Everything is buried under a sea of white. When you step back and take a good look at the scene around Mount Washington it becomes obvious, the mountain has seen a lot of snow this winter. Correction, Mount Washington has seen absurd amounts of snow this winter.
“As of March 16 we had a total of 1,740 centimetres of snowfall since the beginning of the season,” explains resort spokesperson Brent Curtain. “I’ve never seen snow accumulate like this and I can’t believe the size of the some of the snowbanks around here.”
Mount Washington appears to be headed into record snowfall territory after receiving close to two metres of snow in the last few days. With over a month to go in their winter operations, less than a metre of snow is needed to surpass the epic 1998-99 snowpack of 1836 centimetres. That season set a resort record for snow depth.
Everything at Mount Washington is being dug out at the moment; parking lots, roads, pathways, ski racks, chairlifts, even buildings. Local skiers and boarders have been marveling at how the chairlifts have been “shrinking” all season long. In some areas of the mountain, grooming machines and shovelers have been working overtime to keep the chairlifts above the snow line.
“The snowpack (deepest in the world) is so high in some areas that we’ve roped off access underneath the chairlifts as a safety precaution,” says patrol director Jesse Percival.
Heading into the March holiday period, the weather is clearing up and giving Mount Washington a much-needed snow reprieve.
“We’ve made lots of progress in snow removal over the last 24 hours and the weather is clearing up which is good news for March Break,” explains Don Sharpe, director of business operations. “The road is in great shape, the parking lots are clear, and we’re ready to welcome spring skiers and snowboarders.”
Mount Washington celebrates the school break next week with the Chek News Spring Snow Jam from March 21 to 25. Activities are all family-friendly and include the Barq’s Snowtubing Festival, Dairyland Milk Run, Old Dutch Dodgeball, Klondike Scavenger Hunt, and the Beavertails Tail Eating Contest.
For all event details and to find out more about what’s going on at the mountain during March Break, surf to mountwashington.ca.
