WATCH: Mount Washington’s season wraps up this weekend after four-and-a-half months and nearly nine metres of snowfall.
There is still a base of 50 centimeres of snow on the slopes of Mount Washington for the final weekend of the season, which is great news for Gary Sauer who comes all the way from Castlegar.
“We love coming here and I?ve actually skied 34 days this season,” said Sauer on Friday. “It?s the first time we bought a pass and it?s been awesome.”
Others are sneaking in their first trip up the mountain just before the resort closes.
“I am a snowboarder and my son learned to ski this year, he?s five, so we decided to come up on our last day as a family and I learned t, ski.” said Michelle Booth.
The season got off to a good start when it opened a weekend early in December.
There was also a big storm in January and several other highlights along the way.
“Amazing powder obviously with the huge snow we had in January,” said resort spokesperson Sheila Rivers. “The Olympic events that we had in February with Cassie Sharpe coming for her kind of hometown visit.”
Mount Washington President Peter Gibson is retiring after 41 years at the resort and 52 years in the ski industry.
“Well there?s a lot of things to remember,” said Gibson. “I think a couple of the really important things are is that we became a very big economic driver, not just in the Comox Valley but on the island as a winter industry. We have over 800 staff in the winter time, 200 in the summer and that makes us the largest private sector employer in the region.”
Gibson helped choose the location back in the 1970s and literally helped build the place clearing the first runs.
“We?ve got a reputation for getting snow and even before we opened in 1979 the knowledge was there that this was the place that got snow. And when we finally got open, on our snow reports people really started to take notice.”
He was interviewing potential successors on Friday and says the resort is in good shape moving forward.
Dean Stoltz
