Ss Balmy weather bad for Snow Club Warmer-than-average temperatures close down local ski hills and stifle Langara snow lovers By JAMES SMITH ue to warmer than usual tem- peratures, the Langara Snow Club might have to consider changing its name to the No- Snow Club. This January, the average tempera- ture in Vancouver has been around 6 C, according to Environment Canada data, which is well above the 20-year daily average for the month. The un- seasonable temperatures has meant zero snowfall for the local mountains, and a short, slushy season for ski and snowboard enthusiasts. Zhunchuanzi Kou, head of the Lang- ara Snow Club, said he usually enjoys “very soft, natural snow” on the local slopes once or twice a week. That hasn’t been the case this year. “This season, Grouse Mountain and Cypress and Seymour are basically closed,” said Kou, who studies business at Langara College. “In the past, they might not have [had] enough powder [or] natural snow, but the temperature was low enough that they could make artificial snow.” The warm weather has forced the lo- cal hills to close early this season. On its Facebook page Mt Seymour Ski Re- sort announced Feb. 9 that it was “on standby,” and will resume operations “as soon as snow fall amounts allow.” Cypress Mountain followed suit the next day, and Grouse Mountain the day after. Though none of the local hills have officially declared an end to the 2014-15 season, and have publically said that they will reopen by late February or early March, Kou remains skeptical. “We hope there will be more snow, but based on what I saw and what I heard, I don’t think there will be,” Kou said. “It’s like early summer. It’s al- NO-SNOW mountain activities 1 Grouse and Cypress Mountains are of- fering trail running and hiking 2 Ziplines are open on Grouse Mountain 3 All three local hills have great views and lodges with hot chocolate 4 Participate in Vancouver's international wine festival at Grouse Mountain, Feb. 23 Source: Resort websites JAMES SMITH photos ABOVE: Cypress Mountain closed Feb. 10 due to lack of snow and too-warm temperatures. BELOW: Bad conditions halted ski season so no one is waits in the chair lift line at Cypress Falcons triumphant Langara men’s basketball beats Douglas College, Feb. 13 By BRYAN MC GOVERN a Te Langara Fal- cons men’s bas- ; ketball team de- feated the Douglas College Royals Feb. 13 in a close-scoring 60-58 point game. Despite a lackluster offensive performance, the Langara play- ers fought, scrapped and won the game. Starter point guard Montell Lindgren said he knew Douglas was coming for a fight. “Lots of young guys, lot of talent. We expect Douglas to bring a hard game,” Lindgren said. He had eight assists in the game and made the decisive three-point shot for the Falcon’s victory. With 16 seconds left in the game, Douglas forward Andrew Baron failed a three-point attempt that would have won it for the Royals. Any attempt for an offen- sive rebound was denied by the Falcons’ top scorer of the night Glenn Ruby. “We weren’t focused tonight, we’re too easily rattled,” said Ruby who scored 16 points. Langara coach Paul Eberhardt called the match the “ugliest game in [his] three years at Langara” inatweet after | the game. | The Falcons fell into a serious offen- sive slump during the third quarter, scoring only 10 points and losing the lead. They sank only four of 19 free throws in the whole game. Having already lost to Langara twice in the season by big margins, Royals coach Denis Beausoleil said this was the “closest they had ever been” to Langara in a game. He ex- pected a lot of physicality from the Falcons. Langara went into the game following a trip to Vancouver Is- land where they won against Camosun but lost against the Vancouver Island Mariners. Langara will play Capilano University on Feb. 20 and then visit Quest University Canada the day after. The Falcons are currently tied with Quest for second place in the Pacific Western Athletic Association. Langara guard Max Neumann throws a free throw against Douglas College BRYAN MC GOVERN photo f Few tweets for birdies Langara Falcons’ Twitter account does not highlight stellar badminton team By SARA RABEY age appears to be a little unbal- anced. Until recently, the Falcons’ Twitter feed had only one tweet about the bad- minton team since September. Jake McCallum, director of athletics and intramurals, runs the Falcon Twit- ter account, with another staff member who occasionally helps. McCallum said that the number of tweets depends on how the different sports are set up and the number of tournaments they have. McCallum said he limits his tweets to games hosted on campus. “We want the students to come and see the events going on,” he said. According to McCallum, badminton scheduling is different compared to soccer and basketball and they have fewer tournaments. “To be quite honest, I don’t tweet,” said Mare Petreman, the Langara bad- minton team coach. “T work part time here and usually spread the word, by mouth,” The badminton team advertise for tryouts, but rely mostly on the athletic Te Langara Falcons’ Twitter cover- department and the Langara Voice to update students about what is going on. “We basically, up until now, have been pretty well supported by our ath- letics department throughout the years,” Petreman said. Both badminton and soccer do not host games because the facilities are not set up for those sports to have tour- naments. “They would love to host a tournament, but they lack the space,” McCallum said. Langara is able to host basketball and get webcasts from them. If McCallum is not physically there he can check in with the webcam, so it makes it easier to get the information and tweet it out. There are no webcasts for soccer or badminton so it makes those sports dif- ficult to tweet about and badminton only has a few tournaments per semes- ter, McCallum said. &S Falcons’ Tally i) WOMEN’S BASKETBALL MEN'S BASKETBALL W-D-L W-D-L 2-0-15 14-0-3 Ranked: 8th Ranked: 2nd BADMINTON Ranked: 1st