– Brewster creek trail has been trackset –
With the world coming to an end tomorrow, I hope everyone spent this last day skiing? 🙂
I spent the day in Calgary, so unfortunately I didn’t get to check out
any of these freshly groomed trails. The Banff trail report indicates that Brewster creek has been trackset for the first time this winter.
Also a number of trails in the north end of PLPP were trackset yesterday including Pocaterra, Lynx, Amos, Woolley, Wheeler, Stroil, Meadow, Sinclair, and Braille. Come-Along and Packers were groomed only. If you are a novice or beginner skier looking for a very easy trail to practice on, Spruce road has been trackset. It’s accessed from the Elkwood Amphitheatre parking lot. At the same trailhead is Wheeler which is also an easy trail.
Most of the trails around Ribbon creek and Kananaskis village were trackset this week, along with the Skogan pass trails. The cold weather we’ll be seeing for the next five days should preserve the good conditions.
Maps and guide books
Beginner skiers
When I was in Lifesport today buying boots(obviously I’m confident we’ll be here tomorrow), one of the employees mentioned that when a beginner skier comes in the store, they always suggest to the new skier to check out this blog. If you are a beginner, what information is important to you? How could I and the more experienced skiers help you?
I noted the comment a few days ago from Alan S, mentioning that he didn’t know where a lot of the trailheads were that we talk about on here. It’s vital to any cross-country skier to arm yourselves with all the maps and guide books which are available, many of them for free. Go to the Visitor Centres and ask for them. Most outdoor stores sell the Gem-trek maps which are also helpful.
There’s a drop-down menu under Resources – maps on the main menu which would be helpful, including a map which shows many of the trailheads.
My suggestion is wax information and tips on good beginner trails. Nothing more discouraging than a bad wax day, or rocketing downhill and hurting yourself or someone else when you just took the bold step of buying skis and given some new activity a whirl… The little voice in your head starts asking, “why did I buy waxless skis? Why did I bother buying skis at all? Is this for me or just old skinny European guys?” On the flip side, nothing more encouraging than a long nice day on an easy trail when your wax is working well. The little voice in your head starts saying “I should google more about waxing my skis. I should google more trails… I should do this more often. Who is this Skier Bob fellow?”. I started last year (I posted about ways of slowing yourself down when in the tracks) and found simply the best beginner trail is the Great divide in Louise. Not only that, Louise is generally very predictable with regards to wax. It can be crowded, but that’s the last thing on a beginners mind.
One of the very nice salespeople at Lifesport also pointed out this blog, it has great up-to-date information. I’ve gone out a couple times to new trails this year after reading about them here; up until now I have limited myself to the Canmore Nordic Centre because I have a pretty good idea which trails are beyond my abilities. I’m just getting over a back injury and getting used to new skis at the same time so I’m sticking to easy trails for the moment and the reports here help me decide where I’m likely to be comfortable, and that is probably the most important information I see here. Also, waxing suggestions are great as I just switched over from waxless to waxed skis.