Jan 17, 2025 Conditions Report with Mitch Sulkers

Low Tide Musings…

Last week’s discussion centered around trying to find the best conditions based on monitoring actual snowfall and weather conditions. As this week has progressed, it’s pretty much been sunshine and sunshine in the Sea-to-Sky Corridor, with some very high freezing levels early in the week.

The result is that this week clocks in at zero centimeters of accumulation at 1650m on Whistler Mountain. With temperatures as high as 6C at treeline for a couple of days, all of the snow on the trees melted and dripped onto the snowpack, and the surface snow itself became very moist anywhere from treeline down and on steep alpine solar slopes. Combined with high winds from numerous directions in the alpine at times during the week, finding reasonable skiing conditions in the backcountry proved quite a challenge, even for those who have their favourite spots.

So what does one do when this sort of condition occurs? The sunshine still makes days out in the mountains worthwhile, and the views have been terrific, but truth to be told, touring and skiing below treeline has become a survival fest, and the wind-hacked alpine is not terrifically better.

My last day of touring was Wednesday, when the moisture laden snow had refrozen. Any uphill traffic done in the backcountry was best done with ski crampons. Skiing was tolerable in the alpine, but definitely challenging from treeline down. So what to do?

I made the choice to move inbounds for Thursday and Friday. Groomers were very fine on both Blackcomb and Whistler, with conditions still quite winter-like on the alpine lifts, especially those on polar aspects. Steep north facing chutes and couloirs inbounds skied reasonably well, especially where there had been substantial traffic, and gave a chance to work on steeper and confined ski techniques.

These days would have been excellent for those interested in developing their skills through a Steeps Clinic. A chance to work on technique and learning that would have applications to better backcountry skiing when the snows return.

As well, Avalanche Skills Training refresher and Companion Rescue Skills one day programs were a great application for these low-tide days. The AST refreshers typically concentrate on the Daily Process, terrain identification, companion rescue, and group dynamics. These can easily be met within the ski area boundaries without a lot of touring. The bright sunny days make terrain evaluation effective, and a one-day course like this focuses less on actually touring in favour of theory and practice of important backcountry basics. Similarly, Companion Rescue Skills courses, taught by a Canadian Avalanche Association professional, can be conducted inbounds and focus on the scenarios rather than significant travel.

So, at times like these, it can pay to move one’s activities back inbounds. We still had a great ski week, but we didn’t do much in the way of backcountry. Sometimes, that’s just the way it goes…until it snows again!