Whistler Weather Bulliten

Tyuaghton Lake fire

2009-06-05T07:26:00.000-07:00

A large wildfire burning northeast of Whistler sent smoke as far south as Squamish Monday morning.
Fire started Friday May 29, 2009 and is now estimated at 2000ha

150cm of new snow this week.

2009-03-20T21:10:00.001-07:00

The Alpine just recieved over 150cm of new snow this week.

Snow for the week.....

2009-03-18T16:10:00.000-07:00

Excellent conditions everywhere. Snowbase 225cm.

Rex block weather pattern

2009-02-16T08:33:00.000-08:00

The "Rex block weather pattern" in this case is hugging the West Coast of the Washington state

A Rex block sets up with a strong high-pressure ridge adjacent to a strong low-pressure trough. A large ridge is north of a large trough. Air flow in the north Pacific curves around the ridge and then around the trough in the Southwest US. This causes the air to swing in loops near the same longitude but forces the air to a much lower latitude. The wind flow makes little progress to the east due to the "half figure 8" rotation the air must endure. All precipitation is then deflected south to california.

Rex block

Weird winter

2009-01-21T07:01:00.000-08:00

It has not been a usual winter around here. A shallow snow pack started of the season. A brief period of rain to high in the alpine, and then we were hit with two weeks of arctic air creating a steep temperature gradient in the snow pack. The snow pack became faceted and weak during this time. This condition appears to have affected most of the West coast of North America from Alaska to down in Utah. Most avalanche bulletins mention this weak layer. We were then hit with a couple good size storms which dumped up to 200cm in lee areas in the high alpine. A large avalanche cycle then occur ed during and preceding the storm. Now we have had all most two weeks of warm subtropical air that reached highs to 10 C in the alpine. Large natural avalanches are still running on the weak layers within our snow pack. A total of 14 avalanche fatalities for this year so far.. Not your typical Whistler snow pack.

On the mountain: (in bounds)

Blackcomb: Managed to get their high alpine going early enough that we got some good skier compaction on most slopes. Some of the areas (spankys and the Blackcomb glacier were to boney to open at the time of the big freeze. These areas remain closed because of avalanche danger. December 31st saw one local killed in Ruby bowl while unfortunately he was skiing alone at the time. The avalanche occured beyond the officially marked boundary all though this area is usually in bounds. Official report

Whistler: During Christmas we were able to hike to the peak, and some lucky locals got to do some skiing up there. All though the conditions were powder it was mixed with big boulders everywhere so nothing has opened officially on the Peak this year. Harmony managed to open New Years day. An hour after it opened all hell broke loose as two separate in bounds avalanches happened. The first directly under the lift was caused by someone hucking into a pocket which then ripped out size two. The second as far as people can figure occured within minutes of the first beyond the officially marked boundary although this area is usually in bounds. A lone snowboarder trigger a NE aspect in rocky terrain. The snowboarder was also killed and was found wrapped around a tree.Official report The peak chair, and symphony chair has yet to open because of avalanche concerns, and harmony is operating front side only.

A reminder to people ducking boundry ropes: When you go beyond a rope it means you are on your own, and should be equipped and knowledgable.

Link to Whistler Search and Rescue regarding safe backcountry travel.

Backcountry conditions

2008-12-23T16:59:00.000-08:00

Travel Advisory:
20 cm. of low density snow has fallen during the past several days. Mountain top winds have been moderate to strong at times, resulting in some transport of the storm snow. Some slopes at tree-line are approaching the threshold for avalanche activity, but below tree-line elevations still do not have much of a snowpack. In the alpine, glaciers and permanent snow slopes have more coverage, but other slopes still have widespread rock anchors visible. Travel with caution as the new snow may be barely covering numerous underlying hazards.

Avalanche Activity:
In the alpine terrain, the storm snow has formed pockets of soft slab that were observed to be reactive to the weight of a person yesterday. The debris has been unconsolidated, with little in the way of destructive potential.

Snowpack:
The storm snow is sitting on a variety of old surfaces - windslab, sustrugi and in some places the December 6th crust. In the upper 50 cm of the snowpack you may find two pencil density windslabs that are both sitting on softer layers. Facetted layers above and below the Dec 6 crust are also very weak. Compression tests are producing shears below the windslabs and also above the crust. In the coming weeks when we finally begin to see more of a normal snowfall pattern and these layers get more of a load, deeper slabs releases could be a possibility.

Flute Backside. December 23, 2008
Ton's of stuff poking through still. Rocks, creeks, branches.
Base:
Top: 110cm
Bottom: 80cm

Windslabs at 20cm and faceted layers observed at 50cm with 10cm raincrust, and more facets under.

Compression tests: moderate on 20cm and 50cm
Shear: easy at 50cm above crust

Weather:
Cloud cover will increase throughout the day today as a weak system arrives onshore bringing snow flurries tonight and tomorrow morning. Another slightly stronger system is forecast to arrive onshore tomorrow evening. Cnt?d cool and unstable weather on Thursday with another stronger system forecast for Friday and Saturday with more seasonable temperatures.

Christmas in Whistler

2008-12-15T07:27:00.000-08:00

Whistler Blackcomb continues to make snow like crazy now that a arctic ridge of high pressure is over us. We should be able to ski out to the valley by the end of the week.

Also Peak to Peak gondola is now open.

First Day of Spring?

2008-05-15T07:33:00.001-07:00

First Day of Spring?

A Strong Ridge Of High Pressure Will Continue To Build Over The South Coast Today And Friday. Clear Skies And Very Warm Conditions Will Prevail.

A weak cold front in a northeast to southwest line through the Charlottes will dissipate this morning. Meanwhile a ridge of high pressure will build over the coast from the south this morning. An approaching frontal system will bring cross the northern island Region tonight.

Valley Fog

Today Alpine..Mainly Sunny.
Up top allready 7.4C
Alpine High 14.
Freezing Level 4000 Metres.
Mountain Top Winds Northwest 15 Km/H.

UV
index 9 or very high. Today wear sunscreen

Today Valley..Fog clearing this morning. High 22 except 27 near Pemberton.
Tonight..Clear. Low 6.
Friday..Sunny. High 27 except 32 near Pemberton.

A recent late season dump

2008-03-30T17:13:00.001-07:00

A recent late season dump gives one last taste of winter as things get deep again.

An arctic high

2008-01-25T05:48:00.000-08:00

Twin One Glacier

High winds Sunday night out of the northeast gusting 60-80km/h scoured the alpine areas

Series of systems

2008-01-03T07:13:00.001-08:00

A developing low pressure system will approach northern Vancouver Island today. Strong southeasterly winds ahead of the low will develop over west/North Vancouver Island and central coast this morning. The strong southeasterly winds will then spread to other south coast regions in the midday. Winds will abate this evening as the low moves inland.

This system will give snow at times heavy to the Whistler region today through tonight. Snow will taper to a few flurries Friday morning, but will redevelop Friday afternoon.

Nice slick rock

2007-08-07T08:20:00.000-07:00

Hmmm

Nice slick rock

Summertime

2007-07-15T12:53:00.000-07:00

Whistler has finally begun summer with hot weather. June was grey and wet as a series of low pressure troughs hung out just off the BC coast spinning grey clouds and showers to the area. A large ridge of high pressure started to build July 2nd bringing on summer sun and hot temperatures with high reaching 38C in the valley.

Spring Riding

2007-04-29T10:23:00.000-07:00

Last of the pow?@#$%
Another storm hit us Thursday and Friday leaving us with abot 35cm of new snow total throught the storm. Yesterday's snow has refrozen to around 2100m, as some really warm air came through yesterday afternoon. Alpine temps shot up to around +6C. True north faces may retain some good snow, wind scoured snow exists in open areas up high with easy traveling conditions.

March summary

2007-04-01T07:11:00.000-07:00

After some moonsoons in early March which spiked freezing levels to above the top of the mountains. March was a fairly warm month with not alot of big storms. In the high alpine the snow is chalky and windpressed and will no doubt stick around untill around July with 140% of normal snowpack.

Spring time

2007-03-09T14:51:00.000-08:00

The valley has begun to melt down in the last few weeks, it would appear that no more snow should accumulate down in the valley anyway. Up top it's still winter and the base continues to hover around 300cm. Some warm storms have come through spiking the freezing levels. Good powder still to be found in backcountry areas late into the season this year with good coverage in all areas. Recent snow measurements in the Whistler backcountry found well over 4.5m of snowpack.

The powder returns

2007-02-25T20:09:00.000-08:00

After a bit of a dry spell thorugh the first couple weeks of February we once again have epic skiing conditions around Whistler. The base is back up around 300cm, and up top 50cm of fresh powder blankets most of the south coast mountains around Whistler.. Accumualtions closer to the coast have been reported up to 1m of fresh stuff.

300cm of Base!

2007-01-03T08:28:00.001-08:00

72cm of Concrete last night good luck~

The big storm

2006-12-20T08:06:00.000-08:00

The main fiber optic feed to all of Whistler was severed during a recent storm Dec 14th. This storm brought us over 50cm of snow to the valley. Anyways were back online finally..

After the storm

2006-12-19T08:11:00.000-08:00

The recent storm Dec 14th brought us unbelievable conditions around here...

Ideal Conditions

2006-12-02T09:17:00.000-08:00

Winter has started with a bang around here. The snowpack right to the valley resembles a February snowpack. A 180cm base in the backcountry , cold temperatures, and copious quantities of powder is making for a great start to the season.

Winter

2006-11-11T20:31:00.000-08:00

Ski season's here! Pacific storms have brought 1.0m to the high alpine.....

New Picollo Chair

2006-10-09T11:12:00.000-07:00

October 8, 2006.
The new picollo chair slowly takes shape.

Warm Weekends

2006-08-27T21:59:00.000-07:00

Local Freeriders challenge alpine granite Saturday.

Atomosphere Testing

2006-08-20T19:02:00.000-07:00

Air tempeture at 9100ft on Weart mtn Saturday 21c.