Get the green wax ready

Bob and Tessa on Hay Meadow

The trails in the vicinity of Kananaskis Village, Ribbon creek, and Skogan pass have been exceptionally fine this winter. We took Tessa to Hay Meadow for one last ski before the real cold weather sets in.

Today’s new tracksetting on Terrace link

I can’t remember the last time I skied on Hay Meadow twice in the same winter on such great conditions. We’ve enjoyed a nice stretch of excellent skiing conditions over recent weeks, but three days of very cold weather will put a damper on  things.  With any luck, we can still have four weeks of reasonably good skiing.

Pristine corduroy as I’m climbing the “Screamer”

After tiring out my springer spaniel, I continued skiing and was able to enjoy a couple of my favourite downhills on fresh grooming. From Kananaskis Village, I skied Terrace and Terrace link. I could see that Jeff was at work with the snowcat as there was fresh tracksetting on Terrace Link and continuing up Kovach.

The beginning of the “Screamer” section of Skogan pass

Indeed, the Live Grooming Report shows the Kananaskis Village trails were all trackset today. The sight of fresh tracksetting and pristine corduroy never fails to get me excited.

The downhill on Terrace to Ribbon creek was in superb shape and a lot of fun. The 1K thrill-ride ends on a roller-coaster with those three small rolling hills as it descends to the new bridge.

Above the “Screamer,” the tracks reappear on a flatter section of Skogan pass

From Ribbon creek parking lot I skied up Lower Skogan and the Screamer to the junction with Marmot. From Ruthie’s to the top of the Screamer it’s exactly 1K and 120 metres elevation gain(it contnues on for a further 300 metres to the Marmot junction, but it flattens out). Coming back down was euphoric on the best conditions ever.

Hay meadow

Lower Skogan was in good shape except for a couple ice flows in the usual locations. There’s still enough snow on one side of the trail to skirt the ice flows. You’ve only got about 30 cm of width to play with, so be careful.

The snow temperature at the Village was -4, and air temp was -1. The next three days will be extremely cold in Calgary with highs around -25, but a little nicer in the mountains with daytime highs predicted to be around -16 to -19. I hope you still have some green grip wax in your wax kit. We’ve used it a lot this winter.