From Nicholas’ trip report, it sounds like the south end of PLPP should still be good. If it snowed a significant amount in the north end, and if it stays cold, it may have freshened up Pocaterra.
According to Joe’s trip report, the Kananaskis Village/Ribbon Creek area was in poor shape yesterday, but the snow was falling, so it just depends how much snow and how cold it is. Ditto for the Canmore Nordic Centre. I’m in Calgary this morning, so I don’t know how much snow Canmore received. They’ve groomed and trackset the man-made snow, so it should be in nice shape seeing as it cooled down to-3.
West Bragg Creek – I have no idea if they received any of this snow, but it must have been awful warm there yesterday. Probably a waxless ski day.
Cascade valley was in good shape two days ago but I’m not sure of its present condition. Redearth Creek sounds like a possibility, too. Mount Shark should still be in good condition.
To be assured of the best conditions on a variety of trails, Lake Louise is still the best destination. It appears they also received some new snow.
Let’s go out and see what we discover today, and report back tonight. Just stay away from the malls.
Lots of new beautiful snow between Temple Lodge and Skoki Lodge today. “touring”quality track in good shape.
P.S. We used our track skis to go to Skoki, as always. No problem. For the first time, I had thoughts of trying out light touring skis with metal edges for my next trip in. If touring around the lodge the snow is soft, as the lodge season just opened on Dec 23, so no skiers setting a track before us. Snow’s about 4-5 feet deep, so skinny skis make it a bit of a chore. We had a buddy on wider tele skis braking trail, yay.
The top of Boulder Pass is blown bare to the gravel for a few metres, but everything else was glorious.
Actually, the “Village Trails” at Ribbon Creek and the “Skogan” trails north of Nakiska were in good shape yesterday (Dec 25). It was only the actual Ribbon Creek trail down in the valley that was in horrible shape. My advice is to park either at the Kananaskis Village and ski the south trails, or park at Nakiska Ski Parking and ski the Skogan trails.
There was a little new snow yesterday, just enough to cover most of the conifer needles and cones.
Alf