Cypress Mountain has an impressive variety of skiing

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

 

We were impressed by the open slopes and lack of crowds