– Thierry and Anita were skiing on upper Kovach. –
- Beautiful cold snow.
- Beautiful tracksetting.
- Beautiful weather.
Aspen trail
I’m sure everyone is anxious to know what the temperature was today. It was -12 with no wind at the Ribbon creek parking lot as I started out on one of the best ski trips of the winter. Snow temp was also -12. It seemed warmer at the higher elevations.
What we commonly refer to as rabbit tracks are from the snowshoe hare.
There was 1 cm of new snow on top of the recent tracksetting which made the downhills safe and fun. The S-turns on Kovach were child’s play. The fresh snow also made the climbing easy with a minimal amount of herringbones. I skied all the trails south of Ribbon creek, some of them twice.
The beautiful view from Kovach lookout
Have you ever noticed the snowshoe hare tracks almost always run perpendicular to the trails? It’s very common to see them crossing the trails, but seldom running along them. They seem to like travelling in the deep snow, and I guess their moniker explains why. When we see coyote, wolf and cat tracks, however, they are usually running on top of the trackset trails, parallel to the ski tracks. With their huge paws, I believe a Lynx can travel easily on top of the deep snow which makes sense because their diet is made up almost entirely of snowshoe hares.
Skiers on upper Kovach trail
You’ll notice in the photos that Link is closed off with yellow tape and is not being trackset this winter. That’s because it’s a trail to nowhere, now that Ribbon creek trail no longer exists. We have a lot of wonderful trails but I still miss Ribbon creek. I’m glad that I’ve documented a number of ski trips on Ribbon creek along with the photos. Beautiful memories.
Hi, Bob.
I read your comment about these ‘rabbits’ and the reason for avoidance is simple: they are subject to predation from the sky, and being out in the middle of the trail sets them up as easy prey for owls.
In addition, it makes their location obvious to any coyote, lynx, etc. that is watching the track. (You noted that the predators tend to use the tracks. Obviously, it gives them much greater sight lines.)
Careless snowshoe hares are something else’s supper.
Pat
This knowledge which the rabbits possess may be known to certain skiers, who seem to use the tactic on occasion, especially at the bottoms of a steep curves -)
I’ve asked the Kananaskis parks staff several times to take down the yellow tape & let us ski (or run, or walk) Link all the way to the (washed out) bridge at Ribbon Creek. I don’t understand why it’s closed, as it’s a gorgeous section and people can just simply turn around upon reaching the bridge. Alas, they they don’t agree.
I agree. When I was there last month I thought it would be interesting to ski down Link to see what had happened during the flood. The “Trail Closed” sign warned of dire consequences for crossing the tape – up to $100,000 fine and 12 months in jail, as I recall .I decided that maybe I wasn’t that keen to see the flood damage. I did note that there were ski tracks heading down there – hope they didn’t get caught!