Stefan & Magi on natural snow at Canmore Nordic Centre. Dec 17, 2009
The natural-snow trails are skiable at Canmore
Are you an optimist, or are you someone who enters a situation with low expectations, hoping for a pleasant surprise?
After reading on the trail report that the natural snow trails had been rolled, I set out for the Nordic Centre today with my rock skis and low expectations. Depending on your attitude and perspective, the natural snow trails are surprisingly good or very poor. I was pleasantly surprised at how skiable they were.
There’s still plenty of hazards, but they’re not dangerous. Mostly grass and a few twigs. I could have used good skis. It’s not trackset, but the skiing was easy and enjoyable.
I have it on good authority that the Banff Trail with man-made snow will be groomed and trackset out to Junction 15 by tomorrow. That’s a total of 2.5K from the daylodge. At that point, you can access the natural-snow trails and ski many more K’s. A nice loop would be Banff trail to the end(5.5K), and return on Meadowview.
The Olympic qualifying races will be ongoing throughout the weekend at CNC, but I believe you will have access to Banff Trail, where you can ski out to the natural snow trails. More photos
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Mt Shark
“Hi Bob, just wanted to let everyone know that even though the Kananaskis Country Ski Report hasn’t yet been updated, all trails at Mt Shark (except the 15 km loop) were groomed and trackset Wed Dec 16 with a couple of cms new on top as of this am – made for some great “fresh” tracks skating this am and some silky soft classic this pm. (Sorry no pics – memo to self, always take the camera! – mom and baby moose were providing a car wash service).
Thanks and keep up the great work of updating when the “powers that be” seem to be lagging with their information sharing!”
Chris Thomas, Canmore
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Lake Louise
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Moderator’s comment: The 1A is also known as the Great Divide.
I forgot to mention that I thought Steve’s photos from yesterday were truly spectacular, especially the second one(scroll down a bit).
Ski trip this Saturday
We’ll be making a draw for two free nights at Nipika on our ski trip to Pocaterra on Saturday. We’re up to 13 participants. Forget the Christmas shopping for one day and come out and join the fun! How could anyone even think of going near a mall when we have such beauty, serenity, and little traffic out in the majestic Rocky Mountains?
Send me an email if you want to come bobtruman@shaw.ca. You don’t have to be a fast skier to come on this trip as there will be both a novice and an intermediate group.
I’m hoping to be able to give a first-hand update on K-Country(PLPP) trails tomorrow evening. It’ll be late.
