Pow Day For Cypress Mountain

A mild temperature and rain in Vancouver during the Winter usually means one thing; snow on our local North Shore Mountains. The plan was for me to go up to Cypress and go riding by myself as well as take a Level 4 lesson while Robyn worked. It was unfortunate that Robyn had to work but I cannot lie, the snow was great and I had a fun time.

According to the local weather we were supposed to receive up to 30mm of rain in the City and 40-50mm rain on the mountains. I was a bit skeptical on whether or not I would get to go up Saturday as I did not want to ride in the rain. After Robyn headed off to work, I called our friend up at Cypress to ask her how it looked. She said it was snowing and I best come up.

The drive was alright until the last stretch of road. The snow started falling, the roads were snowy and the Cypress Charter bus in front of me was going really slow. There were times where Robyn’s car (her’s has snow tires) would drift to the right. It freaked me out as my only though was: what if I couldn’t make it up the hill, I am so close! Luckily there was enough traction and I made it up. The plows were just starting their descent down the roads (did you know Cypress has like three times as many plows as the City of Vancouver?) and people were getting out of their parked cars headed for the runs.

I stopped off at the Lodge, picked up my lift pass, entered for a Level 4 lesson and said hi to our friend Lili. I headed off over to the Lions Express chair only to find out they were not allowing people to load due to an Avalanche Warning. So I hoofed it over to the Eagle Express chair and started my day.

I first took to Panorama (green) to get warmed up. Due to the snow and cloud coverage there was no opportunity for me to take photos of Vancouver below. It was great getting out on the runs as the previous night Cypress received up to 25cm of fresh snow. It was quite and relaxing. I went back up to Fork (blue) and started working on my turning technique. When I got to Lower Fork there was some pretty crazy deep fresh pow. Without have any experience it in I did manage to bail pretty good a couple times. I tried to keep my board’s nose up but I kept plowing it in. The pow was a bit heavy but soft enough so it was fun falling.  I went up 1 more time before my 10:30am lesson but took Cascade (blue) after Upper Fork as to avoid the moguly pow conditions of Lower Fork.

It was time for my 10:30am Level 4 lesson. Robyn and I have both found that typically after Level 3 (in both ski and snowboarding) Level 4 and up usually end up being private lessons. This was great as I was not entirely sure I was ready for a Level 4 lesson. According to Cypress, Level 4 is introduction to Black runs and moguls. I talked to my instructor (David) and he said because it was a private lesson we would just work on whatever I wanted to. This was great, I wanted to work on steeper terrain and learn how to handle mogules. So this is exactly what we did.

After our initial run on Collins (green), as David wanted to see what skill level I was at, we went back up to on the Lions Express chair to Humpty Dumpty (blue). Humpty Dumpty used to be a black run (also was Lili’s favorite) but they groomed it over the Summer and it is not as much as a chute run as it used to be. It was great for working on moguls as there were a lot of them. Not hard icy ones mind you so it wasn’t going to be too difficult to handle.

The pointers he told me were to look 1 or 2 moguls ahead and ensure I look to where I wanted to go. I got the hang of it pretty quick and we managed to get down the mountain without incident. Well except for how my instructor had to answer the call of nature off in the tree line. He hadn’t have the change to take a break as he was in a private lesson before my lesson. The funny part was the moment he went off into the tree to do his thing, two snowboarders came riding by him in the tree line. Anyway we all had a good laugh.

Humpty Dumpty runs into Horizon (blue) which eventually leads you back to either of the lifts. We took off towards the Eagle Express to try some steeper terrain and work on quicker, more narrow turns.

We first went down Panorama (green) to work on a fun exercise of switching edges while in mid turn. We would do little hops to switch from toe edge to heel edge and then back from heel edge to toe edge.

Went back up and then down Fork and took the first right which was P.G.S (blue) or Parallel Giant Slalom which is for the 2010 Winter Olympics to practice turning on steeper terrain. It went well and David was happy with my progress. It was also moguly so I not only got to practice narrower turns but being able to control myself on and around moguls too.

For our next run we went down Fork and branched off to Cascade (blue) to keep practicing making narrower and narrower turns. It was fun as we tried to see how many turns we could do and then also incorporate all of the aspects of riding too. Aspect such as keeping my back straight, knees bent, putting pressure on my lead foot when turning, rolling over to my heel or toe edge, flexion and extension, ensuring I am looking where I am going and more.

After my lesson I went into the lodge and had a drink and something to eat. Cam (from work) sent me a text saying he was on the mountain and if we wanted to meet up. So we did and we hit Midway (blue) with his brother. Going down Midway was alright until I hit some deep pow and my board decided to go submarine on me and bury myself in knee deep snow. I tried hard to get out of it but I ended up having to get off my board and walk down to the non-pow area. That took a lot out of me, luckily I did not have skis as I did see someone earlier lose a ski in the pow.

We went back up to Collins to take it easy. According to Cam he bit it hard earlier and cracked his goggles so he didn’t mind doing a green run. That went well so we decided to go in for lunch (as Cam hadn’t eaten yet). After lunch we went back out to Fork and did a couple more runs and they went well. I was done after that and headed home.

I really enjoy my time up in the snowy mountains on my board and it did suck Robyn was unable to come out as the snow was great. The mountain was not as busy as I thought it migh have been for being a weekend day. I got to work on some new skills and I am enjoying my progress. Did I remember to mention that once I got back to the car in the parking lot there was 2 feet of snow around it? It kept on snowing and now Cypress Mountain’s base is at over 250cm!

You can check out all the Cypress Mountain photos we have on the Cypress Flickr Set.

Filed Under: Mountain Talk, Snowboarding
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