Thursday Report for Mar 3, 2011

On Saturday I went to the presentation from Whistler Blackcomb of their future plans. Looks like the minimum years for the next upgrade is 2 with Harmony Chair moving to become the Crystal Chair and a new 6 or 8 pack Harmony Chair installed. One of the more intriguing plans is to replace the T-bars on the Horstman Glacier with a Gondola going from near the top of the Glacier Express to the rock face behind the Blackcomb Glacier hike. You would have access to 7th Heaven and a tunnel to the Blackcomb Glacier.  It was much easier and interesting seeing the plans at a presentation rather then looking at the PDF links I posted while back.
Quite the week again. Lots of powder days. On Monday I was the first tracks into Glacier Bowl, Then untracked all the way down Peak to Creek, then untracked in the Symphony area. The mountain was very quiet thanks to the weekend warriors back at work.
Wednesday was an adventure with 130km winds up top. Fully loaded ski racks were being blown over, the patio furniture on the Roundhouse deck was flying and I thought the shingles were going to rip off of the roof. It was good powder, if you didn't get blown over, which I did a couple of times. They eventually closed most of the lifts.
Today was nice snow, although you had to pick the right slopes to get deep powder. For example the Horstman Glacier was real nice but the Blackcomb Glacier was very wind affected and not very deep. At least the winds were not as strong.
Looks like more snow through Saturday with a high pressure system coming in Saturday afternoon through Monday bringing more sunshine. Temperatures will be cold enough for most of the elevations to keep the snow light.
This has to be one of the bigger years for snow in the Valley. The mountains also set records for snowfall for December and February.

My tracks going into Big Timber on Feb 28. Powder all the way down.

Rhapsody Bowl on Feb 28. My track is behind the tree.