Long time no report – sorry about that. My life has gone through a lot of changes recently, from being sick for 2 months with bronchitis to my girlfriend leaving me the morning we were supposed to be buying a property together. I may not be perfect, but I gave her my all and genuinely believed she felt the same about me. Apparently not, even though she showed no signs nor said anything to make me think otherwise.

I feel depressed and the only good thing in my life right now is going skiing. Therefore, I am deciding to drop this blog and just leave the skiing for what it is – a fun part of my life. Something to go and do and forget about everything else.

Currently the conditions are fantastic, and I expect this week will end up being the best of the season. So I plan to get out there and make the most of it.

I might recommence my reports next season, but who knows. The way I feel right now means this blog is very low on my list of priorities. So, if this is my last report, I just want to say – It’s been fun and I hope everyone gets to enjoy many more deep, blower powder days in the future.

I didn’t ski today, but here is a video I took yesterday of a ski patrol’er on her day off conducting a practice search with her avalanche rescue dog. It was my first time watching such a search, and I was pretty impressed when Seren (the border collie) was able to find 3 sweaters buried ~20-30cm deep in just over 6 minutes.

If you are in Whistler, please consider going to a fundraiser for CARDA (Canadian Avalanche Rescue Dog Association) and WAG (Whistler’s Animal Shelter) being held at Moe Joe’s on Monday February 13th. Tickets are $10 and the proceeds go to both organisations. No doubt it will be a fun night and according to this page (visit it for more info), there are a number of auctions taking place with prizes such as heli-ski trips up for grabs. If you can’t make it, why not consider making a donation to one (or both) of the organisations (links available on their websites).

For more information call WAG at 604-935-8364

In the video, you might notice that Seren spends extra time around 3 other areas – buried at those spots were avalanche transceivers (the kind worn by people). This whole area is a transceiver search practice zone often used by patrol and members of the public. To her credit, Seren decided to move on rather than dig at those spots (she was smelling surface scents rather than a scent coming from below – I think?)

Thanks to Anne and Seren for letting me watch and film their practice.

Extra info: Accredited rescue dogs and their handlers (which Anne and Seren are) are required to be able to find 3 articles of clothing buried 65cm deep in under 10 minutes.
In this search, the articles were not so deep for a few reasons: time constraint in setting up the practice, less time waiting for the scent of the articles to reach the surface, the wind was very light (the dogs require the wind to pick up the scent), conducting easier searches once in a while helps encourage the dog with positive reinforcement by doing well, and probably a few more reasons I can’t remember right now.
During this search, the wind was very light and coming from the top right, which is partly why Seren took a bit longer to find the last article (on lookers left) since she didn’t get to spend much time downwind of it.

Avalanche dogs are unpaid volunteers, so please donate to help them with their training

Mt Currie and Crystal Hut

Another beautiful day to be on the mountain with lots of sunshine creating perfect visibility and warm air temperatures. Overall the snow was decent and made for some great cruising of the groomed runs. These are the days made for 7th Heaven. Some areas have gone through a melt/freeze cycle making the surface a bit hard but the majority of the time there was no problem getting an edge in.

I’m not sure about the numbers in the table above, since in my last post on Saturday I copied over ’0cm snow for 7 days’ but today it is saying 21cm? I don’t remember it snowing in between. I simply copy the values from the WB site (which was updated at 3pm) so who knows. I think at 3pm it was warmer too.

Black Tusk

This is a report from yesterday (Friday 3rd), which was an excellent sunny day with awesome snow on the majority of the mountain. While not a powder day, which is what we really want, it was the next best thing.

Top of Glacier Express

In the shade was good ‘winter’ snow – perfect for carving, while in the sun it was a bit slushy. Slushy snow is also a lot of fun, it just requires a slightly different skiing technique. I spent most of the time cruising the groomers at high speed, with my eye out for the different snow conditions and had a LOT of fun. There were some bumpy sections, but overall the runs were quite smooth.

This weekend looks like more of the same, just be aware the Peak to Valley Race is on – so some of Whistler mountain is roped off.

View from 7th Heaven

Horstman Tbar Line

Anyone know where this lean to is?

Lean to

Dean's Adieu

I am not 100% positive but I think the face in the photo above is called Dean’s Adieu – can anyone verify?

I haven’t skied much lately but I managed to get up this afternoon to enjoy some powder skiing in the sun

Showcase Tbar

The temperatures have been a little on the warm side lately, resulting in slightly heavy snow – but at least we have been getting some. The base is now reported at over 2 and a half metres, and overall the coverage is pretty darn good.

Today the mountain was empty, at least while I was up there (after lunch), and I skied straight onto every chair. The snow on the Blackcomb glacier and in the Crystal zone was great, as mentioned a little heavy but still a lot of fun. Apparently the morning was a bit foggy with only patches of sunshine, but by the time I got up there the sun was out in full force and the visibility was perfect. Definitely a fun day, especially when it’s been close to a week since my last.

A couple of photos to finish: Stupid East, Surfs Up and Double Rubble (lookers right of Surfs Up)

Stupid East

Surfs Up

Double Rubble

The Peak chair had been closed the last few days, but the snow had kept on falling. This resulted in some deep powder (~40-50cm) to celebrate Australia’s national day. A brisk 15cm overnight left the snow excellent all the way to the valley, so we decided to do some laps via Million Dollar Ridge —> Big Timber down to Creekside. Definitely some of the best skiing of the season – deep, light snow with plenty of fresh lines to choose from.

It wasn’t even busy

Each year on January 26th, plenty of young Australian lads and sheilas dress up to show their national pride. This year was no different with most opting for the usual Aussie flag being used as a cape trick. Some are braver (or drunker) and ski around showing a lot of skin, with my personal favourite being the 2 girls in essentially thermal pants and bikini tops. They looked hot but I bet they are paying for it now, as today was pretty cold up top. Unfortunately I didn’t get any photos of them. There was even some guy in an Australian flag spandex suit, I guess he was at least covering the skin…..

The best powder was in the trees, but we didn’t stop to take any footage. The video below was taken on Big Timber during our second run, which wasn’t as fresh as the first, but the conditions were still epic. Thanks to ‘Straightline’ Freddy, Eric and Joel for being today’s subjects.

What a great day! We were in line for Wizard chair just after 8am, it cracked around 8:15 and we were skiing deep powder soon after I could name a couple of ‘runs of the day’ but I guess our first lap through Spankys takes the prize. Luckily it opened just as we were getting to the top of Glacier chair, and we ended up skiing a line we call ‘Nicole’s Line’ (not shown on map) – it was steep and deep and fresh

Before that, we had around 5 laps of Jersey Cream, a couple through Crystal zone, and they were all essentially fresh lines. The snow was awesome quality; light, deep and virtually no wind effect (minor in a few places). Lift lines were a little large before the alpine opened, but once it did the lines shrank dramatically and it was mostly <5 mins for all chairs.

I tried to take some video today, but due to cameraman error, no video to show!

Saturday - I skied a couple laps in the morning, but came down early for reasons not associated with skiing. They were good laps, but the day was apparently a gong show in the end due to a few lift issues, the alpine remaining closed, and a huge crowd up from Vancouver.

Sunday - Didn't ski, but according to Laura it sounded pretty busy too. The alpines did open, although Blackcomb’s was shut earlier than usual due to high winds.

Thank you Laura for those comments.

Mike

Yet another excellent day skiing, with little to no lift lines. The weakening inversion meant the village was still a bit cold but the top was a perfect ~-5C. A new system is coming in, and it was starting to snow pretty heavy just around lift closing time. Pity tomorrow is Saturday, I’m going to have to get to those lifts early instead of my sleeping in the last few days

We had plenty of great lines, with lots of fresh, which is why I wasn’t that keen to do my least favourite hike on Blackcomb (Chimney) – but that’s what we did and the snow was epic.

Once again there is some decent snowfall in the forecast, and this time I think it is actually going to come true! The rising freezing level gives it away….. The truth of the matter: the upper mountain is awesome and the FL isn’t going to rise anywhere near enough to harm it. Snow is falling and it is supposed to continue all night and most of tomorrow.

Edit: 9pm- The upper mountain was getting pretty warm, but the temps seem to be dropping again now. Went for a walk outside, and there is quite a bit of light snow on the ground
If you are driving up from Vancouver, there is the possibility of freezing rain for you, and for us – so be careful on the road – all the way

Here is a video of Mike riding some pow in the Crystal trees.

7th Heaven View

R.I.P Sarah Burke – a true pioneer

As usual I am running late – so just a quick report. Today was excellent and I had a really good time up there. The alpine is a perfect -6C —> -10C and there is quite a lot of ‘fresh’ to be found. The light snow is blown around so easy it is resulting in a lot of deep pockets. We did a run down Dog Leg and besides from some cornice debris to be wary of, it was completely fresh. Actually, we didn’t need to venture too far to find fresh snow, the Blackcomb glacier was 1/2 fresh making for some choppy fun. I guess the cold temps has kept a lot of people of the hill (including myself).

The snow quality was awesome, and today is one of my best ‘non-powder’ days ever, although (as mentioned) it kinda was a ‘powder’ day at times. The lower mountain, while still having great snow is still really cold due to an inversion right now. Stay up high! I am looking forward to tomorrow

Blackcomb Glacier

What fantastic conditions for our American friends to enjoy their Martin Luther King long weekend. Clear skies and cold temperatures after some fresh snow falling Thursday/Friday. There wasn’t a lot of fresh, around 10cm (~4 inches), but it was light and fluffy. I have to admit that -15C (5F) is a bit too cold for me, but I also have to admit it makes great snow for skiing. Visibility was perfect and I saw and heard a lot of happy people around the mountain today.

Normally American long weekends can be a bit of a gong show, and I heard yesterday was kind of busy but today was really quiet. I uploaded around 10:30 which is normally the worst time to do that, yet I skied onto Wizard chair (and base 2 Blackcomb gondola didn’t have a line either). I didn’t see any lift lines (2-3 minutes at most) during my few hours up there.

The video below shows the Blackcomb glacier, and while it was a bit choppy, the skiing was excellent. The current forecast is also looking excellent