Comments on: Bye Bye Sun – Hello Fog

By: Greg (admin)

Greg (admin) — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 00:15:07 +0000

Tom, I mean being able to ski all the way to the valley floor, and thus the village. As the snow melts from the bottom of the mountain, we have to start ‘downloading’ on the chairs at the end of the day – rather than skiing down.
So, yes, it means only the upper mountain is able to be skied (which is the best terrain anyway)
Also, yes the mountain does its best to maintain the ski out – by snow making and grooming to push the snow around to form ‘snow roads’.

Dave, I have no idea about the weather over a month from now….

By: Dave

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 21:39:58 +0000

Hi Im coming to whistler march 7-12th was wondering if you think that the snow conditions will be better than the current conditions??

By: Tom

Tom — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 18:16:39 +0000

Gregg: Thanks for the reply. BTW, what do you mean “ski out to the valley” might be closed? I’ve been to Whistler twice, and I have a jpg map, still…this isn’t exactly terra familiar to this Flat Lander. Do I assume correctly that you mean only upper runs will be ski-able? Does mgmt. then pile snow for a couple ski-out lanes to the base?

By: James

James — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 15:23:47 +0000

Lorence,

I was just out here for a week from Australia and in my opinion Blackcomb felt more like an Australian conditions (hard packed, icy in some places) – but with way more variation then anything you get back home it was still fun.

Whistler seemed to have the better snow and grooming conditions and there were great runs to be had there.

Any snow between now and when you arrive and you’ll have a blast.

By: Lorence

Lorence — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 05:35:22 +0000

Just to make me feel better – coming over from Aussie land from 13 Feb – what should I expect?
I guess even a below average season would be better than a great season in Aus.

By: Greg (admin)

Greg (admin) — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 04:05:36 +0000

Keith, There isn’t much hope for a ‘big’ dump in the near future, but if you are going to be here for 3 weeks, I am fairly confident you will see some decent skiing and a few powder days.

Phil, that’s the way forecasts go – don’t bet your house on them !!

D’a and Tom, I think that Spring is going to be a pretty short season this year, with the ski out to the valley being closed a lot earlier than normal (before the end of March is possible). Currently the snow base is as low as I have seen it, with a lot of rocks and boulders exposed that are normally buried.

So, I highly doubt it will be a ‘Great’ Spring, and will struggle to even be ‘Good’ in my opinion. Unless of course we have an ‘abnormal’ February with lots of snow – March is often a snowy month, so that could save us too.

As it stands, the conditions are below ‘average’ – that being said, almost everyone I speak to are ‘pleasantly surprised’ with what we have. You need to understand that Whistler simply kicks other resorts in a normal season – so now that we are having a ‘below average’ season, it just means we are falling more in line with most other resorts ‘normal season’ conditions.

Compared to east coast conditions, Whistler is good right now. There isn’t that much ‘ice’ out there, just hard packed snow, which has been ‘polished’ in some of the higher traffic areas.

By: d'a

d'a — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 03:42:55 +0000

Russ – thanks for the link. He was right predicting above-normal temp and below-normal snow for BC for January. He’s talking about above-normal snow in February. Of course, normal for Februrary is not great to begin with. It looks like it would take snowing like crazy within the next couple of weeks in order to cover all that ice and make the conditions great by end of February… before spring instability start settling in March.

By: Nick Field

Nick Field — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 00:55:05 +0000

Man, there was so much rain at the bottom of the hill today. soooo lame. I was drenched by the end of my day. Actually my socks are still wet.

By: Tom

Tom — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 00:09:50 +0000

I have a question: Do your memories (or actual data) give you a feel for how the current 49″ base compares to average? My real reason for asking is to predict late season conditions. I ASSUME that is really thin and therefore portents that the chance of finding ride-able terrain late season (first 2 weeks in April) is looking grim unless better than average snowfalls/temps are felt in Feb and March. Do I worry needlessly, or does the measly 49″ close to guarantee a rock-field awaits?

By: Russ

Russ — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 23:37:10 +0000

d’a

Check out Brett Anderson’s long range forecast on his blog. Should be out with the next one this weekend. 15 day on Accuweather looks good, but changes frequently. In last week’s report Brett indicated that a good pattern was setting up for BC long term. You can find that in his archives. I will be out on Mar 1 – 7 so I have my fingers crossed.

http://www.accuweather.com/canada-index.asp

Historically, Feb has minimal snowfall compared to other months at Whistler, but this year is not typical.