nov 29, 2008 - yikes

24hr snow = 4
base depth = 58
cumulative = 150
freezing level = 2500m
days riding = 0

five day forecast

day1 rain day2 rain day3 rain day4 0 day5 0

well, whistler opened on wednesday (nov 26), and blackomb on thursday, and i still haven't been up for a look. that should say all you need to know. burnsy reported the worst ice he's ever seen on upper franz, and anything not groomed is completely unrideable. we probably don't really have enough snow to open, but they are not going to keep the mountain closed. i'm not heading up until we get at least another 60cm, and that won't be any time soon

nov 6, 2008 - hello, what's this

24hr snow = na
base depth = na
cumulative = na
freezing level = 1300m
days riding = 0

five day forecast

day1 10 day2 rain day3 rain day4 5-10 day5 5

woke up to the strangely familiar sound of metal scraping concrete this morning and was pleasantly surprised to see the first accumulation of snow in the valley this fall. i actually saw the first valley flakes two days ago, but this time it's sticking. the ploughs are on the road and winter is in the air. hard to believe another summer is already done.

jun 11, 2008 - season in review

ok - i think it's safe to say the winter season is over. we did get a few more cm's this past week, but the freezing levels haven't been close to the valley in a while. the snow's all gone on my favourite bike trails, WB's closed for the season (except summer glacier), time for the season recap.

i would say '07-08 had a lot of similarities to '06-07. early season wasn't as good, we got a lot of good snow around the new year, but it was pretty much done by the end of january. the main difference (improvement) over the previous season is that the temperatures were consistently colder throughout the winter which meant far better snow preservation, and very little RAIN! in fact, there was only the one super disappointing dump on Dec 3 that turned to freezing rain and ice, and other than that for the most part our storm systems maintained freezing levels close to the valley with no major temperature spikes, and no freezing crusts.

having said that, the final numbers don't look nearly as good on paper:

2008:
cumulative snowfall: 1019cm
deepest base depth: 257cm on Feb 7
no. of days of 10+cm: 35
no. of days of 20+cm: 12
no. of days of 30+cm: 3
no. of days of 40+cm: 2* (1 of those days was completely covered over with ice crust)
personal days riding: 69
powder days: 35
epic days: 2 (dec 17 and jan 7)

for comparison, here are the stats on 2007:
cumulative snowfall: 1406cm
deepest base depth: 334cm on mar 25
no. of days of 10+cm: 43
no. of days of 20+cm: 16
no. of days of 30+cm: 7
no. of days of 40+cm: 2
personal days riding: 74
powder days: 41
epic days: 4 (nov 25, dec 15, dec 26, and jan 7 again)

interesting side note - on jan 7, 2005 i recorded it as best day of season so far. for all the trip planners - i guess jan 7 is your best bet!

guess that sums it up for this year. not sure what the future holds at this point, but the plan is to keep up the posting next winter. catch ya then!

apr 29, 2008 - surprise pow day!!

Holy shit - this was going to be my season finale last post, but when i went to check the snow report i discovered that it had dumped 19cm in 24hrs. So first thing I did was grab my board and head out the door...
only blackomb is still open, and only running at about half capacity. it had been raining with high freezing levels all day yesterday so i decided the only place worth checking out was the high alpine. good call. i hiked into blackomb glacier and found at least a foot of true powder. the place was empty. me and a guy i met on the lift were the only people in the whole place. needless to say we found untracked lines wherever we wanted to go. if i was to have one complaint it is that the snow seemed a little slow and the terrain is not all that steep so it took a lot of effort to keep that board surfin. but all in all, i would probably say it was the best run i've ever had in the glacier - on freakin april 29th!

i haven't been tracking weather lately since we've had virtually no snow all of april. this was a total surprise.

the lower mountain is not really rideable, but the coverage on the upper 2/3 is still pretty decent. but who cares? i'm not there to ride the bumps.

i'll give this day an A rating just for the glacier run. other than the high alpine the rest of the mountain was pretty crap.

apr 14, 2008

24hr snow = 0cm
base depth = 244cm
cumulative = 974cm
freezing level = 1300m
days riding = 64

five day forecast

day1 2 day2 0-2 day3 0 day4 0-2 day5 3-5

pros and cons...looking like we've seen our last powder days of '08, but thankfully we have squamish and pemberton for early season biking.
had a two sport weekend with snowboarding on saturday and biking on sunday. snow conditions best described as sticky. so sticky in fact that it seemed like you would come to a complete stop on anything less than a 10 degree slope. still fun for goofing around though.
on saturday the temp was +6C in the alpine and 18C in the valley. getting a bit colder this week (it's actually snowing outside right now), but looks to be officially done. the past 3 seasons we've had at least one significant dump around mid-april, but unless it comes really late, it doesn't look like it's going to happen this year.

snow coverage: A
snow quality: C-
run selection: B
crowds: B-
visibility: A+
overall: C+

apr 7, 2008

24hr snow = 2cm
base depth = 265cm
cumulative = 969cm
freezing level = valley
days riding = 63

five day forecast

day1 0-1 day2 1-3 day3 0 day4 5 day5 0

did a couple of quick laps off peak today. nothing special - was hoping for a bit more fresh than reported, but there wasn't really. occasional soft turns through surprise and doom and gloom, but not enough to keep me out there.

i hiked up to the warming hut at elfin lakes with jayne and amy on saturday. that was pretty fun, although the riding was really only to save us from hiking back down again. the snow above the hut improved quickly, but we had only budgeted for an afternoon trip so we couldn't go too far. think i'll try to get out there again before the end of the season.

snow coverage: A
snow quality: B-
run selection: C+
crowds: A
visibility: C-
overall: B-














the hike up











warming hut











really hamming it up in there

apr 4, 2008

24hr snow = 0cm
base depth = 260cm
cumulative = 959cm
freezing level = 1500m
days riding = 61

five day forecast
day1 0-2 day2 2-5 day3 4-8 day4 0-2 day5 2-4

man, i've really been slacking with the posts lately, mainly because there's not a lot to report. the temps have been pretty cold actually, and there is a lot more snow in the valley than there was at this time last year. we've yet to receive any of those torrential rains that wash it all away.

i got the bike out for the first time yesterday and did some trails up around pemberton. anything south facing up there is completely bare and dry, but we did have to plough through some snowy areas. generally though the trails were in excellent condition and i didn't come out of it with any cuts or bruises, so i'd have to consider it a good start to the season.

my last day of mountain riding was on wednesday, and included a few terrain park laps with burnsy. not much softening going on, but the jumps are in excellent condition, as is the halfpipe. hadn't taken a spin in that thing in years, but it went OK. we also hit the wind lip in 7th...you need to look a little harder for things to do right now.

yesterday morning's forecast was calling for cold heavy precip this weekend, but as has been the case lately, it was quickly downgraded to nothing much. either snow or melt already!

i'll try to keep the posting up for another month or so. my goal was to have this blog appear in the first page of a google search for whistler snow reports, but lately i've slipped to page 5. hey - it's not my fault it hasn't snowed in 2 months!

snow coverage: A
snow quality: C
run selection: C
crowds: A
visibility: A+
overall: C+