It didn’t take long for Whistler to have its first powder day of 2008. January 2 we woke up to the news of 15 cm overnight and 18 cm in the last 24 hours. Depending on where you skied though, you thought they lied. Either you were knee deep in snow, or on top of a wind swept crust, all because of the crazy winds that accompanied the storm. Apparently the word of the day to describe the snow conditions was ‘Variable’. It was on all the signs, and everyone was saying it. It was quite an amusing day, as you never knew what the snow in front of you was going to be like, sometimes light and dry, sometimes a wind scoured ice patch, but mostly a little heavy powder which really made you burn.

Blackcomb managed to open both Glacier and 7th Heaven chairs, while Whistler managed to open Harmony only, with the Peak chair closed all day.

Tonights forecast is for around 3 - 5 cm with a freezing level in the valley, then tomorrow we are going to be hit with another major dump of up to 30 cm with the winds rising in the afternoon ( gusts of up to 100km/h expected ). With a freezing level hovering around the 1000 - 1200m mark, and forecasts of around 30 cm for tomorrow, Friday and Saturday, it looks like we will be skiing deep heavy powder for a while yet.