Thread: Whistler Stoke and Conditions - 2011/2012

anyone get any beta on the sea to sky sled access conditions?

Originally Posted by xyz

anyone get any beta on the sea to sky sled access conditions?

FKNA awesome above 1500 meters. Creamy knee deep pow. A bit of surface slab/sluffing into death cookie debris fields on steep north facing stuff, but the more mellow terrain is off the charts for this time of year. Was getting face shots all morning!

Going to get sendy tomorrow, probably up bwine. Hopefully we get some sun!

Awesome face shots up high today! Couloir Extreme area is probably among the best I've ever skied it.

Super warm today.
Climbed Spankys wall. Got burned. Then skied ruby in shorts.

Also - Retrieved a 183 white mantra in ruby bowl. Black 912's.

Most enjoyable ski day of the entire year. No crowds, lots of t-shirts, great corn snow that lasted for a lot longer than I thought it would, no sticky snow patches on or off trail, a few chicks in bikinis, sunny

The snow was great everywhere.

... and the white road still goes all the way to the Gondola and ski-in/out hotels.

Anyone have the story on this decker incident?

http://www.cnn.com/video/?hpt=hp_c3#...er-rescued.ctv

Originally Posted by canwilf

no sticky snow patches on or off trail

I disagree with that, the rescue road out from the glacier was painfully slow in parts. That being said, the snow was awesome mostly everywhere. Run of the day for me was down grey zone. It's awesome how much snow there still is and being able to ski out. Even looks like the white ribbon will be around till closing weekend.

Originally Posted by wren

I disagree with that, the rescue road out from the glacier was painfully slow in parts. That being said, the snow was awesome mostly everywhere. Run of the day for me was down grey zone. It's awesome how much snow there still is and being able to ski out. Even looks like the white ribbon will be around till closing weekend.

Yup, Grey Zone to Fraggle Rock was run of the day for me. Fraggle was especially nice, less manky than the stuff up high. I guess it didn't get the dump a week ago and is skiing more consolidated. Also, I found the icy exposed traverse on the chimney bootpack a little terrifying. It may be a barrier to entry for me at this point.

Also gorgeous was the Blue Line groomed run, especially up high next to the T-Bar. By about noon, the snow there was just perfect.

Hard to complain on a day like yesterday...

Originally Posted by D(C)

Hard to complain on a day like yesterday...

hear hear!

Originally Posted by todug27

Anyone have the story on this decker incident?

http://www.cnn.com/video/?hpt=hp_c3#...er-rescued.ctv

This posted on TAY: http://www.turns-all-year.com/skiing...1337007457#new

hey folks

hope spring is treating you well up there. we're in need of some beta and hope you can point us in the right direction.

we'll be heading up that way next week for a wedding, and want to ski for 3-4 days. neither of us have been there before, and are looking for some long, adventurous, fun touring. cool locations, interesting terrain, local classics, whatever you can recommend. with some nudges in the right direction, we can do the interwebs research from there.

thoughts? suggestions?

thanks again for your help!

Originally Posted by lhs

hey folks

hope spring is treating you well up there. we're in need of some beta and hope you can point us in the right direction.

we'll be heading up that way next week for a wedding, and want to ski for 3-4 days. neither of us have been there before, and are looking for some long, adventurous, fun touring. cool locations, interesting terrain, local classics, whatever you can recommend. with some nudges in the right direction, we can do the interwebs research from there.

thoughts? suggestions?

thanks again for your help!

If you'll be up here before the closing date for Blackcomb and the weather cooperates, the Spearhead Traverse is probably the classic multi day ski tour in the area. It's pretty late in the year, so crevasses are starting to be an issue (as evidenced by the posts above). It's doable in a long day, spreading it out over 3 offers plenty of options for side trips along the way. If you're looking for some shorter tours there are plenty of options in the Duffey lake area. In general you're going to be doing some hiking to hit snow at this point.

Best of luck.

Blackcomb slackcountry is primo corn right now. Skied Cham Chute and DOA today, my first time hitting both those lines.

Cham had excellent coverage the whole way down. We had to downclimb about 20 steps to get over the initial rocks but after that, all good. What a cool line! Narrow and steep.

DOA had great corn snow in the couloir. Right before the fan the rocks are poking through requiring a downclimb. The fan was pretty manky and it looks like there's some glide starting to happen. DOA is not nearly as gnarly or long as I thought it would be. I was actually a bit underwhelmed. I supposed it would be a nice run in pow.

Overall, a beautiful spring day. 2 days left. Get after it!

Got after it with 2 compadres yesterday and skied Flute shoulder. Still 2+m of snow above 1700m, smooth moist pow on top of corn made for an excellent June run!

Originally Posted by filthyfrenchbum

Got after it with 2 compadres yesterday and skied Flute shoulder. Still 2+m of snow above 1700m, smooth moist pow on top of corn made for an excellent June run!

sled up?

What are the rules around skiing outside the public summer skiing area? WB posted a YouTube vid taken the other day and it looks like there is still a ton of snow off Chainsaw, wondering if a guy could ski down there (or go out to DOA) and come back to the lifts after? Never been up skiing there in the summer, even if the snow isn't great would be fun for the novelty.

Hey guys! Just thought I'd share a link to a snowmobile movie coming out shortly shot by a local film company featuring local riders in local terrain. I realize this is the Ski/Snowboard forum, but there are quite a few of us that use snowmobiles for backcountry access. I bought my first snowmobile 4 years ago for ski access and along the way discovered that a face shot is a face shot regardless of how you attained it. (Likewise with airtime) This is a movie shot almost entirely in the Whistler Backcountry by former Snowboard cinematographer Jorli Ricker of Highmark Films. Most snowmobile movies are poorly shot and edited, thus making them hard to watch or stay entertained. Jorli is a superb cinematographer, and we spent a lot of long days in the backcountry to get the early morning and late evening light. I'm beyond stoked to have been a part of this project.

Just thought I'd share with you guys, a lot of these riders ski and snowboard as well. There is no place on earth I'd rather live than here in Whistler and this winter was absolutely absurd with how much snow we got. Just a different way to look at the mountains and all the different ways you can travel in them. This movie includes powder riding, some hillclimbing, tree riding, jumping and hucking, quite a broad scope of different styles of riding.

Hope you enjoy! It'll be available for purchase or download on itunes August 15th.

looks dope thanks for sharing

Originally Posted by gramboh

What are the rules around skiing outside the public summer skiing area? WB posted a YouTube vid taken the other day and it looks like there is still a ton of snow off Chainsaw, wondering if a guy could ski down there (or go out to DOA) and come back to the lifts after? Never been up skiing there in the summer, even if the snow isn't great would be fun for the novelty.

Theyll pull passes for skiing chainsaw ridge or any other closed inbounds stuff. As far as i know though, you're still aloud to access the backcountry. Heres a video of hoji skiing doa in july. I was looking at it today though and theres a big patch of rocks at the end of the chute that youd have to down climb. You can ski to the bottom of seventh for most of the summer a lot of times, so yes you can make it back to the lifts. Still tons of snow up there, the glacier has been getting bigger for the past three years now.

Backflip is deffinately harder then the coffin, I haven't been able to stick a flip to snow yet....

Thank you very much for that day!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A8UsS...&feature=g-upl
heres a good view!

WB is practically advertising summer backcountry skiing.
They have thier man they 'embedded' in the fall skiing DOA yesterday and tweeting about it

http://instagr.am/p/MUPUT3pqYh/

Would anyone be interested in skiing and/or climbing in the S2S or pemby area this weekend or next?