December 21st, 2014 Whistler Blackcomb

Nine more inches came down last night along with a lot of wind. Despite the pictures below, today was a poor visibility day in the Alpine. The snow quality wasn't as good yesterday, but in sheltered areas was still go. Ridge lines and open bowls had wind cake and stiff slabs. Saw 18" slabs in Heavenly Basin. I went over to Blackcomb and skied until 10:30 when they opened up Glacier Chair. There was already a huge herd going over Spankey's Ladder so I played under the lift instead. I was maybe going to go over to the Bowls on my next run, but they opened up Showcase T-Bar, and I made a run for the Glacier. The signs at the entrance didn't say you couldn't go - they just said you'd have to pay for you own rescue if you went and blew it. With typical bad judgement I went - and struggled with bad light, semi ok snow, and lots of dangerous holes and hidden rocks in the near whiteout conditions.

Lift lines were mostly around 15 minutes, but dissipated during and after lunch. I took the Peak to Peak back to Whistler and saw that Peak Chair must have had a late opening. I made an unusual decision and didn't go up in the wind and low visibility. If there had been more snow, I'd have gone anyway and skied trees but....there wasn't more snow, and tree skiing everywhere but at the very top was too thin for me. I went home to get ready for the SEAHAWKS game at Rolands...