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Wednesday, January 5, 2011
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Cold weather beds open at shelter Jane Seyd
jseyd@nsnews.com
AS snow flurries began over the North Shore Tuesday, outreach workers from the emergency Lookout shelter were hitting the streets, letting homeless people know that a warm place to sleep was available. have your say at nsnews.com
New year’s splash
NEWS photo Lisa King
A clear and sunny New Year’s Day attracted a large crowd to Deep Cove’s Panorama Park in North Vancouver to watch the annual Penguin Plunge, but temperatures that barely broke above freezing resulted in more spectators than plungers and those that did brave the frigid water didn’t stay in for very long.
“They find them in camps up in the bush,” in alcoves or inside buildings that are open during the day, said Jody Yurkowski, shelter manager. Since Dec. 29, when temperatures began dipping below freezing, the shelter has operated under extreme weather guidelines. That means it is funded for 20 extra people a night, who are provided sleeping mats, on top of its regular 45bed roster. In the past week, that’s meant about 25 extra people have made use of the See La page 5
Ski resorts see record season start
James Weldon
jweldon@nsnews.com
GOOD snow and a boost from the Olympics have drawn visitors to ski slopes in droves, according to North Shore ski resorts.
Grouse Mountain and Mount Seymour have seen a dramatic jump in numbers over the past month, with Grouse saying it has seen the best December in its 84-year history. “The conditions have been excellent; we have over two metres of snow across the mountain; we’ve had great spells of sunshine,” said William Mbaho, a spokesman for Grouse Mountain Resorts. “That kind of . . . appeal is extremely tempting for a lot of people.”
Grouse Mountain records best December numbers in its history have your say at nsnews.com
Visits to the mountain were up about 12 per cent above the previous record for the month, set in 2007. An exact total wasn’t available, said Mbaho, but visits peaked at 9,000 in a single day Dec. 30 after hovering near that mark for the preceding two weeks. Mount Seymour saw two days between Christmas and the new year in which numbers hit 12,000, with other days during that period
hovering in the 9,000-11,000 range, according to spokeswoman Julie Mulligan. “It’s definitely higher than last year,” she said. “We haven’t seen numbers like this probably since the 2003-2004 season.” Grouse attributed the sudden rise primarily to coverage the resort received during the 2010 Winter Games. The Today Show broadcast from the peak throughout the two-week Olympic period ,and a number of other media featured the resort during that time. One Chinese network did segments from the skating pond and the observatory that were watched by an estimated 190 million people; a German network broadcast one that drew in 20 million; and USA See Grouse page 5
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