Thread: Whistler Stoke and Conditions - 2011/2012

Put together an edit of footage mostly from earlier in the season along the sea to sky corridor. Enjoy!

Originally Posted by Clownshoe

Glad to head it Todd!

Good to see you up there getting your training in for AK

I find the rabbit tracks hike just really puts me in the zone of an AK mentality, ya know?

the last two days were insane. not sure what the hell happened on monday but spankys was boot deep blower all over - you could definitely feel the bottom though. No trace of snow in the valley and very little even mid mountain but the alpine was crzy. begged patrol to let us the tbar just before sweep and got a husume in. neither of us could believe how deep our turns where in the high entrance.

yesterday was fun as well.

Originally Posted by curtisbb

Put together an edit of footage mostly from earlier in the season along the sea to sky corridor. Enjoy!

nice work curtis.

Peakchair: nice fast skiing on the P2P line toward the end of your edit. Being a cube dweller was painful last week, I should have stayed offline.

Originally Posted by Jordo

http://www.avalanche.ca/cac/bulletins/latest/sea-to-sky

"A size 3 slab was observed on a north-west aspect in the Musical Bumps area, near Whistler, suspected to have failed on Sunday. The trigger is unknown."

We left Cowboy at 2:00 and saw nada all day. Anybody have any more info on location?

out towards the S end of the ridge. No-one really goes there because the aspect is kind of crappy. There's overhanging cornices there too so maybe cornice failure? Was getting warm eod

Tonight did not suck.







More photos over at
http://nadiasamer.wordpress.com/

I love taking sunset photos, those are rad sunset photos!

Anyone made any avalanche observations along the spearhead traverse route recently? Wayne Flann's blog makes me think cornice fall and solar warming are going to be major factors for the weekend.

Forecast is looking pretty favorable for the weekend however the CAC issuing yet another special warning that includes the South Coast inland is a bit of a concern. They're starting to lose their punch though, I haven't received a worried e-mail from my parents yet...

I'll toss a bit of stoke from last week in here too...

Originally Posted by Neuro

Anyone made any avalanche observations along the spearhead traverse route recently? Wayne Flann's blog makes me think cornice fall and solar warming are going to be major factors for the weekend.

Saw tons of people heading out today. I counted 40 on the main route out of blackcomb at one point.

Talked to another couple of guys who were doing the spearhead. They were at Showcase when it opened and they counted about 20 people on their way out. Steady stream during the day too.

Skied Decker yesterday, punchy on the main face, boot top wind packed but not bad. Cornice fell on 9th hole, no propagation. Saw some lines down 19th hole, seems pretty stable, still only boot top pen there it looked like, Lower slope looked wind affected, it was sure coming up hard through the mouse trap. Came back in via Disease which skied very well, those cornices haven't fallen yet.

We skied Spearhead and Poopchutes today. Stairmaster bootback is well set and not warming at least at 1:30 when we went up it. Sun affect will be a consideration for sure after today, when it was out it was very warm. Snow was still good on S/ SE facing slopes.

Originally Posted by skiingnow

Saw tons of people heading out today.
Skied Decker yesterday, punchy on the main face, boot top wind packed but not bad. Cornice fell on 9th hole, no propagation. Saw some lines down 19th hole, seems pretty stable, still only boot top pen there it looked like, Lower slope looked wind affected, it was sure coming up hard through the mouse trap. Came back in via Disease which skied very well, those cornices haven't fallen yet.

We skied Spearhead and Poopchutes today. Stairmaster bootback is well set and not warming at least at 1:30 when we went up it. Sun affect will be a consideration for sure after today, when it was out it was very warm. Snow was still good on S/ SE facing slopes.

Thanks for the Beta.

CAC is starting to get dangerously into Cry Wolf status but to be fair the SPAW is South Coast inland.

Decker yesterday, windslab on N, NE and NW aspects. Disease Ridge (SW) skied best. Stability was good though in alpine and treeline with the windslab not reactive

Appears to have been localized though as today Circle Lake - Spearhead - Phalanx - Poop Chutes; SE, NW skied fine with some minor slab on NW but pretty easy to ski still. Towards eod Poop Chutes had some sun crust.

Expect S and SE faces to have sun crust come the weekend. Tons of people out to day. No suicide skin tracks .. yet

Decker - sadly windslab





Circle Lake





Spearhead

I've gone to the dark side... it was nice knowing you guys!

last couple of days

After taking care of the post-ACL surgery wife for the past two weeks, looking forward to getting back up to Whistler! Have the March-breakers disappeared yet or am I catching the last weekend??

Had some fun on Gin peak today, amazing snow.
Breaking into the alpine, Rainbow in the background.


No wind affect here


Now you see him


Now you don't


Breaking back into the forest was so good.

Snow quality was acceptable

Nice Mark! we were thinking of sproat but were lured in the blackcomb bc with this nice weather!

nice stuff all round up above. bummer that everything on decker looked like ass today.
saw someone ski one of the fingers nicely. one track from yesterday also looked nice.

Definitely saw some interesting skin tracks.

made it out for a quick(well not so quick) lunch mission -

Nothing gnarly or epic today, just enjoyed the beautiful weather and relatively small crowds. A few more storms would be sweet but spring is upon us!

Great day up Rainbow today, thanks to whoever put the skin track in halfway up. North aspects skied great, went off the E due to time restraints, it was pretty sun-crusted.

Question for Whistler mags... Anyone know what the name of this line is?

Couloir in this picture, just a bit lookers right of Banana Chute?



Crop:

Originally Posted by kalisto

Question for Whistler mags... Anyone know what the name of this line is?

Couloir in this picture, just a bit lookers right of Banana Chute?





Crop:

Psycho Chute maybe? I could quite easily be wrong. Haven't skiied it myself, though it's on my list for a Fissile mission day later this season.

Beautiful weather out there this weekend. Got some in bounds skiing on Saturday with the girlfriend, broke out the slalom skis and good times were had. I chatted with someone in Escape Route Saturday evening who said a heli did a flyover and counted approximately 40 people along the spearhead traverse route.

Did my first one day Spearhead with Cambie on Sunday. Perfect conditions for it... 8 hours 20 minutes from the Blackcomb back country gate to the GLC.

I know it's a little early to speculate, but what are the chances of an extended season? Any chance of extended ops into June? I'm talking about beyond the normal summer glacier skiing. Does anyone remember last year's closing dates? This season seems to be shaping up similarly.