This is the entrance to the hikers’ (showshoers, backcountry skiers’) route up Hollyburn Mountain yesterday. The Park Rangers have had to cut stairs and a hallway through the snowbank beside the road so that people can reach the trailhead. Some years, we can ski right down to the cars parked along the road. This year we would end up at the top of an 8-foot cliff of snow. Most of this snow has arrived in 2008. There is no snow only 1000 feet below here on the hill. In this magical place, called Cypress bowl, snow still falls almost every time it is raining in Vancouver.
Readers of this blog know that I recognize 3 local seasons (not four). I don’t know the exact day that the Dark Season ends and Spring arrives. It seems to be around or after Valentine Day and before the end of February.
We’ll, in my opinion, Spring has arrived. Now is when my backcountry ski season really begins. On this day we left all of the Gortex in the car. It was actually warm in the sun. With this snowpack (and still more snow to come), we could still be skiing in July (but probably not here).
Cypress Bowl is only a 1/2 hour drive up a switchback highway from West Vancouver. An hour of walking or skiing up through old-growth forest is all that it takes to reach the summit.
Although it is close to urban Vancouver, this amazing Provincial Park certainly has a big mountain feel to it. The views of nearby hills, of the city, and of the Salish Sea are worth the treck.
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