| Report on Lake Louise by Rob, posted Sunday Sep 5th 2010 |
| I was up at Lake Louise last Thursday and so far there's no snow on top. There was definitely new snow on Temple and the Ten Peaks but it isn't sticking to the summit yet. |
| Report on Sunshine by RyderDA, posted Thursday May 13th 2010 |
| For Sat May 8 & Sun May 9: I would have posted sooner, but could not get access for some reason. For extended reports and photos on each day, see my blog at http://drandkc.blogspot.com. The bottom line is that there was lovely fresh powder and fabulous conditions both days, and it's sad they have now shut Goat's Eye, Jackrabbit and Wolverine plus the ski out. It was certainly not for lack of snow coverage, with tons of snow the week of May 3rd. Both Saturday & Sunday were similar, with lovely powder coverage of 5-8 cms each morning. Depending on where you were, that powder was either on top of more powder, or powder on top of a sun crust. Conditions were, in short, fabulous, as temps stayed cool enough to offer snow retention but warm enough to get anything that froze overnight defrosted and soft. Sunday was very fun, as it started off sunny and cool, then alternated snow showers and sun from noon on. It absolutely dumped snow for an hour at noon, and the 5 or so cm that fell in the hour was silky until the sun hit it. This repeated three times in the afternoon. It was, as usual, busier on Saturday than Sunday, with all the parking lots full on Saturday, but Lot A only 70% full on Sunday. I'm not sure this late posted report will be all that useful given the warm temps that Sunshine's getting this week, but I will state that categorically, they have the coverage to make it through to May 24th without any issue at all. But this was days 27 and 28 at Sunshine for me this year, and the last two days of the season due to other commitments, and it would seem a shame to miss posting about them. I hope y'all have found my reports both accurate and useful. As I already have my season's pass ordered, I'll see you next year! |
| Report on Sunshine by RyderDA, posted Sunday Apr 25th 2010 |
| For Sun, Apr 25: A bit of an atypical spring day -- more like winter for most of it. Boot top fluffy powder to start the day (it wasn't a day to arrive late) covered up most everything and AM tracks were very nice in mild temps and sunny skies. There was still ice and hard pack underneath but enough coverage to make most turns very nice. It clouded up and snowed a bit by noon, then got clear and sunny around 2. Prior to 2, there was no noticeable change in conditions due to the minimal daytime heating, but when the sun hit at 2, the snow on the really exposed faces (like Hill 205, Viking Ridge and Angel Flight) started to get heavy. That only lasted 30 min or so, and within 10 min of the sun going away, we were back to winter again. Coverage continues to deteriorate, especially on Goat's Eye; everything skiers left of Silver Scapegoat (including Free Fall, Gladerunner, Afterburner) is now closed. Lots of trees and grass on Rolling Thunder, and some on Silver Scapegoat. The South Side chutes are now closed with lots of trees showing through on Wildside and obvious avi damage on Farside (I give Goat's Eye another week before it closes unless a big dump arrives). Divide is faring much better, with the only obvious place at risk being the South Pockets. Bye Bye Bowl remains fabulous. Lots of folks in the Dive today, but I didn't hear a condition report. The crowd continues to shrink; A lot was about 80% full, and there was only the briefest of lines on Divide in the PM. |
| Report on Sunshine by RyderDA, posted Sunday Apr 18th 2010 |
| For Sun, Apr 18: Similar to yesterday but with slightly cooler PM temps (12°-15°) and slightly warmer AM temps (+4° at 9:30 at Goat's Eye Base). The AM sun wasn't as strong courtesy of more cloud cover, and there were more PM clouds, too, but still lots of sun. I heard reports that Bye Bye Bowl was already soft by 9:30, but nothing softened on Goat's Eye until 11. The snow didn't get quite as sticky as yesterday, either, and the crowd was smaller, with Lot A only 90% full. |
| Report on Kicking Horse by Rob, posted Sunday Apr 18th 2010 |
| Last day at Kick Arse and it was a beauty. It was soft right to the summit and there was still a ton of snow in the upper bowls. It was actually too warm because you'd almost come to a dead stop on the flats in Crystal Bowl and any terrain that wasn't well tracked was generally too isothermal to ski it with any kind of style. But we still found some great lines off CPR Ridge and lapped Blue Heaven several times. Lot's of hero slush in those areas. Right down the middle of Show Off was super sweet all day and ski out to the bottom was good fun. You had to be on your heels though because it was sneaky grabby in lots of places. The most enjoyable thing was the heat of the sun. Riding Stairway to heaven with your legs getting hot from the sun was a real treat. A great day! |
| Report on Sunshine by RyderDA, posted Saturday Apr 17th 2010 |
| For Sat, Apr 17: An April day that felt like May. Rock hard freeze-thaw conditions until 11, then within an hour the world went soft. The odd rock & tree poking out on some traffic areas (Silver Scapegoat and Wildfire, for instance). By 1 PM, the most sun exposed places (Boundary Bowl) were downright sloppy. Super sticky in the PM, too, the ski out in particular. Temps started the day above zero, and the base of Goats Eye broke 10° by 10. There was sun and some high cloud all day (with a bunch of sunburned faces -- be aware, use sunscreen!) which caused peak PM temps in the mid teens all the way to the top, and 19° in the parking lot at 3 PM. At this rate (and the forecast is calling for this all week) the ski out won't last. A moderate crowd; no one parked on the road, but the lots were full. |
| Report on Kicking Horse by Powderplanet, posted Monday Apr 12th 2010 |
| From ctippetbooks... Sounds like Kicking Horse will be fun next weekend. Great Conditions, winter snow up top, plenty of sunshine with tracked powder. The recent storms have helped improve the conditions alot. There\'s a guy playing the didgereydoo at the lodge, lots of beer and good times. All of of the uppper bowls were awesome and Mustang Sally was amazing along with Tower 12! |
| Report on Revelstoke by Powderplanet, posted Monday Apr 12th 2010 |
| It was amazing on the weekend. Lots of spring powder still left on top and in the bowls. Snow was chunky and bounced you around a lot - especially when the sun hit it. The sky was so insane that day - intensely blue. I have a great shot of people hiking up above Stoke chair in search of powder. I'll send that in too. |
| Report on Sunshine by RyderDA, posted Sunday Apr 11th 2010 |
| For Sun, Apr 11: Mighty stiff snow in the AM; the ruts people left yesterday were real, and the snow generally very firm but carveable. This was likely due to a combo of yesterday's sun and continuing cold (-12° AM) temps. Some hunting turned up no fresh tracks to be found on Goat's Eye, so if you missed yesterday, you missed this powder cycle (I was told the Dive was now moguled and firm, too). While it dawned basically sunny, by 11 AM it had socked in to limited viz and snow -- that kind of snow that wrecks the viz but will give no measurable accumulation. Inconsequential daytime "heat" led to little softening, But crowds weren't a problem; A lot was just filled, and B lot had 4 cars in it. |
| Report on Sunshine by RyderDA, posted Saturday Apr 10th 2010 |
| For Sat, Apr 10: Another 7 cm overnight on top of the scads they had this week, combined with bright sunshine and cold temps made for pretty darn fantastic AM turns. The snow was obviously "late season" and high moisture content, thus quite slow. It was a little heavy to push around, but not wet by any means. The -12° AM kept the conditions winter-like all day no matter where you were (except the parking lot). I was worried that the sun would do damage, but even sun drenched faces like Angel Flight showed no ill effects late in the day (but we'll see how crusty it is tomorrow). Lots of folks got good turns in the Dive (which was closed yesterday) and literally hundreds climbed the walking trail up to the top of Goat's Eye's south side chutes (where Patrol had posed a sign claiming "great conditions"). The snow over there was pretty fantastic, and where you could find untracked, it was easily knee deep. The huge crowd (cars 4 km past the gate) tracked all the easily accessed stuff out by early afternoon and made for lineups on Goat's Eye by 10:30 and solid lines to the ends of the corrals at Divide all afternoon. |
| Report on Revelstoke by Powderplanet, posted Friday Apr 9th 2010 |
| They didn't get that much snow last weekend but that's the best 6cm I've every seen. Lots of powder up top. North Bowl and Greely were really good. Sunday there was a vertigo warning because viz was not very good. The powder was still good in the trees. Avy alert was high and blasting could be heard in the morning. |
| Report on Revelstoke by Rust-in-Peace, posted Thursday Apr 8th 2010 |
| Deep POWDER in Revy! RMR reported 13cm fresh / 16cm in 24hrs - what a joke (but the good kind of joke!) Their snow plot must be the only spot on the mountain that didn't get dumped on because everywhere (and i mean everywhere) is blanketed with a legitimate 30cm of fresh snow (by opening this morning). It dumped all day long (and is still dumping). There are lots of deeper pockets too, the bowls and gullies with many waist deep spots. Everything is fresh, no one is on the mountain, it's paradise right now. What a way to close out the season. Tomorrow is going to be just as good - or maybe even better! If you can make it to Revy in the next couple days, do it! |
| Report on Sunshine by Rob, posted Monday Apr 5th 2010 |
| Sunday at the Shine was even better than Saturday. The sun was out and visibility was great. There was 5cms of fresh snow and the crowds were down considerably. Once again we covered a lot of terrain, Standish, Divide, Goat and were not disappointed by any of the runs. We had to bail at 3 to make it back for turkey dinner but if not for that I'm sure we would have done a couple more runs on Goat's Eye. I'm very impressed that conditions are so good at Sunshine right now. If you look at their snow pillow data you'll see that they are so far below their average snowfall numbers that there should be rocks and patches of brown everywhere. But coverage is still really good. It must have been that awesome snowfall back in December that has saved their bacon. Anyway, I'm glad that there will be a few more weeks of good skiing there. I'm not ready to pack it in just yet. P.S. The pic is of some freshies in the Dive. |
| Report on Sunshine by RyderDA, posted Saturday Apr 3rd 2010 |
| For Sat, Apr 3: Another 6-10 cm overnight, and it snowed basically all day right the way down to the parking lot. The wind up top was still present; That plus the new stuff filled in most of the moguls overnight. So it was fairly easy to find low traffic areas with boot top to calf deep fluff which was very sweet, especially in the glades under Cleavage on Goat's Eye. They opened Gold Scapegoat to the top, too, as they were able to get a cat in and spread the wealth. The clouds got thicker and the viz worse all day. By 1:30, the top of Divide was a white out and almost unskiable as the fluff had been pushed around enough to make for powder pseudo moguls that were invisible. The temps stayed cold all day; thermometers strayed into +5° territory, but the wind made it feel much colder. Crowd was down today, with cars just 1.2 km past the gate. A lot of folks bailed early due to the lack of viz, and Wawa and Wolverine had solid lineups while few were on Angel or Divide. |
| Report on Sunshine by RyderDA, posted Saturday Apr 3rd 2010 |
| I forgot to mention the in-bounds avalanche at Sunshine that happened Thursday PM. A natural 1.5 slab avalanche broke free on skier's right of Fat Boy. Patrol told me it was a 1.5, and if that's what a 1.5 looks like, I'd hate to see a 4. What was even more impressive though was to see folks -- lots of folks -- using Fat Boy on Friday to exit the Dive, skiing in fact quite close to the slide. Braver folks then me. |
| Report on Revelstoke by Pinkrobe, posted Saturday Apr 3rd 2010 |
| Sucks, don't come. Naw, it's really good. Wet and gross in town meant falling snow up top. That also meant that you had to use the Force to find your way, but it was soft and deep so it didn't matter. I spent the entire day riding the trees off the Ripper chair, but my two runs off of Stoke were quite nice. The Stoke and Ripper chairs are the only chairs running, and there is mandatory downloading on the gondola. It was pretty freaky riding up the gondola and not seeing any snow until we got half way up the mountain. It's supposed to dump later this week, so... |
| Report on Sunshine by Rob, posted Saturday Apr 3rd 2010 |
| Happy Easter!! There's not much I can add to Ryder's report. I found the conditions excellent. Particularly in comparison to Castle the day before. The only ice we found was on the Goat along Sunset Terrace - totally wind swept. But the next run over along the snow fence was pretty sweet. The lower half of Goat's Eye, like Wild Fire was soft and powdery. That was pretty much the story everywhere we went. I was on the snowboard and showing around my bud from the centre of the universe so we hit pretty much everything. Strawberry, the Divide, Standish and Wawa. Great turns were everywhere to be found. Back at her today. We were planning to go to Louise but it was too good yesterday and we heard from a guy that skied Weezy two days ago that it was a bit icy. |
| Report on Castle Mountain by Mike, posted Friday Apr 2nd 2010 |
| Everyone came out to Castle this weekend looking for that 50 cm of Pow..Castle still has that posted as their "last 24 hours" snowfall. Sadly, there is nothing but ice and exposed rocks everywhere...what a disappointment :( Also...this was my first trip to castle...be warned: there is no food here! You gotta go all the way back to Pincher Creek to get fed. |
| Report on Sunshine by RyderDA, posted Friday Apr 2nd 2010 |
| For Friday, Apr 2: Some sun to start the day, then it socked in and was overcast with fairly flat light in the afternoon. The 5-8 cm overnight (where it hadn't been blown off) was nice. Next to the fences, and in some places in the trees, it was at least boot top. All the snow this week has covered everything nicely, but most out of the way spaces (like the Wildside chutes, the left side of Bye Bye bowl) featured 10-15 cm on top of crusty stuff that seemed like it had been sun affected. The sun drenched lower pitches (even those on Goat's Eye, such as Rolling Thunder and Silver Scapegoat) clearly showed signs of freeze/thaw underneath. So I found very few pure powder places, but the turns were in general really nice. It was chilly most of the day; -6° to start, and PM temps slightly warmer (the Angel base thermometer read +11°, which was nonsense, and the Divide one was in the "sun" so wasn't reliable either) with a fairly stiff breeze most of the day. The combination of the long weekend and the 30+ cm this week brought everyone out. By 9, the main lot was over 3/4 full and the gondola line was 15 min, and line ups started at Goat's Eye at 10:30, though afternoon lines at Divide were non existent due to the viz. There were 5.8 km of cars parked past the gate. |
| Report on Panorama by Kootney_Kruiser, posted Friday Apr 2nd 2010 |
| Conditions are less than ideal at Panorama now. Colder temps have really hardened the snow, and with high cloud cover a large fraction of the mountain was firm pretty much the entire day. Sun Bowl and Schobers are now closed. Summit runs are still good to OK, and lower groomed runs are fine for the family (Powder Trail, Fritz, LIttle Dipper). The middle of the mountain is firm to icy. Snow is in the forecast but may be too little too late. |
| Report on Panorama by Kootney_Kruiser, posted Wednesday Mar 31st 2010 |
| Skied last four days at Pano - Summit ( Extreme Dream Zone, Tayton benefited from 14 cm of snow on Sunday and Monday - so there was lots of fresh turns and soft snow on top 1/3 - 1300 ft). Middle part of hill (1300 ft) received around 8 cm - so World Cup and Tacky moguls were enjoyable. Bottom third (1300 ft) of hill is spring conditions - enjoyable from 12 noon to 4 pm. Terrain park is in great condition. Several lower runs (south facing) are closed - and they have cleared the greens at Greywolf golf course :> |
| Report on Fernie by Ron Bouffard, posted Wednesday Mar 31st 2010 |
| Greetings all from the base of the mountain in Fernie. I have been here since Sunday afternoon, having come down in anticipatiuon of the big dump promised for Monday. Well they did get the big dump, at least a mini dump at 25 cm, but in spite of the new snow, Monday was absolutely the worst conditions I have seen here in 11 years. Pissing down rain at the bottom, turning to face stinging ice pellets mixed with rain around half way to the top, blowing wind and instant pack snow everywhere. There was nothing soft, just wet, thick, packed snow that doesn't give an inch. Admittedly due to work obligations I didn't get out until after noon, and I did hear the first couple of runs in the AM were pretty good, but by the time I got out it REALLY SUCKED! I saw about another 10 fools like me toughing it out, I sucked it up for 4 chairs, then called it a day as I was soaking wet. Luckily another 12 or so on Monday night made a massive improvement. RCR has a video clip online from Tuesday that tells the story, so check it out. The new snow blended with the heavy crap underneath and the result was pretty good. The best part is the new snow was a nice soft wind pack and was sticking to the hill not getting pushed off by the first side sliding boarder that came by. Lots of nice soft stuff off Whitepass. Shakeys was the best I have seen it all year. 1,2,3's and Currie are also very good. The bottom is a mess, and will probably continue that way until season end, but who cares as the top 2/3 of the mountain is still great. We got skunked again last night, with no new snow this morning, but there is still some promised for tomorrow. Been a really weird season, many, many promises of snow, but they all seem to evaporate a day or so before the promised arrival. Lets hope we get a few more dumps before it is over. For now, bottom line is conditions are very good. Come on down! |
| Report on Castle Mountain by Powderplanet, posted Tuesday Mar 30th 2010 |
| 05:15am March 30 "POWDER ALERT IN PLACE UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE"...$40.00 LIFT TICKETS ADULTS and discounted lift tickets all ages...Snow overnight amounts to 10cm upper mountains and about 4cm lower mountain with upper mountain temperature @ -8C and base -1C. The wind is light to moderate from the southwest and the sky is cloudy and snowing lightly. Anywhere from 40-60cm of new light from top of Blue to top of Red Chair and there is 35cms of fresh snow at the top of the Huckleberry Chair. Conditions from the mid-mountain down to the bottom transform from mid winter to springlike. The best groomed runs off of the Huckleberry Chair are Lone Ranger, Tumbleweed and Buffalo Flats. Powder conditions at this time of year is a gift so come to enjoy!! |
| Report on Fernie by Powdaman, posted Tuesday Mar 30th 2010 |
| As usual the elevation proves to the critical factor. Top 1/3 of the hill is epic with a gradient of lower quality snow as you decend. |
| Report on Revelstoke by Rust-in-Peace, posted Monday Mar 29th 2010 |
| Today was one of the best days in-bounds this season - and tomorrow should be just as good! 15cm at bottom of stoke chair. 25+cm on upper stoke. WAIST DEEP in North Bowl. Oh and just from "Sweet Spot" down was open in the North Bowl so a large chunk of it didn't see a single track. The massive gondola line was discouraged by the delayed opening (avy/winds) by 30minutes, but it was great for us who stayed and had the best pow turns of the year on an empty mountain - straight onto the lift. I'm sure everywhere is pretty good right now, but this is just awesome here. |
| Report on Fernie by Powdaman, posted Sunday Mar 28th 2010 |
| We have a place at the hill at FAR, and its been heavy rain all night. I've learned that precip is always good as it could be a powder day up top. The offical report has stated 20 cm this morning so we will see. |
| Report on Whistler Blackcomb by MsStokely, posted Tuesday Mar 23rd 2010 |
| Here is something to report: I just looked at the snow-forecast.com website for Whistler and they are predicting a lot of snow (a lot for this time of year) for Thursday, Saturday and Sunday nights. I can't see Monday's forecast but on Friday the freezing level is lower than the other days so Friday may be the best day to ski this weekend. However, with 24cm predicted on Sunday night Monday might be stellar if the freezing level is not too high otherwise it will just be hardwork. |
| Report on Big White by RyderDA, posted Saturday Mar 20th 2010 |
| For Sat, Mar 20: Not a great way to end the week. More freeze thaw meant everything was like rock this morning in the -10° AM temps, including the Sun Bowl and the Enchanted Forest. Somehow, even though neither were above zero yesterday, both were hard as rock virtually the whole day. I was also surprised how little was groomed; heard a rumour that several folks either quit or didn't show up last night, so picking were slim until after noon (especially on Gem where nothing had been groomed and everything was frozen ruts, plus there was a 30 mph wind at the top). The Cliff was nice with not much freeze thaw action, but a bit windy. Ran a trip through Falcon/Grizzly Bowl at 2 PM and it was still a very firm ice crust, and not fun. Late (3-ish) there was sugar snow down very low, but thin overcast that had a mostly sunny AM got thicker as the day progressed and the afternoon heating never really softened things much. |
| Report on Big White by RyderDA, posted Friday Mar 19th 2010 |
| For Fri, Mar 19: From winter to spring and back to winter in a matter of days. Impressive. Cold (-12°) temps overnight has insured snow preservation, and it's only the lower traffic (Serwa's), steep high traffic (Powder Keg, Kalina's Rainbow) or just plain low runs that remain icy. Brilliant blue sky and warm sun was nice but didn't wreck the snow too much, since the afternoon temps at the base that remained below 0°. The snow quality up high remains great. We made it over to Gem this afternoon, which was a good thing, as the snow in the Sun Bowl remains wonderful, as does the Enchanted Forest. On the way back from Gem, the Powder chair was sick, so we uploaded on the Falcon Chair -- and watched a bunch of folks take advantage of the fact that Falcon is closed during the week, making turns in the Falcon Bowl, which looked a little firm but eminently carvable in the PM sun. There was hardly anyone here today. Shame, as they missed a nice day. |
| Report on Big White by RyderDA, posted Thursday Mar 18th 2010 |
| For Thurs, Mar 18: Snow showers blew in overnight leaving some fluff here and there. It's amazing how much of a difference 3 cm makes to glare ice when groomed. However, even 10 cm of blow in on ice is still ice. A strong wind blew from the North all day and kept temps well below zero despite the continuous sunshine. Accordingly, only the lowest most reaches of the mountain on faces pointing directly at the sun (like lower Perfection and lower Born to Run) saw any real softening, and that only happened around 2 PM. Anything facing the wind and groomed was wind polished and rock hard (like Powder Keg and Powder Gulch). And uniquely, some of the faces notorious for icing up (the top of Bullet, for instance) were in the right place to catch blow in, and so were actually really silky most of the day. Good examples were upper Sun Run and the trees at the top of Secret. Generally, though, it was suicide to venture off the groomed. |