Whistler 21/22

**xyz** · 02-02-2022, 11:00 PM

Originally Posted by D(C)

What was the issue? Were the bindings no longer indemnified? Were the skis Swiss cheese? Or was the shop being unduly difficult?

In case one, they thought my bindings were too old. But that didn’t stop them from agreeing to mount them, charge me, keep them for a week, THEN bail on the mount. The ski tech himself agreed up front.

In case two, they didn’t think there was enough hole spacing for the binding, and that skis ‘weren’t worth mounting’. I saw their point here but I was ok with it. It was just a weight weenie touring setup that wouldn’t see much real skiing.

**gramboh** · 02-04-2022, 04:45 PM

Anyone have experience getting backcountry lift tickets ($62) this season? I was up yesterday and tried to buy one around 8:30am at village guest services and was first told "we aren't selling them today because it's too dangerous" (rating Mod/Mod/Low). I talked to a supervisor, as in the past the determination was whether or not the alpine was likely to open, and in the past they had sold them to me in the morning before alpine opens based on what they hear from patrol/ops. Another customer waiting there told me they wait for the lifts to actually open now. Anyone go through this? Clueless staff or actual change in policy?

Ended up using an edge day as I didn't want to wait till ~9:30 to upload. Gonna call and bitch but realize chances of getting anything is zero.

Bumps were great yesterday (Thursday), few cm on-top and some protected pow in trees. Saw a group of snowboarders trigger a small 0.5 around 1875m on Cowboy W aspect 1:30pm, looked like wind loaded pocket and shallow. Saw couple MIN from Blackcomb slack of small pockets as well.

Edit: Talked to customer service and they credited me an Edge day, so basically a freebie yesterday. The agent couldn't clarify what the rules/process is for selling the backcountry tickets though. Surprised and impressed with customer service.

**ripvanwinter** · 02-04-2022, 11:48 PM

Anyone have experience recently with flying into YVR from the US? Thinking about booking an April trip. Government website talks about “possible quarantine while you wait for test results” if you’re randomly selected for arrival testing. Is this something that’s actually happening to fully vaccinated (and boosted) travelers?

Edit: oops, never mind, looks like the post test quarantine is for non US travelers.

Still curious to hear experiences

**phatty** · 02-04-2022, 11:55 PM

Originally Posted by ripvanwinter

Anyone have experience recently with flying into YVR from the US? Thinking about booking an April trip. Government website talks about “possible quarantine while you wait for test results” if you’re randomly selected for arrival testing. Is this something that’s actually happening to fully vaccinated (and boosted) travelers?

Not sure on flying. Not happening with the random test from crossing the border driving. Imagine it's the same for flying.

**LAAL22** · 02-05-2022, 11:41 AM

But if your arrival test is positive you need to quarantine for 10 days. As if mid January the positivity rate on arrive tests for fully vaccinated travellers was 7 percent. This seems very high especially considering that all of those people supposedly tested negative just 72 hours before. https://www.canada.ca/en/public-heal...ravellers.html

**t.odd** · 02-05-2022, 12:46 PM

Originally Posted by gramboh

Anyone have experience getting backcountry lift tickets ($62) this season? I was up yesterday and tried to buy one around 8:30am at village guest services and was first told "we aren't selling them today because it's too dangerous" (rating Mod/Mod/Low). I talked to a supervisor, as in the past the determination was whether or not the alpine was likely to open, and in the past they had sold them to me in the morning before alpine opens based on what they hear from patrol/ops. Another customer waiting there told me they wait for the lifts to actually open now. Anyone go through this? Clueless staff or actual change in policy?

Ended up using an edge day as I didn't want to wait till ~9:30 to upload. Gonna call and bitch but realize chances of getting anything is zero.

Bumps were great yesterday (Thursday), few cm on-top and some protected pow in trees. Saw a group of snowboarders trigger a small 0.5 around 1875m on Cowboy W aspect 1:30pm, looked like wind loaded pocket and shallow. Saw couple MIN from Blackcomb slack of small pockets as well.

Edit: Talked to customer service and they credited me an Edge day, so basically a freebie yesterday. The agent couldn't clarify what the rules/process is for selling the backcountry tickets though. Surprised and impressed with customer service.

Can't say I've got a backcountry pass in decades, personally...that being said I think Vail has certainly continued to tighten the protocol over the years and I guess their perspective is that they wait until alpine gets clearance on higher risk days. Although, it is still possible to use the low traverse from btm Harmony and stay out of bounds to access the bumps without getting in the way of any control or alpine openings, so, could be seen as overly cautious.

**ripvanwinter** · 02-05-2022, 10:16 PM

Originally Posted by LAAL22

But if your arrival test is positive you need to quarantine for 10 days. As if mid January the positivity rate on arrive tests for fully vaccinated travellers was 7 percent. This seems very high especially considering that all of those people supposedly tested negative just 72 hours before. https://www.canada.ca/en/public-heal...ravellers.html

Juicy data there. Thank You for the link. Having just experienced a major omicron wave in nyc (with a high vax rate) those numbers make sense, but I won’t let this thread drift further into that dark hole.

**gramboh** · 02-05-2022, 11:35 PM

Originally Posted by t.odd

Can't say I've got a backcountry pass in decades, personally...that being said I think Vail has certainly continued to tighten the protocol over the years and I guess their perspective is that they wait until alpine gets clearance on higher risk days. Although, it is still possible to use the low traverse from btm Harmony and stay out of bounds to access the bumps without getting in the way of any control or alpine openings, so, could be seen as overly cautious.

I know the access corridor on Blackcomb has been a hot topic lately re: WB's tenure requirement to allow reasonable access to the park, and issues go back farther than that, like when they closed the road/parking lot when the slump on Singing Pass happened. That's a good point about the Oboe traverse which I think was established/flagged by WB patrol? To be fair, I could see WB not wanting to sell backcountry tickets on days alpine isn't opening because some portion of people will just use the 5/6 lift rides to ski mid mountain pow at a discount.

Anyway, some coast range stoke, don't think these have been posted yet:

Kye, Callum Petit, Matty Richard and others:

Resilience:

**shafty85** · 02-06-2022, 09:45 AM

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/briti...rton-1.6341336

That doesn’t sound good.

**Snow Dog** · 02-06-2022, 11:13 AM

From The Pique: Several people seriously injured

One person is dead and two others seriously injured after three separate avalanches in the Sea to Sky on Saturday, according to RCMP.

At about 1:20 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 5, Pemberton RCMP received “multiple emergency rescue calls in a 10-minute period” in the areas of Cassiope Peak (northeast of Pemberton) and Mount Cayley (west of Whistler), said Staff Sgt. Sascha Banks in a release.

Witnesses in the areas reported that three separate avalanches—two on Cassiope Peak and one on Mount Cayley—had buried multiple skiers and snowmobile operators.

About a dozen people also needed to be evacuated.

**Bamski** · 02-06-2022, 12:54 PM

Absolutely awful to hear.

I was out for a very mellow stomp around the Cayoosh area on Friday and things were starting to feel a bit spooky around Lazy Boy by noon. I’ll be interested to read the full report of these incidents. It sounds like we’ll need to be wary of the January rain crusts for a good while yet.

**xyz** · 02-08-2022, 03:20 PM

In case you missed it, a good podcast with the former CEO of Vail. A good listen of him dancing around Stevens Pass, wages, housing, traffic, lift lines etc.

https://www.stormskiing.com/p/podcas...orts-executive

**fool** · 02-10-2022, 11:20 PM

Originally Posted by ripvanwinter

Anyone have experience recently with flying into YVR from the US? Thinking about booking an April trip. Government website talks about “possible quarantine while you wait for test results” if you’re randomly selected for arrival testing. Is this something that’s actually happening to fully vaccinated (and boosted) travelers?

Edit: oops, never mind, looks like the post test quarantine is for non US travelers.

Still curious to hear experiences

I did it in early Jan. It's not bad, just make sure to do all the testing, forms, and paperwork ahead of time. (Delta was pretty good with letting me know what I had to do). Even with the pre-flight negative test, you can be selected for a random test in YVR. To get ahead of that, they recommend completing a simple online registration. That way, if you do get selected for a random test, you don't have to fill out the paperwork/forms, you just get the test. (When I walked through there was a huge line to complete the paperwork, from what I was told. I luckily didn't get selected).

Besides that, it's not that bad at least traveling as a single adult. And you have to select a quarantine location when entering, but it can be hotel room, airbnb, or whatever, from what I can tell.

Obviously, a lot can change in the next two months though.

**Cocximus** · 02-13-2022, 02:48 PM

WTB RAX skis

**gramboh** · 02-13-2022, 04:21 PM

Pretty long drought. Too bad they stopped showing historical monthly snowfalls on WB’s site in recent years. Curious what Jan was.

**Cocximus** · 02-13-2022, 04:36 PM

https://climate.weather.gc.ca/histor...LER+-+NESTERS&

Husume by moonlight was like an ice fall. Fucking scary. Whippets would have been nice. I still did a respectable number of turns

**wicked_sick** · 02-13-2022, 06:21 PM

Originally Posted by gramboh

Pretty long drought. Too bad they stopped showing historical monthly snowfalls on WB’s site in recent years. Curious what Jan was.

247cm
https://www.whistler.com/weather/history/

Looks like every January from 2012-2017 was worse

**nortonwhis** · 02-14-2022, 10:53 AM

Yeah been a rough couple of weeks for sure. Nearly got the bike out yesterday but forced myself up the hill. Surprisingly great skiing on groom all day, no lines and actual soft snow in the late afternoon. They even kept 7th spinning til 3 for the first time just coz, so shoutout to them for that. This coming week looks back to grim though.

**t.odd** · 02-14-2022, 10:58 AM

sun has been nice, and I've had a couple of Sundays in a row taking Jr to the magic carpet with the wife for the first time so that's been good! starting out slow and he seems to be taking to it! Saturday bike ride on Seymour was pretty decent, wicked weather and trails in good condition, but definitely ready for winter to return.

**milestogo** · 02-14-2022, 02:58 PM

Headed to Whistler for the first time with my son, staying at base of Blackcomb Gondola. Arriving Sunday to start skiing Monday and thinking of hiring someone to give us the lay of the land--is that possible? I've spoken to a lot of friends here who have been and they all pretty much recommend the same stuff. Wondering if it's worth it or if we just go exploring ourselves. Just looking forward to someplace new!

**Clownshoe** · 02-14-2022, 03:18 PM

If you’re looking to explore inbounds, and you’ve ridden other big western resorts, you’ll be fine just exploring on your own. There are patrol huts at the top of all the alpine lifts where you can get advice. If you’re going to poke around in the double blacks then check in there to get pointers on what’s good.

If you’re looking to go out of bounds, then definitely get a guide.

**nortonwhis** · 02-14-2022, 04:37 PM

FYI lots of stuff on Blackcomb has been closed due to the poor conditions. I dont actually remember ever seeing this in the past, but it kind of sums up how rough shape some of the steeper stuff is right now. You can always do an Extremely Canadian day on one of your first days and get the lay of the land that way.

**f=ma** · 02-14-2022, 06:55 PM

Yup, pretty much all the "fun" areas have been roped off due to icy and dangerous conditions. Saw a poor snowboarder slide for life in Whistler bowl Saturday, quite scary.

**greenmachine** · 02-15-2022, 11:50 AM

Ugh , headed up Thursday . How bad is it ofpiste?

Sent from my iPhone using TGR Forums

**fool** · 02-15-2022, 11:51 AM

Originally Posted by f=ma

Yup, pretty much all the "fun" areas have been roped off due to icy and dangerous conditions. Saw a poor snowboarder slide for life in Whistler bowl Saturday, quite scary.

And even some normal groomers. They had The Saddle roped off for at least a day last week.