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| New Snow | 0 cm | 7 Day Snow | 0 cm | Snowbase | 129 cm |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alpine Temp | +4 °C | Valley Temp | 0 °C | Conditions | Hard Packed |
After being away for a couple of days (and lucky me it was during a long weekend, so I missed the crowds) I was pretty keen to get back up the mountain and see what the conditions were like.
Firstly, I should mention that I heard the crowds were pretty bad over the weekend. Apparently the lift lines were ‘bearable’ but the actual runs themselves were busy. This is fairly common for long weekends, as we get more ‘holiday’ visitors, rather than ‘skier’ visitors, and as such they take a bit longer to ski down the runs. They also tend to be more erratic on the slopes – so you need to be extra careful when skiing through congested areas.
Not today – not a single lift line to be found. I never had to wait longer than a few minutes (2/3) and was able to ski straight onto a chair about half the time. It seemed to be the topic of the day for chairlift rides – how empty it was today compared to the weekend / yesterday.
Today was another beautiful, sunny one – and the temperatures were no where near as high as they had been over the weekend. I think the high in the alpine was around +5 compared to the +10/12 over the weekend.
Entrance to Symphony Bowl
Basically, it has been so warm that the entire mountain has to some degree, some areas more than others, experienced a thaw / freeze cycle. This means the snow has melted during the day, and then froze again overnight as the temperatures fell again. This makes for nasty snow !!
The groomed runs are generally quite good (although Max left a comment saying he found some average grooming over around Crystal zone on Blackcomb). I skied Whistler today and have no complaints with the grooming. I did find the snow very hard packed / leaning towards icy on some slopes, which led me to slow down my skiing due to the unknown and un-predictable conditions ahead.
I thought that as the day went on, the snow would soften up, but since the temperatures didn’t go high (+5 is high, but in the shade it still felt below zero) the snow seemed to stay fairly hard. It was certainly better skiing in the afternoon, but only on the groomers. Off-piste suffers the most from the thaw / freeze cycle and you end up with some chunky / bumpy runs with the possibility of skiing into large blocks on snow.
My only real off-piste run was in the Harmony zone, where I traversed across to Boomer Bowl, and continued skier’s right past the Gun Barrels into an area I am not sure the name of. Needless to say, the snow was not great, mostly hard and bumpy, and I didn’t bother to do it again.
Tomorrow I will be taking up the carving skis, with the intention of cruising the groomers all day.
Thanks for the update. Any idea when the snow might be coming ? All of the forecast websites seem to contradict each other. Will the snow improve as the temps drop and they can use the cannons more ?
I think it’s the most contradictory set of forecasts I’ve ever seen. Snow-forecast.com was predicting 50cm+ for the next week last night and now has virtually nothing. This is getting frustrating. I have no doubt the snow will fall hard on Feb 3rd onwards- the day I head back to miserable England.
Take a look on accuweather canada. You will be pleased. Looks like colder weather and 7 days of snow in the forecast!
http://www.accuweather.com/canada-forecast.asp?partner=accuweather&traveler=0&postalcode=V0N%201B0&metric=1&set=99
Fingers crossed! Greg, is this one of the worst ever starts to a season?
I see from the whistler village webcam they are making some snow. Do you think this will improve conditions. I ariive on Sunday.
Mark,
Good news from several weather agencies including NOAA. Looks like the current jet stream is finally shifting to the east. This will lower temps and increase moisture flow beginning next week and thru Feb 15. Winter may be finally arriving.
I am coming on March 1, so maybe I am just being hopeful, but I will believe what I am reading to keep a positive attitude.
Here is another link for the weather junkies.
http://www.accuweather.com/mt-news-blogs.asp?partner=accuweather&traveler=0&blog=anderson&pgurl=/mtweb/content/anderson/archives/2009/01/weekly_long_range_outlook_2.asp
Lets hope that forecast is correct. Right now looks like snow the entire time I’m there from the 28th through the 3rd.
am praying for that snow and very pleased to find you guys.. am avid follower of snow-forecast.com but frustrated that the forecast seems to change on the hour. How accurate can these reports be..
Thanks for such an informative site. We’re coming up this weekend, the 24th-28th. It looks like the snow might arrive right after we leave. I’m worried that we’ll be skiing on really icy conditions. We like to ski blues and greens. How’s it looking?
I spent alot of time on snow forecast and this season at least it doesn’t seem to be delievering on it predicions, esp forcasting after 5 days. I find the whistler blackcomb website to be the best although it does give only 5 days, but this has always been accurate. It’s hard to predict when high pressure is going to break up. We’ve been here since Saturday and the weather has been A+. I was boarding in basketball signlet on the last runs of the day the past 4 days and it’s a great experience! I can only imagine what it would be like here with snow. I’ve found the dave murry to be a great run down in the evenings. the snow guns are on this morning. For those coming over from europe the terrain is emence, whistler mountain alone and it’s not even open fully has just everything. You understand when you get there.
The only place I’ve been on Blackcomb is Seventh heaven and even that was getting a bit icey yesterday my mates told me. I’m sticking to whistler at the moment. It didn’t give me a good feeling on the way up the excelorator chair when i arrived with the amount of rocks and boulders everywhere! On the plus side I hear when the temps drop this week there’s a chance Symphony will open.
Crowds: A+
Visability A+
Snow condtions C+
Snow cover C-
Keep tipping Greg, this is a top class snow report.
Just got back in after spending the day on Whistler. Conditions seemed better today with straight-up ice being almost non-existent. (Guessing, but maybe the slightly cooler temps kept us from getting the overnight freeze-thaw?) Kept to the groomers and had a great time cruising. And yes, from the Roundhouse down, they’ve had the guns going, so there’s a decent amount of pseudo-snow and much less of the chop that was around a couple days ago.
For anyone sticking to groomers, I wouldn’t sweat it much regardless of the forecast. I’ve had a great time this week, and you will too!
The snow-guns have been going in the morning for a few days now. They have been going all day today.
This morning some of the guns down on Whistler near the bottom were churning out brown ‘snow’. I don’t know where they get the water for the snow-making from but I was holding my breath as I skied though it.
Symphony bowl has been groomed down from the top of symphony charlift. It cannot be to far from opening now.
I spoke to a patroller earlier this week, who said symphony was potentially opening the end of this week providing the temps drop and the snowpack tightens. It will be crusty over there.
James: 7th is always rocky, even last year with record snow you could see rocks, its in the alpine. personally I find blackcomb to have much better conditions to whistler, maybe due to it getting more sun?
Wow ! lots of comments in a short time. I tried to give my best explanation and prediction sources in my post today, so please check that out.
http://whistlerblackcombsnowreport.com/getting-colder-again-symphony-opening-soon-535.htm
As for some other questions mentioned above…
It probably wont snow anything decent until February… and the snow guns are working right now, but they cant do too much with the warm temps.
Worst start to the season? um no, the ‘start’ was ‘okay’ – this is more like ‘mid’ season, and besides from the high avalanche danger, isn’t that bad, and not as bad as the season of 04/05 in my opinion.
Amy, the greens and blues are in decent shape, a little ‘icy’ to me, but to people I talk to on the chairs, the snow is great (especially people from the East and some from Europe)
James, thanks for the report, it is good to hear that other people think the conditions are decent. I live here and am used to ‘different’ conditions and think this year is sub-par. Other people think it is great still (especially people who mainly ski the groomed runs)
I hope Steve and Scott are right with Symphony opening soon, I have heard similar reports.
Brown snow from the guns means dirty water – mainly rust in the lines, so nothing too serious, but they are meant to ‘flush’ the line before firing up the gun (as the water is almost always brown when the tap is first turned on)
Scott, acutally I am finding the conditions of Whistler better (grooming wise) but I still prefer the terrain of 7th and Crystal on Blackcomb.
Also, the top of 7th is always rocky, but I have seen it when everything below the first cat-track is basically covered – it all depends on the snow – when it falls, how wet it is, which way the winds blows as it falls etc with the early season snowfalls more important…