Canmore Nordic Centre

The best conditions I’ve seen in mid-Nov

Brian and Jeannie celebrate the early snow at Canmore. Nov 19, 2010

The Snow Gods made us wait a few extra days this year, but they have rewarded us handsomely for our patience. The conditions on the natural-snow trails at Canmore Nordic Centre are as good or better than I saw them at any time last season.

Kim from San Francisco was on skis for the first time ever. Nov 19, 2010

The trail report indicates that Banff Trail, Bow Trail and Meadowview are trackset but I can assure you they aren’t. I talked to the Nordic Centre staff and they will get it corrected for tomorrow’s report. It’s possible that we  might see tracks on Meadowview and Rundle next week. Nevertheless, the conditions are excellent for this time of year. I suppose Shelli will try to take credit.

I didn’t see any rocks or dirt on Banff Trail or Meadowview. An occasional twig or leaf of grass is about all. I ran into Gwen at the end of Banff Trail, where she had just finished Bow Trail, and she reported it was also in nice condition.

Gwen had just finished skiing Bow Trail. Nov 19, 2010

If you do want to ski in perfect tracks, the man-made snow near the stadium is superb.  There’s about 2.5K on the Lillehammer, Nagano, Albertville and Salt Lake trails. This is what Frozen Thunder has morphed into and it’s excellent.

Most of the side trails have been rolled and looked good as I skied past.

I’ve posted 9 aditional photos which illustrate the conditions you’ll find on the various trails.

If anyone can fill us in regarding tracksetting on Ribbon Creek, please leave a comment or send me an email. It looks like we have three good choices this weekend: Moraine Lake Road, Canmore, and possibly Ribbon Creek. I know there’s snow at Elk Pass and would like to hear from anyone who’s been there.

I know this is getting monotonous, but for the third consecutive day we set a new record for views on this blog. Yesterday was 1122.