American Thanksgiving typically kickstarts the winter season for Whistler Blackcomb, but tourists and locals alike are not finding a ton of snow on opening day.
The resort is offering a limited amount of skiable terrain, listing a base of 57 centimetres as of Thursday morning, with the mountain’s hundreds of snowguns pumping out as many manmade flakes as possible.
“With an El Niño winter on the way, we knew this had the potential to be poor snow year for the ski hills,” said CityNews Meteorologist Michael Kuss.
“It’s off to a not-great start, with not much of a base up there and no snow in the immediate forecast in any significant way, and that takes us all the way through the end of the month.”
Kuss says the end of November is when the resort’s base usually starts to build up, with average accumulations around 150 cm.
“It has at least been cold enough over the last handful of days to make some snow up in the alpine at Whistler but if you’re looking for fresh tracks in the trees, you can forget about it,” he added.
In a release on Nov. 21, Whistler Blackcomb said available terrain on opening day would consist of Upper Ego Bowl, Extension/Family Zone, Upper Whiskey Jack, Pig Alley, Orange Peel, Papoose, Lower Pony Trail Bypass/ Cat Track, and Mid Pony Trail Road/ Upper Bear Cub Road on Whistler; and Wishbone, Choker, Easy Out and Lower Catskinner on Blackcomb.
“Whistler Blackcomb will continue to make snow at every opportunity in the early season and take advantage of ongoing snowfall to expand terrain offerings,” the release said.
Locally, the North Shore mountain resorts are also watching the weather closely, with no significant measurable snow base at Cypress Mountain, Grouse Mountain, or Mt Seymour.
In an average year, the local mountains open anywhere from late November to mid-December but, at this point, none are close to being able to offer skiable terrain.
Mt Seymour’s website lists an optimistic Dec. 8 as its opening day, while neither Cypress or Grouse have posted any projections.
source:CityNews photo:Courtesy Whistler
