Day 12 - somewhat reasonable

After hymming and hahhing for two days about going up or not going up, we decided to take a few laps.  A Pineapple Express moved in at the beginning of the week bringing lots and lots of rain.  We heard mixed reviews on conditions throughout the weekend.

The good news is that the fresh snow was nice.  Light and fluffy.  The problem was the crust you could feel underneath if you weren't lucky enough to get the fresh track earlier in the morning.  We lasted about an hour and a half before calling it a day.

Day 11 - Fresh Tracks & First Gondola

Woke up to six inches of snow on top of my car.  I made plans the evening before to do Fresh Tracks with Sean and Libby.  20cm was forecasted to fall between Wednesday night and Thursday afternoon, but freezing levels were on the rise, so we wanted to get in and out as early as possible.  No one else had this idea as we lined up at 6am and were huddled nicely under the overhang at G1 as no one else was in line yet.  Once the doors opened, we were on the first gondola as well.

By 8am we were on our planks and shredding the powder.  We literally had a fresh line from the Roundhouse down to Emerald for three to four runs.  The snow got quite heavy about 2/3rd down Emerald Chair.  We found lots of knee deep snow off piste.  By 9:30am our legs were burning and exhausted.  The snow had been fairly chopped up by this time and we were quite wet.  We dropped below Emerald Chair expecting a bumpy ride down to mid-station, but to our surprise the snow was lighter lower down the mountain.  As we dropped in the Olympic Chair area, we had fresh tracks of knee deep light snow all the way past the gondola.  It was so awesome.  Surprisingly the snow was better from Olympic Chair down than from Emerald Chair up.  

It was also snowing/icing quite heavily throughout the morning.  The Alpine wasn't going to open due to high winds and freezing levels were rising quickly.  Our snow base is now 220cm.  Another 15-20cm is forecasted overnight but freezing level will be around 1600m.


Day 10 - share the stoke

I made plans to ride with a friend from work and I met up with her on Whistler around 9am.  No new snow overnight but I knew there would be pockets of good snow around here and there if you knew where to look.  While the groomers were soft packed, we decided to hit the trees and started with Star Wars.  We then made our way to Symphony via Harmony and found lots of soft snow down Chunky's Choice and then we dropped into Sunbowl.  We did a couple tree runs in Symphony where the snow was amazing as well.  A cloud came in so we headed up to Peak Chair and ventured out to BD Trees.  By now we were exhausted.  We took another lap through Star Wars then headed in for a coffee.  One more run through the trees off Whiskey Jack and finally had to quit!

Day 9 - sliding solo

Well the massive storm of 79cm never came to fruition.  But we did get 18cm overnight bringing the snow base above 200cm for the first time this season.  I unloaded Jersey chair around 11:30am and headed to 7th Heaven.  There were no lift lines on Blackcomb this afternoon, and it's amazing how quickly all that fresh snow can get tracked out, even when it doesn't feel busy.  I was able to find some fresh deep pockets riding from 7th back to Jersey Chair and I also found some nice soft snow through the trees off Jersey.  A Pineapple Express is moving in for Thursday into Friday but my fingers are crossed the temps stay cold enough to bring nice snow and not oatmeal.

Day 8 - up early for pow

 Pig Alley only measured about 4cm overnight.  Yesterday it measured 3cm overnight, but Irish said there was way more fresh snow out there, especially off Peak.  We unloaded Red Chair at 8:30am with winds gusting up to 50kph.  It snowed for most of the day.  Staying around Emerald Chair, it was easy to find soft, fresh snow … especially through the trees.  Winds stayed strong and visibility low in the Alpine.  Only Harmony had opened by noon.

Day 7 - Happy 50th!!

Low lying clouds in the Valley hid the ideal conditions on the peaks today.  Legit bluebird sky with very little wind.  Temps were noticeably colder.  It was a perfect groomer day as it didn't take long for the fresh snow from a couple days ago to get packed down.  We met up with Kalen around 9:30am and hit a couple of "must do's" -- Upper and Lower Peak to Creek was the run of the day.  Due to the lack of snow, I haven't ridden the entire 7km of that trail for a couple years.  We also took Kalen out to see the Blackcomb glacial cave.  We also took a couple laps in 7th Heaven where we enjoyed some amazing views.

Storm coming in for the next couple of days with fluctuating freezing temps.   Hopefully the freezing level doesn't get too high.  Snow Forecast is calling for 79cm by Wednesday!!!!!

Day 6 - fresh tracks and powder

With 16cm recorded at Pig Alley, Kalen in town, and Kev not having to go to work until noon …. how could we not do Fresh Tracks???  Well worth the early morning wake up call as we managed to get fresh snow all the way down to Emerald Chair twice!  Then another two runs down Dave Murray.  Symphony was just as amazing.  Clouds blew across the sky most of the day making for some sunny periods with light winds.  It was the best day I've had in a couple of years.  : )
Current snow base is now 183cm with another storm coming over the weekend.

Day 5 - glacier cave

January is shaping up to be a dry month.  A high pressure system has been leaving us with sunny weather for the last week.  13cm was recorded a week ago.  Runs are still mostly machine groomed with Blackcomb being icy on the usual high traffic spots.  Went on an adventure to the glacier cave today.  It was pretty cool.

Day 4 - inversion

Temps have been cold in the Village and warmer up top as the sun has been shining with an inversion since Monday.  Fresh snow is hard to find but trail conditions remain machine groomed and are not yet hard packed.  A constant stream of traffic traveling south on the Sea to Sky this morning indicates many people have decided to leave before the weekend ends.  A snow base of 171cm is holding up with not much snow coming in the forecast.