CBC

Hello to everyone who heard me on CBC’s Ski Report this morning.

The regular host, Paul Karchut, is on holidays so they asked me to fill the time slot with XC information.

Peter and me at the Whiskey Jack - Pocaterra junction in Peter Lougheed Prov Park.

Pick the three best places to ski this weekend

That’s a tough mandate, but I had to limit the choices for the purposes of the time restrictions on the radio. We have so many wonderful places to ski, all with the best snow we’ve had in years, so I’ll add to the list here.

Getting everything groomed and trackset by the weekend will be the challenge because we had another dump of snow yesterday, and I see there’s more snow on the way.

The three destinations I talked about on the show:

– West Bragg Creek

– Ribbon Creek – Kananaskis Village

– Peter Lougheed Provincial Park(sometimes referred to as “Pocaterra”)

Here are some more:

Canmore Nordic Centre – The grooming is always impeccable and they do it immediately after most snowfalls. There is a warm daylodge and conditions are the best I’ve ever seen them. The Banff Trail is excellent for beginner skiers. They also have a 10-lane practice grid in front of the daylodge.

Cascade Fire Road in Banff – The trailhead is located at Lake Minnewanka. There’s a fairly long hill to climb near the beginning, but if you can conquer that, it’s a wonderful rolling trail with great scenery. It’s one way, so you can go as far as you want, up to 15K one way.

Spray River(west side) – The trailhead is by the Banff Springs Hotel. You can ski 10K one direction until you meet the Goat Creek trail and can go even further. You could also do a loop and come back on the east side of the Spray River, for a total of 12K.

Goat Creek – This is for intermediate skiers, and is best skied one way from the Canmore end, finishing up at the Banff Springs Hotel. 18K of fun.

There are plenty more excellent trails as you get further from Calgary. Lake Louise has a number of trails that are suitable for novice skiers such as Moraine Lake Road and the Great Divide.