Search results

With a recent refresh in the Sea to Sky corridor and some sunny weather on tap for the weekend, it was a great time to get out in the Whistler backcountry. Blackcomb from across the valley Mt. Garibaldi and Black Tusk loom in the distance Mt. Weart and an unfrozen Green Lake

Totally! There’s lots of terrain back there. Perhaps another season.

Here are a few photos of SS from the following week, after a bit of a refresh. We stayed in the cute village Some nice views of the Monashees Three Wise Men Freefall

FINALLY a storm with adequate moisture AND colder air. Whistler picked up 2ft with snow to the valley bottom with a bit more incoming this week. :eusa-dance: With clearing skies on tap for Saturday, it should be a banger of a weekend in the backcountry. Touring has been limited to higher...

Ahhh…so that’s why there was a line out the door last week when it got cold! I never went in there, but cafeteria style dining would make more sense in that location. More amenities would be nice, but that would require more crowds (especially midweek), which thankfully the Okanagan region...

One of these days I have to make it over to Nelson.

I would have avoided skiing entirely. The first major storm after a lengthy dry/warm stretch is seldom worth it IMO. So much stress and effort for maybe the possibility of a couple untracked runs? Small to moderate daily refreshes are where it’s at.

Silver Star was very busy yesterday, too. Several locals said they’ve never seen it so busy midweek.

With approximately a foot of new snow in the last few days, the rain runnels that were widespread in the Whistler alpine are now a thing of the past. Thank goodness. I caught first tracks in the Secret and Spanky’s, and other than some avi debris poking out at the bottom of Diamond Bowl, there...

Purely speculation on my part, but I suspect you don’t see rain runnels in the east because the snowpack is so shallow and therefore more sensitive to temperature changes. Deeper snowpacks like those found in the Coast Range are cooler, more insulated and less likely to melt down quickly...

I suspect it’s due to the rate of precipitation outpacing the ability of the snowpack to absorb the water.

Over. These were formed at the tail end of the last atmospheric river as heavy rain landed on all the snow that fell earlier in the storm cycle.

As expected, conditions in the Whistler backcountry were brutal this weekend. It was great for scouting future tours but bad for skiing. The snowpack in the alpine remains pretty fat with 110” at the Kees & Claire hut 6400’. Hopefully the snow this weekend buries all the rain runnels and avi...

Perhaps the time of year stacked the odds in your favor? Atmospheric rivers are most common in the fall through January. They’re often behind the wild temperature swings even if Whistler is not in the line of fire. The deep coastal snowpack also keeps temperatures at elevation cool well into...

Maybe it has been a rough stretch of years since I moved to the Lower Mainland, or maybe I’m just spoiled by years of trips to the intermountain west using your data as a guide but… In my experience, the alpine conditions at Whistler are not nearly as reliable as the regions with elite snow...

The forecast for Whistler is depressing. The GDPS, GFS and ECMWF are all in agreement that precipitation in the next 10 days is negligible. If the forecast verifies, Whistler will be approaching 3 weeks without any meaningful precipitation and 3 weeks where off piste is largely unskiable due to...

Too warm. I checked temps on the Park City site earlier and all of them were above freezing. Closer to home, I was looking at the Whistler webcams earlier. It was depressing. The alpine is covered in rain runnels. 😭 I’m supposed to go touring in the Whistler backcountry next week, staying in...

Indeed it can be! I’m glad I got out in the Baker backcountry yesterday before the snow turns to 💩. When the temps finally do come back down, it’s going to be an ice skating rink in SWBC and the PNW.

That truly sounds like purgatory. 😂

Whistler is bursting at the seams between no mountains open in the PNW region, its limited operating footprint, and an already inadequate lift system. The line for 7th Heaven on Wednesday The WVG download line today