Update Nov 9: The Great Divide trail(aka 1A Hwy) was groomed and trackset late this afternoon all the way to the Lake O’Hara parking lot. Chip and I are heading up tomorrow to check it out – and I’m taking my bear spray!

John the groomer has a warning: “Hi Bob; watch out for the big Grizzly at the O’hara end of 1A. It’s been feeding on grain on the tracks and crossing the 1A into the woods to sleep.”

22,000 Views

It turns out that lots of people are finding this blog to be a useful resource. Since my first post  on Nov 10, 2008, we’ve had about 22,000 views. Since Nov 1, and the renewed quest for snow, our readership is growing fast and we’re averaging 245 views per day since the start of the month.

My website statistics for the past day show that about 60% of readers are from Calgary, a surprising number are from Edmonton(about 15%), and there are people from many other locations reading this blog including Banff, Canmore, Okotoks, Red Deer, Leduc, Jasper, Ft McMurray, Airdrie.  We also had views from out of the province including Whitehorse, Vancouver, North Vancouver, Invermere, Golden BC, Tappen BC, Field BC, Toronto, Ottawa, Thunder Bay,  Brampton ON, Kingston ON, Schaumberg IL, San Mateo CA, Fairbanks AK, Federal Way, WA, and those hotbeds of skiing, Irving Texas, Phoenix, and Lihue Hawaii. We even had a viewer from France in the past 24 hours. Hello to everyone!

This blog has been successful because of input from many contributors in our cross-country skiing community who have taken a few moments to share their information about snow conditions(we’ve had 106 comments to date). If you ever see me on the trail, flag me down and say hi. I’m always interested in talking with you. It’s gratifying when I hear that people have come out to ski because of the information they’ve obtained on this blog.

I’m appreciative of all the businesses and ski organizations who have put links on their sites to this blog. If I say so myself, you’re doing all skiers a favour by helping them find good snow to ski on.

In the parking lot at Lake Louise yesterday, we met Brian and Jeanie, regular SkiHere.ca readers from Canmore,  who had just finished their first ski of the season, and Brian, observing his surroundings commented that “we live in paradise.” I can’t think of any better way to appreciate this heaven on earth than by cross country skiing.  When talking with visitors from other countries, they invariably comment on how lucky we are to be living here.

So, my fellow skiers, don’t pass up a single opportunity to enjoy this wonderful activity, and count your blessings for having the good luck to be here.

I’ll be looking forward to your comments during my second year as moderator of SkiHere.ca!

Update: Thanks to everyone for the nice comments. Coincidentally, we hit a new record for most views in one day today with  401.

“We live in paradise” update: I get a report each day on the “search terms” surfers use who find my blog. Today someone found this site by googling the words “Most beautiful places in the world.” Cool.