Whistler-Blackcomb January 26-28 2018

Not bad for some of the first tuns of the season! 7 inches overnight. Fresh Tracks breakfast, in reverse. Skied a couple untracked runs when they dropped the rope, then ate.

Untitled from Chris Kidd on Vimeo.

Later!

Looks awesome, but this is sad:

JTG4eva! wrote

Not bad for some of the first tuns of the season!!

You missed a lot of good skiing in the east if these are some of your first turns (at the end of January).

Cool. Be careful near those trees though. Tree wells...

Yes, I agree MC.  We never get out in Dec, and for most of Jan my ankle has been a mess.  

This kinda sorta makes up for my missed time....



My tracks are on the left of the picture.  Knee deep and light!

Day one of skiing was a mixed bag, and I didn’t get to explore as much of the resort terrain as I expected to.  The first few Fresh Tracks runs down low were great.  After I finished breakfast the Alpine opened.  All lifts.  Problem was, the visibility was crap.  Skiing by brail, and not the kind of conditions to explore double black cliff-y terrain in.

Blindly made my way from the top of the Peak Express over to Symphony.  Headed toward Flute Bowl, but the vis just wasn’t right for dropping into its steep terrain with lots of features.  Depth perception was nil.  So I explored, followed the boundary line, because I could see it.  A brief clearing saw some guys making the hike/skin toward Flute Peak, so I donned skins and went that a way.

Visibility continued to suck.

So, I hooked up with a local who was skinning alone in the same direction.  We decided to head to the summit of Flute, cross the boundary into some low angle out of bounds stuff in the next bowl, Oboe.

Obviously we got that clearing (the pics), and we played for a couple laps in the Musical Bumps!  

Great day.

Yes, Whistler Village is a bit......well, it’s built up and not charming, but it is pretty beautiful and cool.  I’m at one end...


(view of Blackcomb from my condo at Twin Peaks (Whistler Vacation Club).  And it’s a 12 minute walk on the Village Stroll to Whistler base.

Drspite the visibility, you obviously made the correct decision regarding location.

Yeah, it’s good.  Crystal and Baker are really good right now, too.  Pacific NW delivers again, so far!  Could get skunked tomorrow.  Warm atmospheric river system moving in tonight with raising snow levels and some winds.  Could see rain.  Hopefully the system is slower to come in than they currently think, or the freezing level isn’t too quick to shoot up.  We’ll see....but it’s going to be really good today.

Looks Fantastic..

I have only skied there in the summer.. It sure looks great..How are the weekend crowds?
I heard there is a fantastic sushi joint in town too

Crowds on the slopes aren’t bad, as much as I’ve been on them.  I did some backcountry touring yesterday, and did a guided backcountry day today, so I only rode a couple of lifts today.  Even though we had priority lift access with ExCan, the lines early weren’t bad.

There’s something about Whistler and Aussies.  Some Australia Day thing going on, so the base of the mountain and the bars are a crowded party scene.  I passed a sushi place in the Village, maybe I’ll give that a try, assuming I’m not too tired to eat!

So, for today I hooked up with Extremely Canadian (ExCan), a guide service affiliated with Whistler.

Double wow, what a day.  The single hardest day of skiing in my life, and the best.  Professional guide Tim, Gordon, whose “job” is bike racing (road, mountain, etc.), and Franz, who grew up skiing the mountains of Germany.  I was always bringing up the rear, and Tim kept a reasonable pace, but I did ok.  Good group of guys.

Another day of the weather over delivering on the forecast.  What was supposed to be a few inches turned into 8 (reported) overnight, with more up high.  Avy ratings were high above tree line and considerable elsewhere so we kept it below tree line and mostly in the trees.  There was a lot of avy activity on the Blackcomb side during morning control work, so we couldn’t get over there.  Back out to Oboe, then we dropped into The Apostles toward Cowboy Ridge.  That was ok.  Knee to thigh deep powder, and light.  So much work, but so much fun.  We skied out the Singing Pass Trail when we finished our laps through the trees.

Time for the hot tub....

Jackpot!!

Yes, I’ve been lucky!

I hear the Cascades were getting hammered this week, too.

Looks like 12-20 inches in the forecast tomorrow morning into the afternoon, with freezing level around 4,500, rising to close to 6,000 as the day wears on.  Rain for the bottom half of the mountain.  Even if the alpine doesn’t open I’m hoping there will be a few open lifts in the snow zone.  Solar Coaster to Spanky’s Ladder would be enough for me to be happy.  Should be an interesting day!

Thanks for taking the time to take pics and to post them!  Looks like great fun.

Talked to some folks who skied in-bounds last night.  They said the slopes were crowded, at least the groomed.  Lift lines a mixed bag.  No big Village Gondola line early but then I think it had maintenace issues.  Lifts had some long lines, but Symphony was ski on all day.

Reports from Crystal yesterday were for super long lines everywhere, and super slow traffic getting to the mountain, access road less than 5mph the whole way.  Some folks through the towel in at noon the crowds were so bad, and it was a wind effected powder day.

A few inches overnight in the village and still snowing hard!