Sorry about not updating much lately, I have become more involved with bike riding and rock climbing. Therefore my days on the hill have become nil - except for the odd day touring.
The sun has finally arrived, and most days now are hot and sunny, with the snow becoming very slushy by around midday. Fun spring skiing conditions. Only Blackcomb is open this spring due to construction on Whistler, which isn’t ideal, as Whistler is definetely the better mountain for Spring skiing. Still Blackcomb has plenty of terrain open - and has a decent terrain park for those of you who like jumps and rails. The only downside is some of the runs normally open are closed due to the road up the mountain being cleared to help with more construction…. You can always walk over these roads, and I recommend you do this, as some of those runs are still awesome (examples are Honeycomb, and top of Springboard but make sure you head skiers right to make it to Excelerator chair) .
Whistler is finally getting dry in the valley, so if are also into mountain biking then you should make plans to be here this summer, as biking goes off in Whistler. The Bike park opens May 17th, and although I rarely venture into the park ( I prefer cross country trail riding) I will probably give an occasional update on this site about the weather and bike park conditions throughout the season.
Have a good summer everyone.
Well we just had a few days of sunshine, and some ‘real’ Spring skiing. The weather was hot, the sun was shining, and the snow became nice and slushy. Blackcomb got a lot busier as a lot of the locals got out and enjoyed the sunny weather. Still, overall it is quite empty, especially considering there are only a few lifts open.
The weather has turned again, and we are in for a week or so of overcast with rain. The freezing level looks like it will remain at mid- mountain or above, so we might get a little bit of snow, but mainly rain. What snow we will get, will no doubt be rained upon during the same system.
The snowbase has dropped down to around 235cm, which is still great for this time of year. Normally by now, the lower mountains are completely bare of snow, this year, although officially closed, you could ski to the valley if you chose to. You would have to pick your way down in some places.
In other news, I did my first overnight ski tour on Friday night. I toured out to Keith’s Hut, accessed from Cerise Creek which is about a 1 hour drive north of Whistler. Keith’s Hut is located at the base of the Anniversary glacier. Un-fortunately I didn’t get to ski the glacier itself, as the sun was very strong, and we watched numerous small avalanches, starting around noon. Still, I had fun skiing some slushy snow in the treeline.
Today was un-believably cold. The alpine temperature hovered around -18 Celsius, and the valley was around -10. Crazy for the 19th of April, its supposed to be warm Spring weather, however today, the mountain was a frozen ice block. It was basically as cold as the coldest day during Winter. So much for global warming eh 
Sorry about not making many updates lately. The truth is I haven’t been up on the mountains much, I am looking forward to a nice summer of mountain biking and rock climbing so I have been hitting the gym to get fit for these activities.
I did go skiing yesterday, and had a fun day. The upper mountain was still quite cold, and therefore the snow was hard and frozen. Not great, but still pretty good. I enjoyed the mid- mountain most, as here it was warm enough to make the snow soft, and easy skiing. By the time you reached the valley, the temperature had risen a fair bit, and the snow had become very slushy, and therefore took a little more effort to control yourself.
The Whistler ski and snowboard festival has been a big hit again, and I managed to see the short film and photo showdowns the last few nights. Great entertainment, with some funny videos and beautiful photos to watch. As always, the free concerts have been packed, with most people having a ball.
Oh, by the way, it snowed again today, with snow all the way to the valley (on April 18th!). Not much, as it didn’t have a chance to accumulate down here, but I’m sure it has made a difference up in the alpine.
So I guess now that Whistler mountain is closed as of this Sunday, with only Blackcomb open for Spring skiing, I will only ski once or twice a week. I will try to make a few updates and let you know whats going on, but basically you can expect good snow coverage this Spring, and as the weather gets warmer, the snow will just get slushier and slushier. Personally I prefer Whistler mountain for Spring skiing, but due to the Peak to Peak gondola being built, this year it is Blackcomb open for Spring.
Well I haven’t been skiing for a few days now, and have been enjoying the World Ski and Snowboard Festival. Some great free concerts, the Big Air contest on Saturday night was huge and plenty of side stalls with informative people have kept me busy.
In the meantime, the weather has been erratic. We had a bright, sunny hot day 2 days ago, while today was quite overcast and ‘moody’. It even snowed in the village today. Apparently the surface conditions on the mountains are very hard packed, even ‘icy’ - from the sunny day melting the snow, then the temperatures dropping way down to a low of -10 last night which froze everything solid. Couple that with minimal visibility today from the cloud cover, and I think it was a good day to miss.
I suggest to everyone, that if you come during the Festival week, you should be coming for the Festival itself. The village is crowded, and everyone is having a ball with all the activities. The mountains are generally quiet, but the sunny day was outrageously busy I heard. So if you want some nice, quiet spring skiing, I would recommend avoiding the festival week. If you like to party hard, the this week is for you.
The recent warm weather has really melted the snow, with the base down around 250cm from 280cm around a week ago. So there are some bare patches starting to show.
