- Elk Lakes cabin. Mar 21, 2011. Photo by Carol Sin
Hi Bob,
You most likely don’t know me, but I am a great fan of your blog. I just came back from Elk Lakes yesterday and would like to let people know how it went out there.
We left on Sunday (March 21), headed up the Elk Pass trail. The conditions were really good on the way up to the top of Hydroline. In some places we were the first to break trail as there was fresh snow from the night before.
Power line trail to Elk Lakes. Mar 22, 2011. Photo by Carol Sin
After we crossed the border we had fresh powder but underneath the snow seemed to be thick and heavy. A couple of us were on light touring skis and found it easier to go down the steep parts of the hydroline in the fresh thick snow rather then following the snowmobile tracks through the side trails. Overall the conditions were pretty good. There’s still lots of snow at the cabin and a couple in our party with tele and AT equipment went to look for turns on slopes near the cabin. We followed on our light touring gear as far as we safely could. I also visited the Lower Lake and the trail there was in good condition. I think the temperatures remained around -5 C and we had flurries every day or overnight to freshen the tracks. We returned yesterday early afternoon. On the way back it seemed to warm up (2 C) at the top of Elk Pass trail. The trail was a bit slow coming back (I just about walked down the steep first steep hill on Elk Pass trail) but that is spring skiing. I think there is still plenty of winter left in Elk Lakes.
Cheers
Carol
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Jody Cairns has an update on Mt Shark
Hello. I finally commented on Shark last week and within mentioned that Mt Shark is groomed Wednesday nights. I just wanted to let you know there is a schedule change for just this week and it will be groomed Thursday night instead, fresh for Friday. Enjoy all the sweet spring skiing still to come…
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Diana Piggott was sking on the Pipestone trails yesterday…
Too warm!!
We obviously need some waxing lessons 😛 We had a difficult slog around Pipestone yesterday through warm, sticky snow on platform skis. It was very slow going, though there was only a few cm of fresh snow on top of old grooming.
Has anyone been up to Paradise Valley or Chester Lake recently?
West Bragg, March 23.
Skiing was good on Sundog-Elbow-Iron Springs, with 5-7 cm accumulation of new over the last few days, on top of a solid base. No new grooming, skier tracked but much of the old tracksetting is still there. Some chunky bits on south facing downhills, and one large ice flow to be aware of, on the eastern corner of Iron Springs, at the low point of downhills from each direction. Easy waxing with Start purple.
Get out there before it is too late!