Whistler 23-24

[nortonwhis]

I'm glad i went for yesterday and not today, though obviously wish i could do both. Yesterday was crazy. Deepest snow i've ridden in a long long time.
Shoutout to patrol, all the lifties and ops people who made it happen, even if it was a little crazy to start.

[LeeLau]

For Paulster. Above average

All alpine Blackcomb open. Avalanche gates on Lakeside + Glacier. Props to patrol and ops for AC

[Clownshoe]

Harmony opened at 1230. Peak opened at 1330.

Powder to the people.

[bennymac]

fuck me that must have been fun!

[oetk2]

Lots of lines and lots of waiting for chairs to crack, as expected. Lifties and patrol were working hard and big thanks to them for getting it all opened. Some of the deepest snow I've skied in a long time. Crystal was top notch

[phatty]

Should this storm do enough to heal the mountain? I had my annual trip up there planned for the end of next week, but most of my crew is pulling out to go to Utah. While I love Utah and was just there, it ain't Whistler.

[LeeLau]

Should this storm do enough to heal the mountain? I had my annual trip up there planned for the end of next week, but most of my crew is pulling out to go to Utah. While I love Utah and was just there, it ain't Whistler.

Yes. .and it's going to snow more week coming up.

[gramboh]

What a day… highlights were Bite, first Crystal lap steep n deep trees, Zut Zut when Spankys opened then managed to pop over to Whistler about 30 min after Harmony cracked. Managed 3 laps there, got on the chair at 2:58. Still untracked in Robertsons area, but any snow the sun touched on those aspects has a slight crust to it.. easily breakable but you feel it. Popped a nice size storm slab in fairly dense trees 1700M E aspect.

Thank you patrol/AC/Ops for getting everything open! Legs are cooked from my first bell to bell day in a while.

One miss today was lift crews not getting the corrals built on one side of Crystal, and whatever they did on Glacier, basically no ropes setup so it was a clusterfuck, heard a couple conflicts surprised one didn’t break into a fight. All forgotten once up Spankys.

[jrawk]

Harmony opened at 1230. Peak opened at 1330.

Powder to the people.

Nope, Harmony cracked at 1:05 or so. I was in that line since 10:30. Skied mid mountain all day yesterday so it was worth waiting but that was a long one

[The AD]

Nope, Harmony cracked at 1:05 or so. I was in that line since 10:30. Skied mid mountain all day yesterday so it was worth waiting but that was a long one

Harmony and T-bar both at 1:06 according to whistlerpeak.

Snow piling up pretty good again right now, so may not just be leftovers tomorrow.

[The AD]

We appreciate your hard work, Clownshoe!

[phatty]

Thanks AD. I’m not looking for kudos. Just pointing out how much work goes into a day like today. The amount of skill we have on our team, and the amount of risk we take, all so people can slide around on snow. The helicopters, the bombs (over 200 kg on Whistler alone today), the ski cutting. It’s seems kind of ludicrous at times. Especially when people quibble over 20-30 minutes. But we all choose to do it, and we all love it. To steal a quote from the movie Heat, “The action is the juice.”

They WB patrol love days like today (and yesterday). We get to use all ours skills, throw bombs, ski pow, and execute some sweet rescues. It was a tired but stoked crew in the locker room at the end of the day. The beers tasted sweet.

[emoji482] Much love to you and the WB Patrol crew. You guys are a big part of what makes the mountain special.

[raypruit]

Thank you clownshoe and the rest of patrol!

Can’t do early starts with kiddos now, so pulled up to creekside at 10. Whistler ops Twitter and sign in front of parkade said parking was full. Found tons of spots in p4. Got some of the deepest garbo laps I’ve ever had. Watched in envy as all of black comb opened. Waited in peak line for 45 min. Opened at 130 as vis turned to shit. Lines surprisingly short for 110cm alpine. 3 unreal peak laps and 2 down to red before close at 3. Top 5 peak chair day for me. Pretty excited about miracle March

[gramboh]

Thank you clownshoe and the rest of patrol!

Can’t do early starts with kiddos now, so pulled up to creekside at 10. Whistler ops Twitter and sign in front of parkade said parking was full. Found tons of spots in p4. Got some of the deepest garbo laps I’ve ever had. Watched in envy as all of black comb opened. Waited in peak line for 45 min. Opened at 130 as vis turned to shit. Lines surprisingly short for 110cm alpine. 3 unreal peak laps and 2 down to red before close at 3. Top 5 peak chair day for me. Pretty excited about miracle March

The one upside of the later Whistler opening and 3pm alpine lift closure times was extra laps as crowds thinned out late in the day. Kind of wishing I chose Peak end of day for Xmas trees action but hard to go wrong yesterday. So awesome that patrol/ops were able to get everything open in challenging conditions, never enough praise. Vibes are high for March/April let's hope it continues.

[raypruit]

One thing that I think would do a lot to settle crowds is if there was some way to notify people of what patrol was doing before opening a lift. I think most people see peak chair spinning and see the bomb blasts on shale slope, assume there’s nothing left to do and then start fuming. They don’t see that patrol has to ensure all terrain that peak accesses is safe (or such is my understanding). If there was even a simplified checklist on a light board showing everything that needs to be done before the lift can open and what step patrol is currently on, people would (a) get what actually goes into opening the alpine and (b) have a better read on when a lift might actually open so they’re not wasting time waiting unnecessarily. Is that a terrible idea? I feel like that could be a relatively easy thing to do that would go a long way

[raypruit]

The one upside of the later Whistler opening and 3pm alpine lift closure times was extra laps as crowds thinned out late in the day. Kind of wishing I chose Peak end of day for Xmas trees action but hard to go wrong yesterday. So awesome that patrol/ops were able to get everything open in challenging conditions, never enough praise. Vibes are high for March/April let's hope it continues.

Yeah my best days on peak have been when it opens after noon in a whiteout. A storm always thins the crowds. I always hope for bluebird when I’m the backcountry and storms at the resort

[nortonwhis]

Another insane morning. What a run.

[eSock]

3 hours from Vancouver, last 13km took an hour.

Should be good times [emoji28]

[KevLar]

On Reddit, u/NomadicAlaskan posted a few days ago:

"Was riding up the chair with a patroller this morning at Whistler. I was asking about their timeframe for opening up the alpine after a big storm. He mentioned how it has gotten harder to open the steepest runs in recent years because there used to be locals that skied them frequently and helped snow stability. Now, with locals mostly priced out of the town, those lines see a lot less traffic and unstable cornices form."

[Clownshoe]

I call bullshit on that. There’s perhaps less dirtbags in town, but everything gets skied out as fast or faster than before. People ski every inch of the mountain immediately once the lifts open.

[nortonwhis]

Agreed. theres really not a lot not getting skied on blackcomb that has in the past. Slayer didnt get skied today, teetering did, dominator unhit, but for the most part everything else had tracks.

[gramboh]

Seeing on North Shore Search & Rescue socials that a "series of 8" skiers were lost and requiring rescue last night. Anyone know where and if it was one big group or a series of lemmings following tracks? Guessing Cakehole.

Edit: just saw on FB, Cakehole, they were located and hiked back into resort.

[raypruit]

I feel like everything gets tracked faster than even 5 years ago

[nortonwhis]

I feel like everything gets tracked faster than even 5 years ago

I can only speak for blackcomb, but think that its changed significantly in what gets skied first. Changing of the upload setup i think. For instance i think a lot of the stuff that goes back to old solar coaster station gets skied slower, but excel trees take even more of a hit. No Horstman means spankys gets hit by all the people who may have hit the tbar and gone to pakalolo and swiss cheese. Still often find good snow in Bushrat late in the day. Even this last storm the amount of goobers just hanging out at the top of the ladder taking photos was insane. I guess without showcase thats where they end up

[paulster2626]

I can only speak for blackcomb, but think that its changed significantly in what gets skied first. Changing of the upload setup i think. For instance i think a lot of the stuff that goes back to old solar coaster station gets skied slower, but excel trees take even more of a hit. No Horstman means spankys gets hit by all the people who may have hit the tbar and gone to pakalolo and swiss cheese. Still often find good snow in Bushrat late in the day. Even this last storm the amount of goobers just hanging out at the top of the ladder taking photos was insane. I guess without showcase thats where they end up

There are also zero secrets anymore. I'm not just talking about runs/stashes themselves, but even the systematic harvesting of fresh tracks is so well known now that on any given pow day I just feel like a cog in a large machine. The best days are the storm days while the snow is still falling (might have always been).

This is not to say that things suck. They are still most certainly awesome and the skiing at W/B is often unrivalled. Just saying it's different - even for a touron like me.