Whistler Conditions Oct 2012 - May 2013

Coverage is definitely better now! 25cm overnight went all the way to valley bottom.

snow below excelerator to about a third of the way down was good, then it got heavy, grabby. Got heavier as the day went on. Sun tried to come up, high winds. Crystal opened, P2P was open, then standby, then open.

Doesn't look like any of the alpine lifts opened today. Hopefully tomorrow.

Whistler is planning on opening the alpine lifts Dec 1st
Blackcomb Dec 8th.

We skinned out to Blackcomb Glacier on Saturday. Saw pretty stable conditions. There was a skier triggered slide on Horstman glacier where you traverse from the top of 7th to the couloir on a large convexity.

This is from the guys at doglotion:

Myself and the little man (7 years) noted that the upper Crystal Road had no closures in place Sunday afternoon and very few realising it or taking advantage. So we headed on his first real boot-pack. About 20 minutes later put us on top of Heavenly Basin with only 4 other sets of tracks.

Sharkfin soup was the specialty of the day. The boy just floated over it. I got one little shot (not to the core), but overall very supportive, no signs of significant pinwheeling on the lower sunny section, and many many smiles. Some surface sluffing on storm snow.

Boy:

Whitehonky:

Looks like alpine openings next weekend and better access to the goods beyond. They were test-running Glacier today and working out kinks. Many people were accessing higher with gates downgraded and smiles and coreshots were the order of the day.

rode pakalolo yesterday - filled in nicely at the top, pipeline also looked filled as well. maybe a bit bony right at entrance. Someone skiied tettering by the looks of things too, though not very filled in.

Today we hit Husume. The stupids are not so filled in, so we had to hike over and around to Java. A couple of slots on the glacier right by the windlip, one mid way down that kind of sneaks up on you if you are coming from Java area. Ladies First not looking so filled at the top, but probably do-able. The lookers left of Sharons photo of the slide also went big. At least as big as the photo. But it looked intentionally triggered.
Dont Swill had some massive crevasse or shrund at the bottom of it.things i have nightmares about. looped out way to the right and around to get around it. Windlip seemed stable for the hike to the traverse. Snow in Husume was a bit windbuffed but not too bad. No faceshots today. seemed stable and had been blasted in numerous places by patrol (i assume), but the windbuffed made me a litle nervous. Corona saw tracks also saw tracks leading to stairmaster, but nothing down poop chutes.
two skintracks had dodged 4 millions crevasses on their way up decker. 19th hole had been skiied. Pattison NW looks prime right now.

people are far too casual about don't swill. there's a huge bergie right below it that you'd get nicely funneled into this time of year, never to be seen again. don't fall. and don't be first tracks on a solo mission after a storm.

bumping for update

Rain to tree line. Puking wet nasty above there. Possibly got a touch colder this afternoon.

The TGR Whistler thread is your best bet if you need daily updates. Much larger group posting to it.

pretty wet today, snowing around JC zone. I enjoyed our 5 runs until Lee's whining got too much!

Got a random Whistler question for you guys - I know I should just go and explore myself but I only get up to Whistler once in a while and like to plan what I ride in advance just because there is so much terrain and so little time. I only moved out west last year so have only been to Whistler a handful of times so far, and I usually just stick to Symphony, Harmony, and 7th Heaven for the most part but want to start exploring some other areas - I hear that the Crystal chair has some of the better sub-alpine terrain at WB, but I am looking at the trail map and have a tough time figuring out how you would ride that area? For riding the Crystal area, would you usually go from the top of the Crystal chair all the way to the Blackcomb Glacier Road to the bottom of the Excellerator chair? Or is there some good terrain that actually links back up to the bottom of the Crystal chair?

Got a random Whistler question for you guys - I know I should just go and explore myself but I only get up to Whistler once in a while and like to plan what I ride in advance just because there is so much terrain and so little time. I only moved out west last year so have only been to Whistler a handful of times so far, and I usually just stick to Symphony, Harmony, and 7th Heaven for the most part but want to start exploring some other areas - I hear that the Crystal chair has some of the better sub-alpine terrain at WB, but I am looking at the trail map and have a tough time figuring out how you would ride that area? For riding the Crystal area, would you usually go from the top of the Crystal chair all the way to the Blackcomb Glacier Road to the bottom of the Excellerator chair? Or is there some good terrain that actually links back up to the bottom of the Crystal chair?

nothing good in crystal. it all sucks

yeah who wants to ride an old uncomfy chair anyways? ;)

you must've been mistaken, it's the crystal lounge everyone is raving about, they have like 13 dollar pitchers!

blackcomb sucks.

It was better today. Skied Whistler, snowing to the bottom of Green, didn't ski below Green. Snowing heavily in the late morning. Whistler alpine is supposed to open tomorrow so it could be good!

yesterday was fun on jersey and crystal any lower than that was kinda like skiing mud lol. hurting from some stupid falls so taking today off but I'm probably missing out. Base is getting close to 150, told myself that is when I'll stop using my $25 skis lol but they are good for skiing out to the bottom