What more could I add to Chuck’s report from yesterday? How about wonderful, terrific, fantastic, and wolves! Banff National Park has some beautiful ski trails and Redearth creek is one that I thoroughly enjoy skiing when the conditions are so great.
The viewpoint at 5.2K
The conditions were exceptional for a first grooming. No rocks. A few inconsequential pine needles in the first 3K, and some tree debris where branches have been cleared from the trail. The two wolves started their ski trip last night at the warden’s cabin and logged at least 7K until they veered off around the 3K mark.
The warden’s cabin at the end of the Redearth creek trail at 10.6K
The air temperature was -5°C at 9:52 a.m, and the snow temp was -3. (Air temp was -1 at finish line at 1:30 pm). I waxed with VR50(0/-4) and had excellent grip all day with no icing. The snow was silky smooth and a bit soft, but I seemed to be moving along nicely. To quote Chip, it was one of those “soul-mending rhythm of typical skiing” days.
Brian and Jeannie were about 2K from the end when I met them. Luckily my camera was still working, albeit some fog in the corners.
I thought I was out early, but at 6.5K I met Alan and Cindy who had started around 8 a.m. and had already been to the end. I didn’t see any more skiers until my return when I met a total of 11 skiers who were on the way up.
While having a snack and taking the snow temperature at the warden’s cabin, I dropped my camera lens-first into the snow. It was still working but very foggy pictures. By the time I met Brian and Jeannie 20 minutes later, the photos were clear except for some “soft” corners. Oh yes, the snow temp at the cabin was -2. It started snowing lightly as I was on the way back.
Wolf track
Distance of this ski is 10.6K one-way, or 21.2K return. The net elevation gain on my GPS showed 320 metres but the total ascent was 844 metres. I’d like to verify that number as it seems awfully big. Ray, are you reading this? One of our trip reporters, Ray Perrott has detailed statistics for most trails.
Redearth creek is not a beginner’s trail. You should have a proficient snowplowing ability, or a desire to do a lot of walking on steep downhills.
It looks like some warm weather is on the way. GordN’s trip report is advising waxless skis already in the Kananaskis village area. The forecast shows cooler temps towards Lake Louise. I hope that goes for PLPP as well.
Just some comments about GPS elevation gains. Net elevation gain will usually be about right as you are just subtracting start and end elevations. Gross elevation gain (i.e. including ups and downs) is much less accurate and will usually be overestimated by the GPS. If you look at the elevation plot for your track you will see a lot of minor ups and downs caused by the GPS continually recalculation where it is – it counts all these little ups and downs as elevation gain, thus overestimating actual elevation gain. To smooth this out, you can resample the track (e.g. in Garmin Basecamp) to a longer distance between data points. My GPS is set to sample every 10m but if I resample the track to 50m in Basecamp I get significantly less elevation gain. Also, Bob and Ray may have their GPSs set to record data points differently – Garmin GPSs can be set to record a point after a set distance travelled or after a set time elapsed or “automatically” which is a combination of the two. I suspect Ray is recording points less frequently than Bob which would explain Ray getting less gross elevation gain.
Thank you Peter… that is truly very useful information for me.
Thanks from me, too.
These are all things I did not know, not being a GPS owner. Thanks Peter.
It is really unusual that the difference in their gross elevation results were about 100%, one being ~422m, the other ~844m. There must be a significant setting difference in how their GPSs sample, and record, gross elevation gain.
In my GPS, the recording interval is found in “System” then “Tracks” . On this page I can set the recording method (Distance or Time or Auto) and recording interval. Interestingly if you choose Time or Auto, you will accumulate distance and vertical even when you are standing still as the GPS will record a new point every set time interval and since each point will be in a slightly different position so it adds up all the little differences.
Bob,
My GPS stats show a net elevation gain of 325m (same as yours), and a gross gain (incl. ups and downs) of 420m – about half of your number. Curious…
Yours makes more sense and I would tend to believe it. Thanks for checking into it.