Goat Creek was marginal

This beautiful picture doesn't tell the story of Goat Creek. Snow conditions are marginal.

I hope this post will save you from wasting your time, or more importantly, from incurring a broken leg or dislocated shoulder.

I only had a short time to ski this afternoon so I decided to take the 14-minute drive up the road to the Goat Creek trailhead.

The warm weather and rain from last Sunday night has turned Goat Creek into a bobsleigh run. If you start down some of the hills with any speed at all, you’ll be unable to stop. Snowplowing is almost impossible on the hard-packed snow, but there’s also frozen clumps of snow in the middle, so your skis can’t even dig in.

The hills on Goat Creek are scraped clean and are super-fast

The tracks are washed out, which isn’t so bad going downhill, but on the return it’s hard to keep your skis pointed forward. On a more positive note, the snow is still cold and I was able to get grip with VR40(-2/-8), and it was a beautiful sunny day, with the temperature hovering around zero.

The trail has changed dramatically from last weekend when I skied it three times in good conditions. I only went 5k down the trail but that was enough. If you have any doubts about your abilities on icy, fast downhills, don’t ski here.

3 Comments:

Leave a Reply to Meghan Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

  1. PS: Any suggestions for a moderate or easy trail in/and around the Kan/Banff area that is in good condition as of today?

    From the sounds of the trip reports today, I’d choose PLPP and ski Pocaterra, or perhaps Wheeler(from Elkwood Amphitheatre) and branch off to some of the connecting trails such as Amos and Woolley. -Bob

  2. Your website is an absolute blessing! Thanks so much for saving me a disappointing trip out there next weekend!

  3. Good words of warning about the frozen ice clumps, especially for light skis. I broke one of my Fischer RCS skis in two when coming down a hill in the Gatineaus after a Christmas ice storm.

Leave a Reply to Meghan Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *