Take care this weekend as we’ve got some tempestuous weather on the way. It rained in Canmore today. The wet snow for Saturday could make for some difficult waxing conditions. Driving could be a challenge. Check the webcams page on my main menu to see road conditions.
The good news is that it’s going to cool off , so we should end up with some excellent skiing for a few days next week. I hope it brings enough snow to West Bragg to give Calgarians a few days of enjoyable skiing there.
Environment Canada Forecast for Banff
7:00 PM MST Friday March 1
Tonight(Friday): Periods of wet snow changing to periods of snow this evening. Local amount 5 to 10 cm. Wind southwest 20 km/h gusting to 40 becoming light this evening. Low zero.
Saturday: Snow mixed with rain. Local snowfall amount 10 cm. High plus 4.
Saturday night: Snow at times heavy. Amount 10 cm. Low minus 3.
Sunday: Snow. High minus 3.
Lake Louise – Mar 1st
Skied Fairview today amidst moist snowfall conditions which continued until evening. Ski Louise reported snowfall of over 12cms by mid-afternoon today with more on the forecast.Got a bit of glide with waxless skis but wishing for colder temperatures..
Early in the afternoon, we and some lucky folks at the Deer Lodge were treated by a surprise visit from 2 Canadian lynxes, a rare sighting indeed!
Pictures pre-Loppet, Loppet and the Lynx near Deer Lodge can be viewed here: http://pinterest.com/yeghikermike/alberta-winter-outdoors-2012-2013/
My wife and I skiied at CNC today…. from about 1115’ish (the odd “spit” of rain) until about 145’ish when it was a light but steady drizzle. Weather stations at CNC were all in that +5 to 8’ish range although I think snow temp was about +2 to +3C. Since my wife had brand-new skiis she was definitely going to be using them… for classic so I bought some VR70 (yikes!) and had to extend our kick zones about 3″ in front to get kick. Between our 2 pairs of skiis we removed quite a few pine needles (the scourge of this winter) from the tracks in very variable snow conditions along the top trails. Meadowview had the odd needle but not so bad as Rundle, Banff Trail hardly had any, Silvertip was yucky… manmade snow was much “cleaner” but were more iy/glazed. I think we rewaxed 3 times total between scraping of needles over 17km. Although it was great to be out of town, day off from work, with great company, outside, and very low numbers of skiiers, the conditions were quite challenging and slow. Saturday could be interesting…. but with temps dropping & new snow conditions could improve dramatically by Monday. I’m not ready yet to give up on XC’ing this winter!!