Cypress Mountain 2019/ 2020

[LeopardSkin]

i can't believe drh missed today's pow day.

[drh]

Another great powder day at Cypress with 17 cm of fresh snow. Lots of fresh tracks on Black on Black, Bilodeau, Moons and Top Gun amongst others.

[drh]

Had a nice surprise today at Cypress. While there was only five cm of new snow around the Eagle and Lions chairs there was 12-15 cm higher up. Had some great powder turns on Tomcat, Ripcord and Top Gun along with Rob, and Bob.

[drh]

At 6 AM this morning it didn't look promising as there was no new snow showing on the Cypress snow stake. However, Avalanche.ca had called for 10-15 CM of new snow last night and the Seymour snow stake showed about 15 CM this morning. Turned out to be lots of fresh tracks to be had at Cypress at higher elevations. Had some fun turns on Blow By, Slash, Tomcat, Ripcord, and Top Gun.

[ZeroR2]

At 6 AM this morning it didn't look promising as there was no new snow showing on the Cypress snow stake. However, Avalanche.ca had called for 10-15 CM of new snow last night and the Seymour snow stake showed about 15 CM this morning. Turned out to be lots of fresh tracks to be had at Cypress at higher elevations. Had some fun turns on Blow By, Slash, Tomcat, Ripcord, and Top Gun.

Thank you for the updates. I have passed a few times and then you post how good it was. What is the best source of information you use to get the conditions? I kind of just check the webcams, but it doesn't look that motivating.

[drh]

At 6 AM this morning it didn't look promising as there was no new snow showing on the Cypress snow stake. However, Avalanche.ca had called for 10-15 CM of new snow last night and the Seymour snow stake showed about 15 CM this morning. Turned out to be lots of fresh tracks to be had at Cypress at higher elevations. Had some fun turns on Blow By, Slash, Tomcat, Ripcord, and Top Gun.

Thank you for the updates. I have passed a few times and then you post how good it was. What is the best source of information you use to get the conditions? I kind of just check the webcams, but it doesn't look that motivating.

Shortly after 6 AM I typically look at the websites for Cypress, Grouse and Seymour to look at their webcams and snow reports. Sometimes Seymour and Grouse will still have the reports from the previous night which can be helpful as there may have been snow falling after I last checked the day before. Then around 6:15 AM I'll look again as Seymour and Grouse will have updated their conditions. I also check the forecasts from Snow-forecast.com for Cypress as well as Seymour and look at the predictions for the bottom of each hill as well as the middle. An important one to look at is Avalanche.ca forecasts for the North Shore Mountains. They usually put it out around 5 PM each day, and occasionally update it in the morning if there's a significant change. The biggest issue is that Cypress Mountain reports their snowfall totals from the snow stake cam which is at the bottom of the hill near the lodge. The problem is that it is often around 0 C or plus 1 C at the bottom of the hill so there may have been rain at the bottom of the hill while snow was falling from mid mountain and up (but you have no way of knowing if it has or not since there's not a second snow stake higher up). So if the forecasts were calling for significant snow above 1100 or 1200 M during the night, there's a good chance that you might get some nice powder turns from mid mountain or higher, even though the Cypress snow stake cam shows nothing. Note that Snow-forecast.com usually tends to underestimate the expected snowfall while Avalanche.ca tends to overestimate. However, it is usually a crap shoot as you often have no idea what the conditions are going to be like until you are up on the hill. It can be raining in the parking lot when you arrive but then you find out there's great snow higher up. Of course sometimes you find it's raining top to bottom and what new snow fell higher up is too wet and sticky, or maybe it all froze during the night and it's all a miserable crust. It's usually a guessing game as to what the conditions will be like but sometimes it ends up being better than you expected which is always a treat.

[ZeroR2]

At 6 AM this morning it didn't look promising as there was no new snow showing on the Cypress snow stake. However, Avalanche.ca had called for 10-15 CM of new snow last night and the Seymour snow stake showed about 15 CM this morning. Turned out to be lots of fresh tracks to be had at Cypress at higher elevations. Had some fun turns on Blow By, Slash, Tomcat, Ripcord, and Top Gun.

Thank you for the updates. I have passed a few times and then you post how good it was. What is the best source of information you use to get the conditions? I kind of just check the webcams, but it doesn't look that motivating.

Shortly after 6 AM I typically look at the websites for Cypress, Grouse and Seymour to look at their webcams and snow reports. Sometimes Seymour and Grouse will still have the reports from the previous night which can be helpful as there may have been snow falling after I last checked the day before. Then around 6:15 AM I'll look again as Seymour and Grouse will have updated their conditions. I also check the forecasts from Snow-forecast.com for Cypress as well as Seymour and look at the predictions for the bottom of each hill as well as the middle. An important one to look at is Avalanche.ca forecasts for the North Shore Mountains. They usually put it out around 5 PM each day, and occasionally update it in the morning if there's a significant change. The biggest issue is that Cypress Mountain reports their snowfall totals from the snow stake cam which is at the bottom of the hill near the lodge. The problem is that it is often around 0 C or plus 1 C at the bottom of the hill so there may have been rain at the bottom of the hill while snow was falling from mid mountain and up (but you have no way of knowing if it has or not since there's not a second snow stake higher up). So if the forecasts were calling for significant snow above 1200 or 1300 M during the night, there's a good chance that you might get some nice powder turns from mid mountain or higher, even though the Cypress snow stake cam shows nothing. Note that Snow-forecast.com usually tends to underestimate the expected snowfall while Avalanche.ca tends to overestimate. However, it is usually a crap shoot as you often have no idea what the conditions are going to be like until you are up on the hill. It can be raining in the parking lot when you arrive but then you find out there's great snow higher up. Of course sometimes you find it's raining top to bottom and what new snow fell higher up is too wet and sticky, or maybe it all froze during the night and it's all a miserable crust. It's usually a guessing game as to what the conditions will be like but sometimes it ends up being better than you expected which is always a treat.

Thank you for the detailed information. It started so well for me up to the end of the year, then I was questioning myself if I should go when the stake didn't have much snow. I don't go, then you report back how much new powder snow there is. I feel like an idiot. I will take note of your suggestions. Great info.

[drh]

Well, Avalanche.ca was forecasting 35-45 CM of snow for today with rain below 900 M and the freezing level at 1200 M. However, the Cypress snow cam showed zero CM of new snow and the 6 AM report said it was a mix of rain and snow at the base level. I arrived in the Lodge Lot at 8:15 AM and there was only about 10 other cars there. Hmmmm. Not looking good. I sat in the car for half an hour while it alternated between rain and sleet. It was pretty foggy when the Lions Chair opened around 9 AM so I couldn't see higher up on the hill. I figured I'd end up taking one run in the rain then go home. However, when I started going up on the chair, the rain turned to heavy snowfall by the time we passed the fourth chairlift tower. Big smiles! Ended up having one of the best days of the season. Did Upper and Lower Bowen, Humpty, then Slash twice before anyone else went down. I broke trail on Moons and ended up doing it three times by myself until another set of tracks appeared when I was on my fourth lap. There was about 25-35 CM of new snow on the upper part of Moons with less lower down. The snow quality was fabulous with the fat skis and the visibility was great most of the time. I was shocked at how few people were there all morning - usually just a couple of skiers or borders on every five to 10 chairs or so. I stayed on the Lions Chair until around 11 then went to Eagle to do Trumpeter twice and Hose Side, and B Hip. Just before noon there were still some fresh tracks to be had on upper and lower Jasey Jay. The freezing level was starting to rise so I finished the morning off with a run on Bilodeau, then had the Tony lunch special of poutine with bacon.

[Brian C]

Awesome conditions on Whistler the last three days too! Fresh snow and bluebird skies Monday and Tuesday, then a big dump of snow all morning (about 20cm) followed by sunshine again this afternoon. Hard to beat. Tired legs though!!!

[Brian C]

OSR Cypress. Good visibility, no rain, groomers-only day. A little too much starch on the corduroy though:(