Paul Moore tweeted this today: “A frigid day on the ski trails is better than a warm session indoors on the bike or treadmill. Any day. Get bundled up and get outside.” For me, the most difficult exercise at a gym is opening the front door.
-19°C is tolerable when there’s no wind, so it’s more encouraging to get out of your vehicle when you see the flags hanging limply at the Canmore Nordic Centre. I had originally thought about heading up the hill to Goat creek, but I knew Chuck would be giving us a report on that trail. I’m waiting for it to be trackset.
No wind today at Canmore Nordic Centre
I tested out a number of natural snow trails today at CNC, including Banff, Bow, Meadowview, and one of my favourites, Freddie’s Flip. Of course, it’s necessary to ski on man-made snow to access the natural snow, and those trails are excellent.
The new snow has helped hide most of the imperfections on Banff trail which was very nice today. All the natural snow trails have been roller-packed for skating but the tracks are untouched.
Roller-packing the skating lane on Meadowview
I accessed Bow trail at Junction 14 where it comes within 10 metres of Banff trail, so I had about 2.5K of skiing on Bow. This is the section of Bow which the trail report does not recommend skiing on. Well, it wasn’t that bad.
There are still a few twigs poking through, but nothing that would damage your skis. No dirt or rocks were present. You can always step into the middle if you don’t want to ski over the twigs. I would do it again tomorrow.
I returned on Meadowview which was the best of all. The tracks were washed out in a few places but the new snow has really rejuvenated things and overall conditions were good.
To get back to the daylodge, I turned off Meadowview onto Freddie’s Flip which is a fun downhill with a hairpin turn. No problem today with the fresh snow. It eventually spits you back onto the upper part of the Banff trail loop with about 2K remaining to the daylodge.
I almost forgot…waxing is so easy in this weather. VR30(-10/-30). I don’t know what the snow temperature was, but I had great grip.
Chip and I are planning to ski in PLPP tomorrow where the expected high temperature is going to be a balmy -12. We haven’t skied out from Pocaterra hut yet this winter, so that’s where we’ll be starting around 12 noon. There’s more snow in the forecast, too.
