Vail North aka Whistler Conditions 2017-18

[Vitamin I]

I'd be interested in a photo of the Harmony line up right now. Bluebird + cool temps + foot (almost) overnight + holidays + Saturday = has to be all time.

I have no photo for you, but I got on Harmony lift at 11:55am that day (23 minutes after your post), and the Harmony singles line was only 6 people long. But I agree that it was likely insanely long before that (I guess everyone left for Symphony before I got there).

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[::: :::]

The boy spent the week saying “COULOIR EXTREME!” like a monster truck announcer, so I got him a trail sign from the shop, which he was psyched about.

But I noticed the traditional printed trail map says Sudan Couloir, and Couloir Extreme is not ID’ed.

Is there a complete trail map listing all the various famous spots (like air jordan, etc)?

[DanoT]

The boy spent the week saying “COULOIR EXTREME!” like a monster truck announcer, so I got him a trail sign from the shop, which he was psyched about.

But I noticed the traditional printed trail map says Sudan Couloir, and Couloir Extreme is not ID’ed.

Is there a complete trail map listing all the various famous spots (like air jordan, etc)?

The original name for Blackcomb's Couloir Extreme was Sudan Couloir, named after extreme skier Sylvain Sudan. Blackcomb did not ask or pay for the use of his name so he insisted that they remove it, hence the new name: Couloir Extreme.

Imo, Sylvain Sudan, while an amazing skier, as a marketer not so amazing. I am sure he could have at least wrangled a V.I.P. ski trip and official opening of his run out of Blackcomb.

Did Whistler pay Dave Murray for naming a run after him or pay Franz for his run or did they pay Nancy Greene for naming a street after her? I doubt it.

[gramboh]

The original name for Blackcomb's Couloir Extreme was Sudan Couloir, named after extreme skier Sylvain Sudan. Blackcomb did not ask or pay for the use of his name so he insisted that they remove it, hence the new name: Couloir Extreme.

Imo, Sylvain Sudan, while an amazing skier, as a marketer not so amazing. I am sure he could have at least wrangled a V.I.P. ski trip and official opening of his run out of Blackcomb.

Did Whistler pay Dave Murray for naming a run after him or pay Franz for his run or did they pay Nancy Greene for naming a street after her? I doubt it.

I believe he reached and arrangement with WB last year and it’s been renamed. There was an article in Pique and he gave a presentation at the art gallery or museum this past fall.

[::: :::]

Today was our last day. WB is a great hill. You guys are lucky to call it home!

Will return...
I just hope it won’t be another 11 yrs next time

Snow forecasted for the end of the week — hopefully it becomes a more frequent moving forward!

[Vitamin I]

The boy spent the week saying “COULOIR EXTREME!” like a monster truck announcer, so I got him a trail sign from the shop, which he was psyched about.

But I noticed the traditional printed trail map says Sudan Couloir, and Couloir Extreme is not ID’ed.

Is there a complete trail map listing all the various famous spots (like air jordan, etc)?

Last year's trail map displayed "Couloir Extreme". And previous years' maps did, too.

This year's printed trail map displays "Sudan Couloir", which is a misspelling of Sylvain Saudan's name (notice a letter "a" is missing), and makes people think of an African nation instead of the father of extreme skiing. Many people here like to say that only Vail Corp could screw that up---hammering out an agreement with Sylvain and healing old wounds after all those years of conflict, only to ruin it with a careless misspelling of the name that they just paid 6-figures for permission to use.

Vail Corp has now fixed the misspelling on the digital PDF trail map at https://www.whistlerblackcomb.com/~/...Map1718v2.ashx , but the misspelled paper maps are already printed and still being distributed.

If you're looking for a map with "Air Jordan" labelled on it, I've never seen one. I think the Finestone & Hodder guidebook (the 3rd edition is at https://www.quickdrawpublications.co...b-2nd-edition/ ) does NOT include lines as rad as Air Jordan.

I'm guessing the most complete trail map is the one by ULLR Maps new this year, but it's not a printed map---it's an app (iOS & Android) that is not free. It's made by a local patroller, and the free sample screenshots look like they include every single line name the makers could possibly hear about after much research and interviewing other patrollers, local old-timers, etc. The free samples even include names for lines in permanently closed areas (like "Don't Miss", which got Dan Treadway a 12-month ban from the resort), so that says a lot to me about their completeness.
See https://www.ullrmaps.com and
http://www.whistlerquestion.com/opin...end-1.23126612 .

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[::: :::]

Thx!

[t.odd]

Had a great time the past week, high speed top to bottoms, deep cold pow days, sun, inversions, and really, not super busy for Christmas at Whistler....even Saturday wasn't really that bad, anecdotally, epic pass seems to have resulted in a much less busy resort from what I experienced, will be interesting to see how the rest of the season plays out, definitely lots of Cali and Colo peeps around though

did a solo walk out to Cowboy Sunday afternoon, sweet sunny pow lap and then a quick ski out Singing Pass, 30 minutes from the bottom of Cowboy to village, even with passing a couple dozen people
ToddHellinga-1808 by T.odd View, on Flickr

[LeeLau]

Apparently new visitors to the resort are really happy. Good to hear!

[dgilligan02]

Apparently new visitors to the resort are really happy. Good to hear!

Will be one of those types in about 3 weeks. So set your clock for no snow...I’m always the KOD on that front.

[boar2m]

I will there in 2 weeks for the second time this season ...any of you locals wanna play? :-)

Now I am curious about next season when the absence of edge card deals takes its full effect. If I had to guess, revenue gained from selling more Epic pass will not offset $ lost from defecting peeps. ...wait, wait, ...I have a vision - Vail spends millions upgrading infrastructure, frequent drought at California coupled with a few bad years at Whistler ensue, by then oil industry makes a come back and Canadian economy takes off; Vail is forced to sell W/B back to Intrawest for less than half what it paid for. ...note to self - short Vail (MTN) pronto!

[The AD]

Now I am curious about next season when the absence of edge card deals takes its full effect.

Wait, is this official? Well, fuck them.

[gramboh]

I'm guessing the most complete trail map is the one by ULLR Maps new this year, but it's not a printed map---it's an app (iOS & Android) that is not free. It's made by a local patroller, and the free sample screenshots look like they include every single line name the makers could possibly hear about after much research and interviewing other patrollers, local old-timers, etc. The free samples even include names for lines in permanently closed areas (like "Don't Miss", which got Dan Treadway a 12-month ban from the resort), so that says a lot to me about their completeness.
See https://www.ullrmaps.com and
http://www.whistlerquestion.com/opin...end-1.23126612 .

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Does the Ullr map really include all PC/avalanche control route type names? That would be pretty cool, I'd buy it for that (not to ski that stuff, just cool to read about).

Toured off Blackcomb yesterday (Tuesday). Snow started off decent on Spearhead and even Vista but turned to total schmoo as temps warmed up by noonish. Glopstopper was necessary on the way out Decker. Saw a fair amount of pinwheeling and what looked like a size 2 natural way down the bottom of Pattison off a moraine (NE aspect I think? Couldn't get a good pic).

[LeeLau]

Blackcomb backcountry meandering around the Spearman/Spearhead then down Corona.

Temps -5 valley; 0 at 1650m; 3 in sun in alpine at 2300m - 4 in shade. Winds light, skies clear, viz CAVU. NA observed on SW slopes looks like initiated at rocky outcrops and pinwheeling with surface sluffing.

Ski quality surprisingly acceptable on N, NW aspects. Snow congealing on skis and skins on solar aspects.

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[kevin267]

Does the Ullr map really include all PC/avalanche control route type names? That would be pretty cool, I'd buy it for that (not to ski that stuff, just cool to read about).

Toured off Blackcomb yesterday (Tuesday). Snow started off decent on Spearhead and even Vista but turned to total schmoo as temps warmed up by noonish. Glopstopper was necessary on the way out Decker. Saw a fair amount of pinwheeling and what looked like a size 2 natural way down the bottom of Pattison off a moraine (NE aspect I think? Couldn't get a good pic).

The wmmi/ullr map is legit

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[lazyasian]

In case anyone was wondering, today was WET. It was snowing wet heavy flakes at the summit but raining throughout most of the mountain. High quality ACL snow...

Tomorrow will probably be pretty rough but hopefully Sunday’s snow and the continued snow in the forecast will set up nicely!

[gramboh]

Gonna ski tomorrow just to get some more miles touring but not expecting much. Looks like it’s cooling down, crust with a tiny amount of dust expected.

[dgilligan02]

Think it would be feasible to traverse from MountainStar over to Village Run and head down to the gondola early AM (6 AM)?

[kmkmkmk]

yes

[BCJC]

Heading over from the Island on Thursday for new boots at Fanatykco. Spending the night and have to catch the 3;45 ferry on Friday. Would very much like to test my new boots in case they need a tweak or two, before being back on the island and thus well far from the shop.

I'd really rather not drop $150 on a lift ticket just to ski the morning, and potentially only an hour if a boot issue does come up...

My thought is to find a nearby, but mellow little skin up/ski down area to simply test the comfort and function of my new boots. I have almost zero experience in your area, so any tips would be great, or I'd be happy to buy lunch/beers etc if someone wanted to show me around Friday morning.

Thanks.

[gramboh]

Heading over from the Island on Thursday for new boots at Fanatykco. Spending the night and have to catch the 3;45 ferry on Friday. Would very much like to test my new boots in case they need a tweak or two, before being back on the island and thus well far from the shop.

I'd really rather not drop $150 on a lift ticket just to ski the morning, and potentially only an hour if a boot issue does come up...

My thought is to find a nearby, but mellow little skin up/ski down area to simply test the comfort and function of my new boots. I have almost zero experience in your area, so any tips would be great, or I'd be happy to buy lunch/beers etc if someone wanted to show me around Friday morning.

Thanks.

You can buy a backcountry access lift ticket for $62 plus tax that gets you 5-6 chairlift rides. You will need to go into guest services and show your avalanche safety gear and circle which route you plan on taking on a piece of paper. Sometimes they ask to see a ski partner but never asked me the 3-4 times I bought one last season.

You could just go out to Symphony in Whistler and skin up to Flute (in bounds) if you want to test the boots. Usually you can get out to bottom of that skin by 9:30-10am unless it snows a ton Thurs night and they have AC work to do.

Not sure there’s any other skiing in Whistler area you could quickly access from the valley on foot given your time frame.

[kevin267]

What if you got someone to just drive you up kadenwood or something then ski a little lap down, or from bench lands

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[The AD]

Think it would be feasible to traverse from MountainStar over to Village Run and head down to the gondola early AM (6 AM)?

Keep in mind you can also upload from the Excaliber mid-station (if you're going to ski Blackcomb). It's right where the uppermost blue gondola icon is on the map.

You can also ski down to the Blackcomb base and then walk to the Whistler base. It's not a long walk. 5-10 minutes maybe.

[BCJC]

You can buy a backcountry access lift ticket for $62 plus tax that gets you 5-6 chairlift rides. You will need to go into guest services and show your avalanche safety gear and circle which route you plan on taking on a piece of paper. Sometimes they ask to see a ski partner but never asked me the 3-4 times I bought one last season.

Good suggestion, but as a complete first time figuring this all out, might lead to delays and a time crunch... Shooting more for the KISS method.

[BCJC]

You could just go out to Symphony in Whistler and skin up to Flute (in bounds) if you want to test the boots. Usually you can get out to bottom of that skin by 9:30-10am unless it snows a ton Thurs night and they have AC work to do.

When you say to go out to symphony, what exactly does that mean? It looks like symphony is a lift on the upper mountain? How would I get there with out a lift ticket?