Snow Reports

Today was a bit of a gong show regarding parking (again), but that was soon forgotten once you hit the slopes. It was a lot calmer than yesterday, and the visibility was pretty good. Showcase T-bar opened after being closed during the last storm and the Blackcomb Glacier was sweet. A grade snow, and plenty of it

Spankys is in fantastic condition, and the better visibility made for epic runs. Sapphire was sick (see video of Nicole below) and Zut Zut never fails to please.

I guess there isn’t much more that needs to be said.

Spankys

Epic day skiing powder! Contender for best day of the season.

Personally, I would prefer a bit more visibility (as it was non-existent most of the day), but some people thought today was IT. Some friends of friends – old time ski bums (not that old actually) were talking about it being their best day since some day back in 2002. It wasn’t much of a day for taking photos, but that’s okay by me. It was quality snow, and it continued to fall basically all day (it actually cleared up a little towards the end).

The reality, the snow was sensational – it was just a little hard (to impossible) to see it. We ended up lapping Spankys all day, with run after run of ‘can you believe this’. We entered Sapphire bowl just before lunch, and could have sworn we were the first ones there (not likely, but it was snowing so hard whatever tracks there were had been covered)

Steep and Deep was the name of the game, and we played it all day long

Excelerator chairlift

Lastly, here is a short video while riding Excelerator chair – nothing special, but you can see it was snowing pretty hard.

Update: CTV has bowed to public pressure, and are now showing the Paralympics Opening Ceremony ‘live’ (right now so change the channel – don’t believe the guide saying it is the news) Oh, sorry, but it is only showing in British Columbia, so if you live elsewhere, you will need to wait to see the taped version. I guess this is better than not showing it ‘live’ at all – but c’mon!

The Olympics are supposed to be about equality and what not – so lets show these ‘disabled’ athletes some equality and show their events live – everyday. If anything, they are showing more courage and determination then their able-bodied counterparts.

Everglades

It’s good to be skiing powder again

We received a good overnight snowfall, and while it was a bit heavy clearing it off the car, the skiing up top was pretty good. Variable is the term for the day. At times you were skiing through white-out over 50% powder and 50% wind scoured terrain, the top of 7th Heaven comes to mind. There, we hit up the Everglades first, but found it was a bit tricky predicting whether that lump in front of you was deep pow or a big, hard mogul. So on our next run down, we just followed the main piste (Hugh’s Heaven) and it was a great choice.

Mike

Nicole

Prime Rib on the Horstman Glacier was a complete white out, but decent snow so I managed to link a couple of un-graceful turns. Fraggle Rock to Cancerman was worth the effort, and I noticed someone is trying to re-name Cancerman with a double black sign called ‘Pete’s Paradise’ or something like that.

Around lunchtime, the sun came out and it was so bright it was hurting my eyes! So, the visibility was definitely better in the afternoon

Overall, a great day, with fantastic snow in places. To finish, here is a video of Mike and Nicole skiing in Spankys. Unfortunately the first video of Mike was blurry above the choke point.

Update: I forgot to congratulate Canadian Erik Guay who has just won the Overall World Cup Super G title. After a strong Olympic showing (two 5ths and a 16th), Erik continued to ski well – winning the last 2 Super G’s of the season (Kvitfjell, Norway and Garmisch Partenkirchen, Germany) to take the overall points lead. In between winning the Super G’s, he also posted the third best time in the Downhill (Garmisch).

Big Thumbs Up

Glacier chair

Another good day! It is snowing, and relatively cold up top with the off-piste conditions starting to get nice. Still a little bumpy, but nothing fixes a bumpy mountain like fresh snow Speaking of which, we are expecting a good dump over the next few days (20-40cm’s), and with a freezing level basically hovering near the valley – Yeah March!

The majority of today was cloudy with light flurries, and the light was quite flat at times. Overall though, the visibility was still decent, and we even had some brilliant patches of clear sky – as seen in the first 2 photos. The new snow has groomed into the runs nicely, 7th Heaven was good and empty, but my pick for the day was Crystal zone. I did a few runs through there and enjoyed every one.

Davies Dervish

Do I have to keep mentioning how empty the mountains are? (although this run is often empty, who really likes 35+ degree mogul runs…..oh yeah Alexandre Bilodeau does )

Also, while dropping by the Rendezvous for a bite to eat today, we had a bit of a laugh at how you have to walk down to get onto the patio. Check out this photo from today, then compare to one I took back in December 2003. You can see how the main access stairs are fully snowed in, and how the balcony handrail along the front is the snowline. Yup, we got a lot of snow in the alpine this year – not so much on the lower elevations, but who cares

Rendezvous

Rendezvous lodge on Blackcomb Mountain

Lastly, here is a short video of Mike and Steve enjoying a leisurely run on 7th Heaven’s Cloud Nine. Snowing lightly, no one around, visibility was pretty good, actually fun skiing.

The temperatures have dropped enough to make snow – picture taken at top of Blackcomb gondola, but they were making snow in the valley too.

Snow Gun

Up top received some new snow yesterday, but I heard it was ‘dust on crust’ in most places. Today I went up, and while the new snow is nice, it is not quite enough to hide the hard packed base underneath. Luckily the forecast is looking pretty good for more snow in the alpine as the weekend approaches.

Overall the skiing was decent with pretty good visibility, especially considering it looked a bit miserable from the valley. While the morning was bright sunshine, some clouds rolled in around 10am and the sky turned dark. Personally, I had no troubles with the light during my few runs on Blackcomb. However, as I type this (2pm), it is starting to flurry in the valley, so it might be a bit harder to see now. 4 seasons in one day! except cold the whole time

Pakalolo

The coverage in the alpine is still amazing, and is pretty much as good as I have seen it. The following photo is of the big rock below ‘The Bite’, which is easily seen while riding Glacier chair – while I have seen this rock buried more, this photo is taken after a few weeks of no significant snowfall, with warm temps with sunshine.

Big Rock

We may have had warm weather for the Olympics, but with it turning cold again, we should end up with perfect race conditions for the Paralympics which are due to start this weekend. With the dropping temperatures, the snow that has previously softened / melted re-freezes and makes for a solid, hard packed surface. This is more like the weather we were expecting last month.

Lastly, a nice view of the top of Excelerator chair.

Top of Excelerator Chairlift

Update: I forgot to mention the transportation issue. They have opened parking lots 1,2,3 and 6 but there is still plenty of parking that is closed. So if you plan on driving, make sure to get here early as those spots fill up fast. The mountains are empty, but the lots are full! I wish they could keep the bus schedule we had during the Olympics, it was great having them run so often.