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Overnight we had around 10cms of fresh snow and the skiing first thing in the morning was great.
Unfortunately for me I believed the light boards when they said 7th Heaven and Glacier chairs on Blackcomb were closed and decided to head home around 10am – before the bulk of the Saturday crowd showed up. I got home and noticed on the website that those chairs had indeed opened, and I missed out of some (I presume) awesome skiing up there. It was great yesterday, and would’ve been even better today.
It has snowed all day, although only very lightly – so only about 5 – 10 cms ….. only 
I am looking forward to a big day tomorrow (as Sunday is never as busy as Saturday, and is rarely ‘busy’ in my opinion).
Sorry about the short report, my PC is sick and I am using a friends Mac. I am re-installing Winblows (not a spelling error) tonight and should be back to normal tomorrow.
Jim, thanks for your extra generous donation, I will hopefully get time later tonight to reply to your questions (once I get my email client up and running).
Update: I spoke with some friends who skied all day and they said the snow was awesome up top, and ‘icy’ at the bottom. With 7th and Crystal zones being the best. Quite foggy in places, but usually the layer wasn’t very high (so you ski out of it fairly soon). Also, it continued to snow lightly into the night, but seems to be drying up now. So we had another 5 – 10 during the day, and hopefully a bit more of a sprinkle overnight. Tomorrow I am going up and staying up regardless of what some silly lightboard says….
It was just pointed out to me that WB released a press statement a few days ago, which confirms some of what I have heard and said. Mainly, the avalanche risks is very high, and will continue to stay high for a while. Avalanche control and the safety of people in those zones will most likely be affected for the entire season due to an instable layer at the bottom of the snow pack. You can read the WB statement here.
Also I had heard that a ‘snow cat’ (grooming machine) had either been caught in, or set off a slide in what was supposed to be a ‘safe’ zone. I was unable to confirm this, so I didn’t mention it. The Pique magazine mentions that a snowcat had been caught in a slide around 1:30am Thursday and had been pushed about 100m down the side of a run, so I guess that rumor was true after all. The area is not open to public (anymore, it is in Harmony zone which had been open until the New Years’ avalanches).
Hi Greg,
Forget Winblows, (Gee, pal you are polite, I’ve heard Microshi%s OS called far worse!
Try Ubuntu, a free version of Linux. I can lend you the latest version 8.10 on a bootable CD to try if you want, it runs totally from the CD so there is no risk..
Yes it was a great day on Whistler today, hope the temperature stays below freezing tonight…
Go with mac! Much better, although being a mac tech I would say that. If your interested in buying a mac or service, were in whistler, http://www.burntstew.bc.ca
Plug over.
Scott.
Although I have been tempted in the past to switch, the abundance of PC software and its availability
is what makes me stick with a PC.
I have tried Linux before, without much luck, I think it was Redhat.
I would consider a Mac after having access to my flatmates for a while now, but not just yet….
Besides, I think the PC guy in the ad is cooler than the Mac guy
Hey Greg,
Just found your site, great site! Bummer about the snowpack being so unstable. I’m heading out on the 28th of January for 5 days, hoping they get a bit more terrain open by them. The two people I’m skiing with are primarily carvers though, so I’m sure they’ll be happy. About how many acres are open right now? I guess WB is so big it’s hard to know from their website exactly what is open, just lift statuses.
Hi Chris, you can see on the WB snow report web page the number of ‘groomed’ acres that is open. This is a lot smaller number than if they said how many acres in total were open (like they used to).
I would guess that around 75% of the terrain that is accessible by the lifts that are open – is open, or at least skiable with a bit of discretion.
Your friends will love Whistler, it has long groomed runs that are in pretty good shape ( a little icy some days, but carvers wont mind it)
Hi Greg
With this weeks rising freezing level and the sunny weather on its way how does the snow hold up? does it just turn to spring snow /slush??
Cheers
Yes. I’m terribly interested too in what to expect arriving on Saturday after a few days of temps forecast as high as 10! I tend to ride groomers, and I’m wondering: will even groomed runs be “iced up” first thing in the A.M.? Will it turn into slushy spring stuff in the P.M.? And advice to help me off the ledge would be greatly appreciated.
Dan, spot on, I expect the snow to become softer and slushier as the levels rise. Which is fun snow to ski on, but I prefer it in the springtime, not now….
Maxwell, you happen to mention the one difference between now and springtime. You should not find the conditions first thing in the morning to be like springtime, the snow will generally remain soft. No promises though….
The groomers are in good shape, and the rising levels wont affect them too much – maybe late in the day they could be a little bumpier than normal.
Getting off the ledge? if you mean drops, than I am not a very good tutor, as they are something I am only just starting to do. I tend to find the best approach is to try and ski over it rather than get to the edge and try to ‘drop or step’ over. If you want a look, have a look, but then make sure to walk back up high enough to get some speed into it. Go straight over, not at an angle – hands forward and good luck
Heh…actually I was saying that I was standing on a ledge: worried that my five days in Whistler next week were going to be lame because of the bizarro conditions. Thanks for the info–sounds like I can bascially expect spring-like softness but without the morning “crunch.” There’s nothing wrong with that–I’m still no better than blue groomers, so soft is good for my knees and butt. Thanks for the frequent updates–keep em coming!!