Conditions update?!?

[Becca]

Hi,

I've only been up to beautiful Squamish once and that was a few years ago in July and August...when the camping was free and there were no vehicle break in's.

Anyway, I'm wondering if all the classic Chief routes are dry??? Like Alaska Hwy, Northern Lights and Freeway.

Are those climbs mossy or gritty early season?

Does the weather seem like it's getting stable enough to climb for maybe a week?

I'm interested in mostly the trad climbing conditions on the longer routes. But if it rains I'm not opposed to sport climbing a few days.

Any beta on conditions from a local would be great!!! Humidity this time of year, ect.?

Thanks!!!

[XXXX]

It's hit or miss weather right now. Like 50% chance of rain every day.

If you come here for a week, you will definitely be able to climb, but maybe not every day, or long routes every day. But you WILL be able to climb.

If you want guaranteed dry weather, wait until July. June is often wetter than April and May are in Squamish.

[Becca]

What about route conditions? The link on this page to weather forecast looks like a high pressure system moving over that area starting the 31 - June 8?

[csg]

Do NOT trust the weather forecast -- especially the extended forecast -- from this site. It is a direct feed from the Weather Network, which I have found to have the least reliable forecasts for here. I suspect it is because the WN puts out forecasts for hundreds of places, and therefore they are completely automated. That is, no human bothers to interpret model output before the forecast is published. It is possible that WN forecasts are better in the US since they simply copy the NWS forecasts.

Leaving the crappiness of the WN aside, I would be highly skeptical of any extended forecast for Squamish in early June, unless a very strong upper level (500mb or higher) pattern shows up on multiple models. A quick glance at the latest NCEP models shows a rather unsettled pattern for the next 384 hours. Basically, as an above poster said, any given day, you'll have a good chance of a bit of rain. On the other hand, I don't see any major systems bearing down on us, so any given day also has a decent chance of enough dry hours to get in some pitches.



(Finally: this w/e is looking ok for now, with morning clouds / aft. sun / chance showers)

[J Mace]

Do NOT trust the weather forecast -- especially the extended forecast -- from this site. It is a direct feed from the Weather Network, which I have found to have the least reliable forecasts for here. I suspect it is because the WN puts out forecasts for hundreds of places, and therefore they are completely automated. That is, no human bothers to interpret model output before the forecast is published. It is possible that WN forecasts are better in the US since they simply copy the NWS forecasts.

Leaving the crappiness of the WN aside, I would be highly skeptical of any extended forecast for Squamish in early June, unless a very strong upper level (500mb or higher) pattern shows up on multiple models. A quick glance at the latest NCEP models shows a rather unsettled pattern for the next 384 hours. Basically, as an above poster said, any given day, you'll have a good chance of a bit of rain. On the other hand, I don't see any major systems bearing down on us, so any given day also has a decent chance of enough dry hours to get in some pitches.



(Finally: this w/e is looking ok for now, with morning clouds / aft. sun / chance showers)

Your are correct on TWN not having any human interpertation, are you a meteorologist or just a very keen weather guy/gal cause you seem to have the current scenario correctly analyzed..

I would imagine the long hard routes are a little gritty early season

[csg]

Keen weather guy, to be sure. It takes a lot of the edge off the soggy times to geek out at weather models though. Instead of incessant pounding rain, you can be thinking: cool, I saw this spinning up south of the Aleutians two days ago!

[Steve Townshend]

Take an Aviation Meteorology Class, you'll learn ALOT!!!! i can't believe how much more accurately pilots assess the weather than climbers do (short-term forecast; we're REALLY good at predicting 24 hrs ahead and getting the "big picture" of what's going on around where we are).

http://www.flightplanning.navcanada.ca/ ... peDoc=html

GlacierAir in Squamish (Flight school at the airport) is starting ground school right now, Meteorology part will start in a couple weeks, it's 3 hour night classes once a week (for anybody interested).

i wish i knew about Aviation forecasts when i was on-the-road "full-time" for years and years....