Has Winter Arrived?

So much to pack in one newsletter… snow has arrived! Sharkwatch2026 has begun. But will it stick around?

We’ve opened up tickets for our Season Opener Party up at the Sea to Sky Gondola. Get them before they sell out. It’s gonna be our best party yet! And remember that new weather station we teased? Yeah another one! She’s live!

S2SG Season Opener Party on December 3rd!

As usual, we’re kicking off the season with a sweet party up at the Sea To Sky Gondola Summit Lodge. We’ll have a quick review of conditions and then get into the fun: we’ve got a sweet backcountry ski film from Arc’teryx, a slideshow on tasty ski lines in the corridor, and of course, our big raffle.

We’ve gone a little overboard with prizes - Arc’teryx gear (ooooh new Alpha SL ski harnesses anyone?), Black Diamond ski setups, Mammut gear, SkiUphill gear, and lots more. There will be drinks and hot food for sale.

Let’s kick off the new season in style! This season, we’re splitting proceeds from ticket sales between our usual donation to our friends at Squamish SAR and our mountain weather station network. 

Get a ticket. Come party! 

Red Heather Weather Station:

Wondering how much snow we picked up in Squamish in that last storm? Well with the newest addition to our mountain weather station network, you can see for yourself! Thanks to BC Parks for enabling us to place the first Snower.fi weather station at the former Quest University weather site near the Red Heather shelter (1450 meters).

This is a small self-contained unit that measures temp, wind, pressure, and has a special lidar sensor to measure snow depth (HS or height of snow)! We’re SUPER excited for this and to see how it works this winter. As we get more snow, you’ll see it feeds the experimental SNOWPACK model to build an estimated snow profile for the site.

We’re working on how we can visualize the data a little better on the Zenith page, alongside the exit gully data and the webcams (by we, I mean Jack Casey - tech mastermind) but for now you can click through to see the data on the Snower public data page.

New snow! What’s in the forecast?

An abbreviated version of our normal newsletter content but here’s what we think of the current ski situation: 

HS in the Sea to Sky ranges from 20-50cm. That’s enough to be super tempting but not really enough to truly cover terrain other than very planar surfaces. This is a great starting base though if we keep getting snow. Find super smooth heather slopes or summer snowpatches to ride. Definitely expect sharks and be super cautious on the approach/exit. Boulder fields are not going to be friendly. 

We don't really have any layers of concern but the previous storms did have some significant wind so expect pillows of windslab in exposed areas. These might just be enough to knock someone over and in areas of consequence, that could be bad news!

Looking forward, we have a few flurries tonight and then a warmup coming Monday. This might help the lower snowpack settle a bit and become a better base but it may burn a lot of it off. Hopefully back to seasonal temps by the end of the week!

If you get out, post up a MIN report on Avalanche Canada! Be ready to walk a bunch, wear a helmet and watch out for sharks!

Zenith // SkiUphill Knowledge Series:

There’s just a few tickets left for next week’s advanced weather presentation by Jason Ross up at SkiUphill. Jump on that soon if you don’t want to miss it!

Our final event in the knowledge series is coming up on November 19th. This will be featuring Miles Randell from TEAAM Aeromedical and he will be discussing the “beyond AST” first aid scenario. What happens after you’ve excavated your partner but before organized rescue arrives? This gets glossed over in a lot of courses so come learn from one of the best!

Oh yeah - and there's still a few spots available for our crevasse rescue skills day on Nov 8th!

For more information, check out Zenith Mountain Guides and our local avalanche forecast. Weather forecasts are custom from meteorologist Jason Ross. These updates are supported by SkiUphill Squamish - the best stop for ski touring equipment in the Coast Mountains and made possible by the Sea to Sky Gondola! Use this information at your own risk. Conditions change rapidly from when this report was written!