Cascade Fire Road – B-E-A-U-T-I-F-U-L
Nadja has just skied 15K to the end of Cascade Fire Road. Feb 19, 2011
By the time I hit the trail at 1:45 pm, it had “warmed” up to -15. It felt a lot milder with the sun shining brightly, no wind, and a big blue sky.
The beginning of the trail starts on the Lake Minnewanka paved road for about 700 metres. Feb 19, 2011
The snow was green wax cold. Wonderful new tracks, set yesterday, which were still a little soft and a bit slow, but I made it to the end in 1:25 which was probably the fastest ever. It was also a lot warmer at the end, at the higher elevation. Another skier who had a thermometer said it was -5. Same situation as on Skogan Pass yesterday.
After the paved road, you ski a short distance through this meadow to get to the actual Cascade Fire Rd. Feb 19, 2011
I was chasing Nadja who was out for a leisurely ski. In any event, I felt a sense of accomplishment when I was able to keep up with her.
Beyond the Cascade River, the trail is single-track with a skating lane. Feb 19, 2011
At the end of the trail, I talked to a couple from Seattle who were getting in as much skiing as they could while in the area. Believe it or not, they knew all about SkiHere.ca. They said it was a lot easier planning their trip with the help of this blog.
The end of the trail is about 50 metres ahead. If you click on the photo, you can see the skier tracks which continue on in the ungroomed snow. Feb 19, 2011
At the end of the trail, there were skier tracks through the deep snow, continuing on past the Stoney Creek bridge. You can go a long ways out there in the backcountry.
Most of the excitement is on the return with all the downhill, so it was a fast trip back. The last long hill was fantastic today.
Conditions in the mountains are at their ultimate right now. Everywhere I go, the snow and trails are terrific. The forecast high for the mountains for tomorrow is -4. Couldn’t be better.
Where did you ski today? How badly did the recent warm spell hurt the trails at West Bragg? Comments are always welcome!
To confirm Blaine’s comment, PLPP was in superb shape today. Pretty much everything was groomed, the blue sky and sunshine that everyone experienced elsewhere was shared by us at PLPP, and the temperatures wasn’t too bad. Swix Blue +/- seemed to do the trick. Now as long as the temperatures remain sub-zero through the week, the conditions for the Cookie Race will be excellent.
Blaine Chicoine sent this email:
We just got back from Peter Lougheed park. Started at Pocaterra and looped around via Wooley and Meadow – snow was great! No wind and sunny – my son and I skied in a light top and we were warm even though the temp was -12C.