An unprecedented amount of snowfall in the first two weeks of January at Sun Peaks Resort with 142 cm of new snow.

Marketing and Communications Director Christina Antoniak says that’s well above the 25-year average, as a typical January sees about 100 cm of new snow.

“Cumulative snowfall, we’ve seen 340 cm. Now that’s exactly what we got for the entire season last winter,” she said. “So we’re about 65 per cent of the way there in terms of the average snowfall we’d see over a typical winter, and we’re only 40 per cent into the season.”

Antoniak says Sun Peaks usually gets about 500 cm of snow during the ski season, but adds its rare to see such a large amount of snow in such a short time.

“Some really fantastic numbers for our snowfall in January that we’ve seen. No complaints up here in the mountains where people are wanting to get out on the slopes,” she added.

“We are seeing this sort of weather pattern continuing for at least the next couple of weeks, so things are looking bright.”

She says the increased snowfall began on New Year’s Eve, when a monster storm – dubbed ‘Snowzilla’ – dropped over 60 cm of snow in less than 48 hours, causing people to abandon their buried vehicles, and head for the slopes. That she notes was on top of the 40 cm of snow that fell in the days leading up to Christmas 2019.

And Antoniak says the cold snap in the Kamloops-area didn’t deter people from venturing on to the mountains, adding once temperatures warm up, the conditions will be ideal.