'We're very optimistic moving forward': North Shore mountains get fresh dump of snow

Mount Seymour reopened Saturday with a fresh layer of powder to ring in the new year.

“This feels incredible,” said Eddie Wood, Mount Seymour's general manager. “We’ve had over 30 centimetres of snow in the last 24 hours. It’s brought our base back up to just over 60 centimetres and we are back in operation.”

Wood says he’s relieved after a mild December forced the North Shore mountain to temporarily shut down. 

Nearby, Cypress Mountain saw nearly 45 centimetres drop over 24 hours, and Grouse Mountain recorded almost 30 centimetres of snow.

Whistler, meanwhile, had a busy day on the slopes, with the mountain recording nearly a metre of fresh snow.

Wood believes the ski/snowboard season is still salvageable.

“We’re very optimistic moving forward,” said Wood. “We’ll see something like this happen once every seven, eight years, where we have a slightly slower start before we get into the season.”

Environment and Climate Change Canada is also calling for more cooler temperatures, with another blast of snowfall in higher elevated areas across Metro Vancouver.

“They’re definitely going to see a big boost over the North Shore mountains,” said Trevor Smith, meteorologist with Environment and Climate Change Canada. “Probably anywhere from sort of 20 to 40 centimetres.”

Smith believes the snowfall could happen late Sunday night into Monday.