2013/2014 Whistler Blackcomb - South Coast - Duffey Lake Thread

[SystemD]

"Saw a group of 2 who left early, and a solo guy putting the 5th line down Husume at 830 this morning. "

- Waaaa? Nice work! Game on.

[powder11]

That leaves the rest of the Duffy to a handful of ski tourers willing to tour one ridge further and knock off some pretty cool lines.

You are wrong. There is nothing to see up there. At all. Period. End of story.

[DanCudlip]

You are wrong. There is nothing to see up there. At all. Period. End of story.

Couldn't agree more dude. Most of the time it's either shit conditions like this




Or totally boring skiing like this.



I don't think I'll bother going this year.

[Fejau]

Sending some stoke from October 2nd. Headed up from Kadenwood to Whistler Peak. Not bad for October.

[TeCeBe]

Saw the "new" Crystal lift up close yesterday. Lapping that chair on those mid January storm days with no one around is going to be great. Never mind the pressure it will take off the S side. Changes the way Blackcomb skis for the better IMO.

[System_D]

ahem, yes. Thank you for that Dan.

[DanCudlip]

It's puking up there today(sat 2nd). Freezing level looks pretty low too. I might try and get some turns in the next few days.

[Blizzard_of_Oz]

It's puking up there today(sat 2nd). Freezing level looks pretty low too. I might try and get some turns in the next few days.

Indeed it has puked there. Over 1.3 inches or 33mm of water equivalent in the last 48 hours in the coastal mountains.

[t.odd]

shin deep at 1000m

[DanCudlip]

Looks like about a million people went skiing on blackcomb today... How was it? I went to Brandywine and it was a total bust. Pretty much the least successful skiing mission I've been on in about 5 years. The snow was rancid wind blown breakable crust, and the coverage was surprisingly poor.

The weather was nice thou, so silver linings and all that I guess.

[powdergangsters]

Down south was good hit up Heliotrope with the masses. 3 feet of silky snow from the last storm. The 10km of ski booting I could have done without.

[t.odd]

early november skiing was shit? colour me shocked...pemby biking was really awesome

[lafleche]

November is like beer in that it gives normal people an opportunity to do things they normally wouldn't.

There were about a dozen people on Blackcomb glacier. 3 or 4 down Husume, the bulk stuck to glacier from Showcase entrance, a few went up to Spearhead.

Much wind with the storm, but protected areas were good quality if not very long. No one complained too loudly in spite of a minuscule ski to walk ratio.

[Maximus Farcisimus]

Looks like about a million people went skiing on blackcomb today... How was it?

As expected.
Far less coverage than the first weekend of Oct.
Lots of open crevasses and if you weren't on a glacier it was boney.
Didn't get in to Husume(Don't Swill, dunno about the coverage back there!), Sudan, Pakalolo like some of the others.
The ride out Glacier drive I was dinging rocks.

Quick pit at Wind Lip
50cms fist, then 2 hard crusts(knife) in the space of 10cms. These 2 crusts were each about 2cms thick sandwiched with 4F in between. Seemed fairly consolidated under these.
CTE5 at 15cms and CTH21 from the bottom crust.

Looked like a lot of people were happy to ride crap fairly low.

Took a look up the Duffey today, even less snow up there, although there was a skin track going up the Matier Glacier.


Back to the bike.

[System_D]

Is it just me, or did anyone else notice the accuracy of the predicted snowfall amount on the WB website has gone down? It seemed like it happened maybe 2 years ago? I'm used to the snow phone and 24 hour forecast being "optimistic" but I remember the 5-day alpine forecast used to be more accurate. The past couple years it has always seemed to over-predict accumulation. I see that WB uses Mountain Weather Services for the Alpine forecast and Environment Canada for the valley. Am I being a grumpy old man, or has it gotten worse? What do folks use for forecasting?

[DanCudlip]

I noticed that last year as well. Apparently they stopped using environment Canada for the Alpine forecast after the olympics and swtiched to Mountain Weather Services, which I'm pretty sure is just some dude in his basement.

I like to look at Wayne Flann's blog, he usually has short term predictions and is often pretty accurate, plus he states up front how confident he is in his predications.

Alternatively you can compare the forecasts from a couple of different sites, WB, snowforecast.com and yr.no for example, and if they all predict the same thing then its probably a safe bet, if the different forecasts differ then who the fuck knows!

For years I've considered making some kind of chart over the course of a whole season to properly gauge the accuracy of the different sites, but basically I'm too lazy.

[shirk]

I think this was covered in last years thread. Enviro Canada cut back on the spot forecast so WB had no choice but to seek another source.

Blackcomb Patrol phone ftw with real conditions and short term forecast.

[t.odd]

yeah, I just do the average of as many forecast as are out there, and then don't worry about it and play wait and see what Ullr thinks we deserve.

[Jafa Joey]

I've been trying to sacrifice as many a "virgin" as possible to please him! It seems to be working.

[powder11]

I'm heading back to Boston next week for thanksgiving. You can all thank me now for the big dump and early opening while I'm away.

[System_D]

Thanks for the beta folks. Yeah, I like to leave it to Ullr and be rewarded too. But in can help to know when to planning for a day on the hill, back-country, or both.

[Clownshoe]

My sources tell me Whistler will open Nov 16th with Emerald and Red.

[Maximus Farcisimus]

My sources tell me Whistler will open Nov 16th with Emerald and Red.

U mean your boss.

Start a pool for the time of the first 10-40?

[gramboh]

U mean your boss.

Start a pool for the time of the first 10-40?

If a 10-40 is early season trauma, already been one: http://www.wayneflannavalancheblog.c...er-7-2013.html

[filthyfrenchbum]

I know most people here probably don't even pay that much for skis, but there are a bunch of killer clearance deals at MEC right now. BMX 108, Rocker 2, Gigawatts, Prior A-stars, and a whole bunch more, in manly lengths (180's and 190's too).

I haven't skied in 529 days and debating whether to break the dry spell this weekend or not, has anybody been on the other side of the valley (Sproatt, brandywine,...) or the duffey in the last few days?