Whistler Stoke and Conditions - 2011/2012

**PeakChair** · 03-17-2012, 01:02 PM

i was in line for jordan yesterday and saw that the shelf had not held any snow at all from the last storms due to the extreme winds up there over the past few days which would make it real tricky...everyone was losin it off the icey first drop so i elected to pass and hit untouched 3rd step

**GoNads** · 03-17-2012, 01:45 PM

Line up early and hit it first... last time I hit it I landed on the first stage in an icy hole from an avy bomb and still made it just fine. If you drop it with the intentions of straightlining both stages you can deal with the hard landing, bomb holes etc. Problem is that people try to stop, slow down, or make turns on the platform and fuck up because they don't want to take heat off the 2nd drop.

The thought of messing up trying to stop or make turns and eating shit off the platform was way scarier/less desireable than dropping in and pointing it carrying a ton of speed off the 2nd drop. I guess that's just me though.

Drop in fall line, land squared up/strong and fall line.. keep 'em pointed fall line and you'll be fine, no matter how hard it is.

**nortonwhis** · 03-17-2012, 03:41 PM

Originally Posted by GoNads

Line up early and hit it first... last time I hit it I landed on the first stage in an icy hole from an avy bomb and still made it just fine. If you drop it with the intentions of straightlining both stages you can deal with the hard landing, bomb holes etc. Problem is that people try to stop, slow down, or make turns on the platform and fuck up because they don't want to take heat off the 2nd drop.

The thought of messing up trying to stop or make turns and eating shit off the platform was way scarier/less desireable than dropping in and pointing it carrying a ton of speed off the 2nd drop. I guess that's just me though.

Drop in fall line, land squared up/strong and fall line.. keep 'em pointed fall line and you'll be fine, no matter how hard it is.

thats why they call them doubles. not single to fuck around to single...
they should pull passes for cunting it up.

husume made for a pretty fun lunch break today. quite a big hole on dont swill - looks like a glide crack maybe. but its big enough atm to grab you if you dont see it.

**Tupp-** · 03-17-2012, 05:40 PM

Originally Posted by powder11

I wonder what happened to the folks that used to actually stomp air jordan.

They're 50 years old and waiting for that perfect day to hit it their last time...

Heard a pretty awesome story from Jordan this week about a day he sent it in the fog. The crazy low vis made it a very spiritual and cool air (in his words) - the way he just had to time the landing from memory and crunch up off the second air was one of the most adrenaline pumping, but zen-like, memories. Really interesting to hear it all.

Also HUGE props to the boarder who rescued the ski off of the second step on Tuesday!

**skibum_jr** · 03-18-2012, 03:53 AM

I was in the line on tuesday and watched as that boarder came about 2 feet from sliding over the second cliff. It was good of him to unstrap and grab the ski, but he was lucky too.

As far as people not stomping it anymore, that is very true, yet there are new guys with skill that are throwing flips and 3's off of it and stomping which none of the old boys did, which is cool too.

**point it** · 03-18-2012, 01:29 PM

Overall one of the craziest weeks of pow of my life. So many runs where I had the "best run ever" through a given section. thought it was cool to see a patroller at the top of goats path checking to see who was beeping. He said that it was maybe 1% who actually had avy gear. I know not everyone is gonna go get a beacon etc but at least attention is being drawn to the matter. Went for a tour with Kalisto and some buddies up Sproatt yesterday. So fucking deep, skinning was a bitch but it definitely payed off with some whiteroom and pillow action up top. Really surprised with the terrain up top, definitely want to go back when stability is better and step into some scarier stuff

**kalisto** · 03-18-2012, 02:21 PM

Got a little carried away with the editing.

Skiing did not suck.

**powder11** · 03-18-2012, 03:34 PM

Originally Posted by skibum_jr

As far as people not stomping it anymore, that is very true, yet there are new guys with skill that are throwing flips and 3's off of it and stomping which none of the old boys did, which is cool too.

Matt Elliot, Shin Campos and Domanski started doing that stuff 10 yrs ago. Try again.

**skibum_jr** · 03-18-2012, 04:53 PM

Yes they were, but they are the newer guys I was talking about as opposed to the old boys mentioned above. Im pretty sure matt and shin aren't even close to hitting 50 years old yet.

**TeCeBe** · 03-18-2012, 07:41 PM

Air Jordan is a bad ass drop no doubt. But it has become a sort of right of passage for every nit wit here on a break who thinks there the next big thing.

Personally, I am a bit torn, as I like seeing the carnage, but can't stand the bro-brah talk about it. Peoples need to feed the ego never fails. GaPer POV footage is just another example.

**LeeLau** · 03-18-2012, 07:47 PM

Sproat - amazing, Good to know the skin track is busted in. It's a bugger putting that in

**point it** · 03-18-2012, 09:22 PM

Originally Posted by LeeLau

It's a bugger putting that in

This 123GSA

**Spark** · 03-19-2012, 10:38 AM

Originally Posted by skiingnow

I think there was an incident in the Christmas trees area that the heli came for. Hope it ended well.

Heard from a friend that the long-line rescue on Friday was in the Christmas trees. Heard two skiers, friends, collided in the area, then one hit a tree breaking both legs (bilateral tib-fib breaks).

**Name witheld** · 03-19-2012, 05:46 PM

With this bit of caution from local papers with the quote: "“If you are going to go out of bounds in these mountains you need to know what you are doing,” I'd like to use this Sunday's Cowboy Ridge ski as an example. At the outset, to my knowledge no one got hurt that day and no one triggered an avalanche.

Sunday March 18, 2012 was a busy day. We counted possibly 15 groups in the Musical Bumps area. We were among the first groups to ski out past Oboe and to Cowboy Ridge. We set a good portion of the leftmost blue skintrack in the picture which is in dense trees and away from downhill tracks. We wanted to ski either one of the three middle lines of Cowboy Ridge (the lines are split by bands of trees). A note on these lines. They had been skied the day before so there was lots of downhill tracks on them. There is a convex roll on a good portion of the middle lines so people skiing those lines have no way of knowing if there are other parties on those lines before dropping in.

It was pretty much perfect skiing conditions. Over 1m+ of storm snow had fallen. Winds light, ski pen was about 20 - 30cms. Temps were minus 8 to 10.

Our party dropped in the slope where the "e" of Convex Roll starts. As I crested the roll, I saw about 100m vertical below me two people skinning right up the slope traversing across it (I couldn't see them before I dropped in and immediately stopped). I told them that my party was dropping in and at the same time radioed my party to stop till this group had cleared out. I told them they were vulnerable to danger from people like me who couldn't see them and one said that they just followed the skintrack.

These two people cleared the skintrack and my group dropped in on the centre of the slope. I dropped in last and skied skiers right. To my amazement (and horror) as I was skiing downhill (at a good rate of speed) at about the "l") in the "lemming" part of the wording on the picture there were five people on the skintrack also going up the slope. I avoided them by splitting the group and kept going downhill. I had no opportunity to see this group and would not have skied that part of the slope if I knew there people on it. I did not trigger any sluff release or avalanches on any of these people.

My point is that there are so many other safer ways to get to the top of Cowboy Ridge which do not expose people on the uphill to overhead hazard (ie either convexities or skiers going downhill). For example, the skintrack marked "good" on picture left is through dense trees, avoids potential downhill traffic and does not have convexities above the track. The skintrack marked "good" on picture right goes through low angle terrain. Both the "good" tracks might add perhaps 5 to 10 minutes (at most) to time spent on the uphill over the "WTF" skintrack

I've seen some stunning skin tracks in Whistler and the Duffey this year. I urge people to think for themselves and not to simply follow tracks just because they're already there. I urge people to think about overhead hazard. You spend the most time on the uphill and are therefore the most exposed on the uphill. Use your head accordingly

**PeakChair** · 03-20-2012, 06:01 PM

Last week was definitely the week of the year...gotta love March! Here's the highlights of my week:

**powder11** · 03-20-2012, 07:19 PM

Originally Posted by Name witheld

Use your head accordingly

Do you ski over at the magic chair and bitch about all the beginners almost running into you as well? Musical bumps is the new magic chair for sidecountry noobs. Welcome to the new reality.

**kalisto** · 03-20-2012, 08:02 PM

^ Sad but true.

**Jordo** · 03-20-2012, 09:04 PM

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?

**t.odd** · 03-20-2012, 09:28 PM

nice sleeper day out there today! took it fairly mellow, but the low crowds kept the goods fresh nice and long! Put myself in the white room a lot. Vd's was blown in deep and awesome, and got a sweet line down the gut of the gun barrels, one track and really deep! Thanks for the knowledge Brother Clownshoe, we managed two runs before hitting the t-bar!

**Clownshoe** · 03-21-2012, 07:03 AM

Glad to head it Todd!

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

**curtisbb** · 03-21-2012, 07:48 AM

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

**t.odd** · 03-21-2012, 08:34 AM

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?

**nortonwhis** · 03-21-2012, 10:10 AM

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.