After following the weather reports across most of Canada — and deep into the southern U.S. — these past few weeks, the last thing you’d think Vancouver Islanders would ask for is a piece of that action.
OK, the minus-40 temperatures we can do without.
But the West Coast’s mild winter has been far too mild for several coastal ski area operators, as well as for their clientele.
That’s why last weekend’s storm across the Island was cheered from the mountaintops. While residents near sea level were racing from home to car to workplace through diagonal sheets of rain, Mount Cain Ski Area greeted the storm’s arrival with a brief but enthusiastic sentence on its website:
“IT’S HYPERDUMPING!!!!”
Mount Cain, located off Highway 19 just south of Woss, is a holding of the Regional District of Mount Waddington and is managed by the nonprofit Mount Cain Alpine Society.
After several consecutive good snow years, Mount Cain was left high and dry during the recent Christmas break, a period in which the hill typically earns a substantial share of its meager seasonal revenue.
Its signature race-and-party weekend, the Cain Cup, was supposed to be held this coming weekend and has already been cancelled.
But the hill just might be opened for limited skiing and boarding this weekend, depending on the outcome of an inspection to be held this week after the Gazette went to press.
It can’t come too soon for the North Island’s skiers and boarders. If it means more snow for the mountain, they’ll gladly be all wet down here.