Weather changes putting smiles on people’s faces

By David F. Rooney

Running a ski resort this winter has occasionally seemed like an iffy proposition. Much of January and February surely gave Rob Elliott, Revelstoke Mountain Resort’s general manager, heart palpitations as frigid — And snowless! — weather settled over the mountain. But that has now completely changed.

“Current grooming requests and grumblings are non-existent,” he told The Revelstoke Current. “It’s peculiar that we now receive compliments for lack of it.

“The smiles leaving the base area are how we judge success and the success level has been high for most of this season. Currently, the happiness quotient is off the chart.”

That’s good to hear. Just last week both locals and visitors were complaining openly about the lack of decent snow and issues with the mountain’s winch cat grooming machines. The resort has purchased another groomer which  maintain the runs in good condition for the rest of the season.

All five lifts and 59 runs are open. The resort has received 158 centimetres of snow since the drought ended. 35 centimetres of the white stuff arrived in the last 24 hours And the weekend promises to be a nice one with a high of -1° Celsius and a daytime low of -3°.

“Also it might interest you that we’ve sent out 9 Powder Alerts since Feb. 11 (sent at 5 am when there’s 10 cm+ in 24 hours),” says RMR’s Ian Houghton.

So, providing a steady supply of snow, the skiing and snowboarding situation looks pretty good for the rest of the season.

Meanwhile, down in the valley, Tina Mirtsch at the City’s Public Works Department says we’ve had 355 centimetres (that’s more than 138 inches or 11.5 feet) dumped on us here in the valley.

But that’s life in the mountains, isn’t it? If you don’t like the weather, just wait 10 minutes.