It was a beautiful day to ski up to Blueberry hill with new tracksetting, sunny skies, and wet snow. The wet snow wasn’t so good, but it’s spring and we must make accommodation for it. Frank Howard has a good attitude about it, so make sure you read his Trip Report.
Susanne was on waxless, Lynette and Lori were on klister
The temperature in PLPP was +3 at 12 noon. When I left at 3 pm it was starting to snow. It’s supposed to get cold tonight and stay at 0°C or below tomorrow. 5 cm of snow is in the forecast. If they groom the usual trails tonight, Pocaterra from the hut to Packers junction should be in nice shape, along with Lynx.
I used my fishscale waxless skis and had awesome grip. The snow on Blueberry was uniformly soft, so it wasn’t too scary coming back down but it was very slow.
The magnificent view from Blueberry hill
At the Elk pass/Blueberry junction, Susanne, Lynette, Lori and I were discussing the pros and cons of waxless skis, waxable and klister. I mentioned to Lynette and Lori that klister was probably the best solution for today’s conditions if you’re willing to get your fingers sticky. I also said klister is no good when there’s fresh falling snow, and now that I’ve read Lynette’s trip report, I see that’s exactly what they encountered.
I took the big hill back down to the parking lot. Did anyone ski Fox creek on the way back? If so, how was it?
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I added Fox Creek, Moraine and Boulton Creek to the end of the day and all three were very enjoyable. There was a lot of debris (as you suspected) on Fox Creek but the heavy snow fall that occurred between 3pm and 4pm covered it nicely. Moraine was particularly beautiful. The waxless skis made the day very easy as they gripped very well in all conditions. I saw fresh ski tracks heading out along Boulton Creek trail and decided to follow them for a while – It was an adventurous(and of course slow) ski but incredibly beautiful.
It was sunny at the junction but blizzarding by the time we got to Blueberry Hill. We had scrape off as much Klister as possible and use a warm Fluor start wax (orange +1-2) to get any glide at all. Then it was bright and sunny again by the time we got back to the junction! Fun day!!