Whistler 23-24

[nortonwhis]

Okay who had the balls to lay tracks down Blackcomb main face yesterday mid day? A set of two tracks down the main gut then cutting back lookers right and into a close out chute back into Lake Side. Another pair of tracks in the line next to DOA, forgetting the name of this line. From top of DOA climb up over the first ridge skiers right and down the flank. After snagging kids from Base II ski school we hustled up to catch 7th before closing for them to ski Pakalolo and say the BComb peak tracks at just after 3pm.

Inbounds on Blackcomb is still skiing really good. Still mostly cold chalky snow on north aspects and feeling wintery under foot. But 13 days from now anything could change.

Def happened Friday evening. 2 tracks in CC and one in Satisfaction that got taken out by snowballing.

[shirk]

Def happened Friday evening. 2 tracks in CC and one in Satisfaction that got taken out by snowballing.

I guess I just didn't notice them Sunday morning, we did a couple 7th laps to start the day and I didn't recall seeing the tracks.

Ah the days of waiting in Horstman Hut till you got kicked out and lazily making your way to Blackcomb Peak to wait out the sweep then ski the scary stuff. Feels like a lifetime ago. (/end guy in his mid 40's with kids memory session)

[nortonwhis]

Yeah hard to spot them in the am for sure.
AD forecast is looking good for the next two weeks I think. Not huge amounts of snow so might not cover up the big moguls but little top up’s and light crowds should keep it good skiing thru out the alpine and backcountry.
I’m officially not going on an early
Mexico trip so that might hoop it all however.

[LeeLau]

Surprise 23 cms. Can't load pics but of course was acceptable

[KevLar]

"Whistler Blackcomb is unable to host camps during the 2024 summer on Horstman Glacier. This decision was not made lightly – we know these camps, and this experience, have a long history at our resort. Unfortunately, conditions related to this season’s snowfall prevent summer camps to safely operate this year."

[The AD]

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.

[paulster2626]

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?

[Clownshoe]

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.

[LeeLau]

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.

[DanoT]

There were a couple huge melts this year too though, no?

Yeah, snowpack depth is far more important than annual snowfall numbers, especially in coastal areas.

[nortonwhis]

Yeah lots of rain this year. Not like Sun peaks
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

[The AD]

Yeah, snowpack depth is far more important than annual snowfall numbers, especially in coastal areas.

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.

[Cocximus]

By the way it looked today I doubt sunset blvd would be skiable past the end of April.

[LeeLau]

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

[The AD]

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.

[nortonwhis]

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.

[oetk2]

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

[LeeLau]

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?

[oetk2]

I just have buddy passes. Will that help?

will pm

[nortonwhis]

I got some too if LL can't help out for some reason.

[oetk2]

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.

[LeeLau]

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 yet

[Cocximus]

Buddy pass went down in price after blackomb closed. Should be about $140.

[The AD]

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.

[D(C)]

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?