Winter sticks around on local Vancouver mountains

While school children enjoy spring break, rapidly improving weather,andtwo weeks away from classes, it's still winter at the ski hills around Vancouver.

As of Wednesday afternoon, all three local mountains (Grouse, Cypress, and Seymour) werereportingsnowfall in the last 24 hoursand plenty of accumulation in the last week. But skies have opened up, making for great conditions for skiers and snowboarders.

"For the last week it's been pretty miserable in Vancouver. We like to say, 'If it's six degrees and raining in the city, it means it's good times and snowing at Mount Seymour,'" said Mount Seymour marketing manager Simon Whitehead.

"This is absolutely fantastic for this time of the year."

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Jason Fahlman took the day off work to bring his spring breaking family up to the hill.

"It's great conditions, great snow," he said in the relatively short Mount Seymour chairlift lineup.

"It's lots of fun and you get to spend time with your family," said his 11-year-old daughter, Natasha. "My mom's on the bunny hill."

Natasha's brother Luke, 6, seemed to be having a good time. He said he likes jumpingand can jump better than his older sister.

"I'd say he's pretty good. He's pretty competitive," confirmed Fahlman.

Delta's Ken Cooper and his family spent the day on the hill doing some snowshoeing.

"We like snowshoeing here; it's beautiful trails and today was beautiful snow," he said.

Tagging alongwere three-year-old Audrey and six-year-old Eva, who seemed a little exhausted from the adventure.

"The girls got a little tired, so we didn't go as far as we do some days," said Cooper.

Eva, who was the only actual spring breaker in the group of six, said she and her sister were still saving some energy for a snowball fight.

Whitehead said the weather is expected to clear up even more, thoughtemperatures would likely rise over the next few days. He said the hill featuresplenty of activities to keepschool children busyover spring break.

"We've got snowshoeing. We've got tobogganing.We've got tubing.We've got skiing.We've got some great learning terrain," he said.

"Winter's definitely not over yet."