Update Nov 28, 2012: Check this link to see the morning’s grooming report. The Pisten-Bully has a GPS that sends real-time reports. http://www.canmorenordiccentre.org/. For example, as I view it at 7:44 a.m., it shows the groomer is working on Centennial Trail, and eight minutes ago he trackset the stadium area.
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The competition trails above the stadium are in excellent condition and ready for the world cup which will be here in a little over two weeks. I climbed Olympic in order to access the natural snow on Meadowview. It’s been packed and it’s skiable, but lots of hazards still exist, mostly exposed rocks and dirt.
Olympic trail is ready for the World Cup skiers
I saw mountains of man-made snow on the Banff trail loop waiting to be spread. The trail is packed and skiable, but it’s difficult to get around the piles of snow. It shouldn’t be long before the loop is ready.
There’s a 9-lane practice grid in front of the daylodge, and the 2k of Frozen Thunder is in its best shape yet.
The snow temperature on Olympic trail was -10°C.
The natural snow on Meadowview has been packed but still has numerous hazards
Goat creek
Earlier, I skied with Tessa on Goat creek, down to the bridge and back. I was curious to see what a weekend of heavy use had wrought. The snow is a bit tired and the tracks are washed out in places, but overall I didn’t think it was too bad.
It appeared as though the hikers and snowshoers were doing a pretty good job of staying in the middle between the tracks. Believe it or not, I also saw bike tracks. All things considered, I’ve seen it in much worse shape.
All the snowplowing on the steep hill down to the bridge has exposed a few more rocks, but I still managed to ski down without incident. The key to the good conditions on this trail has been the cold snow. The freeze-thaw cycle is very damaging to the conditions, and luckily we’ve had none of that yet. The snow temperature at the trailhead was -7°C.
