Remember when I said the snow has been terrible this year? Well, it has, but after I last posted there were a couple of good snow dumps on the mountains, so we made the most of it and went night skiing a few times. Our goal was to gain confidence in skiing, and to hopefully enjoy some beautiful views. The latter turned out to be harder than we thought!
Living in the West End of downtown Vancouver is great for many reasons, and one of them is how close we are to the Lions Gate Bridge. Getting to the North Shore is so quick from here! A 30 minute drive brings you to Cypress Mountain Resort, one of the three skiing spots directly around Vancouver. Unfortunately, it wasn’t until January that the snow was good enough to hit the slopes. Here’s our short story of how it was for us this mini skiing season.
learning without the views
The first few times we went skiing here in Canada, the conditions weren’t great. Our first time at Big White Mountain in the Okanagan (Feb 2022); it was snowing and fully overcast, but it was our first-ever lesson, so we were too focused on not breaking our knees to be fussed about not having clear blue skies. Our second time was in Whistler (Dec 2023) – we did quite well in that lesson, but unfortunately it was another overcast day. We didn’t get to see Whistler in its full glory.
Our third time was an evening at Cypress Mountain in January, but the sun goes down at 4 PM in that period, so it was pitch black once we were up there. We were still getting used to skiing, so we stayed in the Easy Rider section, while our lovely Dutch friends did their own thing on the black runs. They gave us their stamp of approval when they came to check us out, so we thought next time we’d try and ‘graduate’ to the green runs.
Getting the hang of it (and the views)!
‘Next time’ took a bit long though, mostly due to poor snow conditions. On 1 March, we made our way to the Easy Rider hill again for a few practice runs before trying the green run. We were so excited to finally have a chance to look out over the ocean and the city! Sure enough, that night we could see the pretty city lights in the distance.
We were back a week later, rushing after work to try and have some sunlight left! On 7 March we brought up the courage to take the higher lift, up to the top, so we could go to the sunset spot. We were on time for the sunset, but unfortunately a big misty cloud blocked the view (see our last post). OH well. At least we had a chance to practice going down all the way from the top. It went pretty well, so it was really encouraging! After the sun had gone down, it cleared up very nicely, so once again we had some really pretty city lights to marvel at. Will we still get to see the real thing, with the ski season coming to an end this month?
A few days later, Tom gave it another try. He video called me to show me the GORGEOUS view. And so I joined him a few days later when the weather forecast was looking pristine. And oh my gosh. It was so beautiful. 15 March, on the top, incredible visibility, fantastic sunset. Seeing this place from the ground is already so amazing – the Sea to Sky highway is mind-blowingly beautiful. Absolutely loved seeing these surroundings from above! Skiing back down, the sky kept its vivid red and yellow colour for another 20 minutes. Gorgeous!
Unfortunately, that was also the last time I was up there. It’s 12 April now, and night skiing is no longer available. Cypress Mountain is preparing for the summer season, and so am I. The thick winter clothes have been swapped for the spring and summer wardrobe, and my helmet and ski clothes are tucked away in a box. It’s too bad that the conditions were so limited this year, and that we didn’t get to try Whistler again. But hey. Another chance next season, which hopefully starts as ‘normal’ in November/December.
