Feb, 10, 2015 Whistler Steeps

Got tired of trying to ski powder in the fog and groomers in the rain, so I dedicated a day to just see how bad the steeps could be and it actually turned out good. The morning was clear enough to head up Peak Chair and ski into Whistler Bowl. An inch of refreshing snow had the top 500' skiing very well. Shale slope was already cement but I had figured that. Did the top again and then scooted over into the lower part of West Cirque. There was actually some barely skiable powder on top of globs from yesterday. Doom and Gloom was a sticky fight but it was all good. With the weather window still open I ran over to Blackcomb and humped up Spanky's Ladder just as the light was going bad again. I had my worst run of the day down 100 percent avalanche debris in Ruby Bowl. Visibility was also terrible. It looked like Garnet would have been a better choice, but with the bad light I didn't want to risk it on more difficult terrain. Disturbed, I went to Horstman Hut to hide until an other weather window hit. After over an hour of waiting. I skied the 7th Heaven Lift Line and found good vis down low and nice slippery bumps that I had fun on. In a better mood, I went up to Couloir Extreme and hopped in past a bunch of lookers. The light was going fast, so I wasn't spending time waiting. Heads up skiing with a few icy spots right in the middle. Found unexpected powder to the right of the old moraine, and I was so pleased I took one of the big bump runs down to Glacier for more. Cougar Chutes was firm, but the entrance was less steep than normal. All in all the steeps up here are in great shape, and filled in pretty much like a normal winter. The bottom needs help, but is still easily skiable to the Valley.

Awesome. Thanks for the stoke!

Because of the current conditions on the whole west coast, I wanted to make it clear to anyone reading these reports that Whistler's Alpine would be perfect with the next 6" - 31 degree storm. The groomed runs are perfect right now from top to bottom with no coverage issues, except for a few bare spots starting to pop up near the very bottom. A few days of cold will get the snow making going again near the bottom. The mid level snow is fine except that there is not enough for tree skiing. Backcountry up high is typical for this time of the year except that skiing or riding down to the village would be a very bad idea. If you can get up, the skiing is very good right now. Today is springlike with slush on the lower mountain... but I like slush.

Nice job! You got all the steeps I wanted to get last week when the top was closed. Good to hear the coverage is holding up. I think ddk is up there somewhere and I have friends going up next week as well.