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Oh, wow. This is pretty grim news. They can couch it in "poor snowfall this season," but actually snowfall is now not far behind historical averages. The real culprit is recession of the glacier, of course. WB website says total snowfall this season is 928 cm. The claimed average annual snowfall is 1,036 cm.
There were a couple huge melts this year too though, no?Quote:
Originally Posted by The AD
That glacier has been disappearing fast over the last couple of decades. Regardless of a good snow year or a bad snow year, the trend has been for ice to disappear a bit (or a lot) more each year. Back in the day there were multiple camp lanes, and a public skiing area as well. Over the years the skiable area has shrunk considerably to its current miniscule state. I'm guessing the amount of work it took to push snow around to create a usable postage stamp was becoming a sisyphean task. This isn't really a surprise unfortunately This likely signals the end of summer skiing on Blackcomb.
(But I also said the T-bar on Blackcomb would never open again, and then it opened a month later, so what do I know?)
There has been a small "summer skiing" footprint on Whistler intermittently over the years, including the last couple of years, but it's mainly race teams using the T-Bar zone for some race camps.
Flute skied well yday as did Oboe. 15cms on top of crust
Singing Pass report. Oboe Creek up high already has open spots. We exited by skinning up to symphony from Singing Pass.
Yeah, snowpack depth is far more important than annual snowfall numbers, especially in coastal areas.Quote:
Originally Posted by paulster2626
Yeah lots of rain this year. Not like Sun peaks :fmicon:
Had my first tour of the calendar year (normally would have had about 20 DOA's by this point lol) def still felt the bottom. And some pretty hairy blue ice around the rocks in places where you don't want to have to deal with it, but some beauty turns in places that have had no sun effect. Heard Dont Swill / Husume were amazing on Wednesday
Agreed. I'm sure snowpack is considerably below normal right now, but not catastrophically bad. This may not be the death knell for summer glacier skiing, but I doubt there are too many years left for it.Quote:
Originally Posted by DanoT
By the way it looked today I doubt sunset blvd would be skiable past the end of April.
Posted as MIN. Be aware slots in Spearhead and Decker Gl still open.
Broken skies with sun/ convective cloud early in the day. Winds light at ridgeline from SW. Pronounced suncrust on solar aspects. Not breakable if no debris or ski tracks but poor ski conditions if there were.
Through the day E slopes started as firm supportive crust but became breakable as temps rose (Note below) and were in poor shape where there were ski tracks or debris.
NE, NW, N slopes all skied really well with boot top to ankle pow.
Pronounced greenhouse effect sometime mid afternoon with temps at approx 1800m on NW aspect going from -3 to zero in the space of a little over an hour. Didn't negatively affect higher elevations but I'd guess it would have made treeline and below exits into schmoo
Looks like it's been a pretty good snow week. Anyone been up lately? Should be nice conditions for the last weekend of Blackcomb operations. Slush Cup Sunday at Glacier Creek.
Really fun morning this morning. It got a little baked on east faces quickly but otherwise some decent turns to be had. Anything north facing will be skiing very well. Should be some big ones skied this weekend i imagine.
Long shot but anyone holding any discounted tickets they won't use? I'm out of edge card days and would like to ski 1 more but can't bring myself to pay the discounted day rate
I just have buddy passes. Will that help?Quote:
Originally Posted by oetk2
will pmQuote:
Originally Posted by LeeLau
I got some too if LL can't help out for some reason.
Thanks guys. The current day rate with the edge card discount is less than the buddy passes...trying to decide if it's worth it. upgraded to a 10 day for next year to avoid this again.
Yah. It's not the greatest discount. I've asked some friends who've staff if they've got any 50% off tix to gift (they aren't allowed to sell them) but no luck yetQuote:
Originally Posted by oetk2
Buddy pass went down in price after blackomb closed. Should be about $140.
I skied Saturday through Monday and, holy shit, did the mountain and the village turn into a ghost town after the weekend. I couldn't believe how empty it was Monday. OTOH the snow was absolute boilerplate. Basically you couldn't go off piste at all. Enough ice to make the ice coasters feel at home. :)
It did soften up in the afternoon below Roundhouse. Raven to Ptarmigan was a lot of fun to lap with the Whistler Cup having just wrapped up.
I was looking at edge cards for next year, and they include only one extra early-season day rather than unlimited like past years. Did Vail sneak in that change, or did I miss a deadline?
You missed the deadline (Sunday the 14th was the last day for unlimited). Epic Pass also went from 10 buddy passes down to 2 now.Quote:
Originally Posted by D(C)
Crap. Thanks.
I called them today to try and confirm this and was told it was still 170.Quote:
Originally Posted by Cocximus
How’s Whistler holding up?
Sent from my iPad using TGR Forums
Very, very well, for tail-end of this season and next.
https://cliffmass.blogspot.com/2024/...ollapsing.html
I should probably be more direct…how did Whistler this weekend? Thinking of a quick trip this week. Any of that new snow stick or did it all get blown away/wind scoured?
Drove up last night and skiing today. Can confirm it does not suck.
Yeah def a few good turns up there yesterday. Im sure Sunday would have been fun too. Hoping for some slush laps this week before some pow next weekend again?
Yet again, the story of the season, El Nino caused Whis to be a bit too far north to catch some of those big coastal dumps.
https://cliffmass.blogspot.com/2024/...tain-snow.html
Decent turns up there again yesterday. Saturday was fun for a rip as well. Bootpack into bombtram was sketch. I havent felt that gripped in a while
Some 'interesting' financial engineering of the Garibaldi at Squamish project:-
https://www.castanet.net/news/BC/487...osition#487333
From the article I don't understand what the implications of this are (though I expect someone other than the Aquilini and Gaglardi families will end up with the most severely burnt fingers).
Anyone ever tried changing their pass product before the season starts? I bought a 5 day Edge but am thinking of bumping to a 10 day, wonder if it's worth a call or is it a clear no go.
Shouldn't be an issue. They've always been easy to work with when I've called them.Quote:
Originally Posted by gramboh
Especially considering you want to upgrade to a more expensive product!
Looking good this morning.
Attachment 503090
Forecasts look good for Whistler. Assuming there is enough snow should all the big lifts be open the weekend of 11/30 (Peak, 7th Heaven, Blackcomb Glacier Express) or is it safer to assume week of 12/6?
I wouldn't count on it. It takes time to open all that terrain. I'd shoot for the 12/6 weekend if I were you.
What a great place. Only place in NA I'd consider moving too, if the canuks would have me.