cypress Mountain has runs on both Mount
Strachan and Black Mountain and had an impressive 340 cm base of snow when we
skied it. Mount Strachan is the highest in elevation (1440 meters) and we skied
mainly off the Lions Express high speed quad where there were several
intermediate and expert runs. There had been several centimeters of new snow
over night which made for great skiing. We also skied runs on Black
Mountain which is served by the Eagle Express and the Raven Ridge chair. Some
of the longest black and double black diamond runs were located off the Raven
Ridge chair and we particularly liked Lower Coyote with its perfect corn snow. We can see why Cypress
Mountain is so popular since it features lots of winter options from alpine
skiing, snowshoeing, cross country skiing and even tubing. There are some great
spring specials coming up and we suggest you check out their web site: cypressmountain.com for details.
Michael skis through fresh powder past snow laden trees |
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