– Savina and her mom were enjoying the nice snow conditions on MLR –
I arrived at 10:30 a.m. and there were already vehicles parked along Lake Louise Drive for as far as the eye could see. I didn’t take my own advice and parked on the road. Yesterday, I suggested it may be wise to park up at the lake and ski down Tramline to MLR. It’s an extra 1.7K, but you’ll be able to park very close to the trailhead.
I encountered a large group of skiers from Red Deer Nordic at the Fairview junction(1.6K)
My GPS indicated I walked 350 metres to get to the trailhead, and they were lined up behind me for another 50 metres when I got back. The air temperature was -7°C and I’m not sure about the snow temp, but I started out on VR40(-4/-12) which worked well, but I topped it up with VR45 when I arrived at the big climb.
Spectacular snow and scenery for xc skiers today
Lots of training groups were out in full force, but even with only one track I had no problem negotiating my way. It seemed to be an unwritten rule that the outbound skiers had the right of way.
For the first 2.6K up to Paradise creek, there must have been 200 skiers on the trail. I might even be conservative with that number. At the start of the hill, numbers thinned out considerably.
What’s everybody looking at?
The conditions were terrific for Nov 9. Pole tips were occasionally touching pavement, but not enough to be annoying.
It was partly sunny, partly cloudy with no wind, except at the end of the groomed trail at 8.9K, there was a bit of a breeze. It motivated me to hurry up and eat my snack and get going again. Oh, but first we had to go look at the wild animal which Chip and Al spotted on their way up.
There will be a second track for tomorrow on MLR
It was nice to see everyone again, and there were lots of blog readers saying hi. Thanks to everybody who stopped at Wilson’s to enter the contest. I heard that Bill had to print more entry forms, so a fantastic response! The contest continues for a long time, so make sure you stop in and enter Win a pair of Atomic SkinTec skis.
By the way, Tracksetter John was laying down a second track on the other side of the trail in the afternoon. It should be another great day tomorrow.
Check these photos to see what everyone was looking at:
Hey Bob… I took your advice:
Just past the last car parked on the right, we pulled into the trailhead parking lot for the Great Divide. At 11 am, I was one of 4 cars there!
See it all at:
https://picasaweb.google.com/accesschuck/GreatDivideNov92013?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCInN6Mnl-M6UqQE&feat=directlink
I measured 8 inches of fresh fluffy snow. It was not groomed, but there were 2 tracks, skier set. We skiied all the way, past the Great Divide, to the Lake O’Hara parking lot, and only saw 7 people all day. This is a secret. Don’t tell anyone!
By the way, we stopped in at Wilson’s. Jax told me you must have quite the following. They had already handed out 50 entry forms to people sent by Skier Bob!
Thanks, Chuck, for checking the Great Divide. Readers may wonder why it has not been groomed. The pavement is in rough shape and has a lot of heaves and bumps. It requires a little more snow than on MRL. That’s great news about the excellent kickoff to the contest! -Bob
This is great! Moraine Lake and 1A both open. Has anybody ventured up Redearth Creek yet?
Take note, 1A(also known as the Great Divide), is skiable but it has not yet been groomed. -Bob