Tessa, Bob, and Christine at Wedge Connector in Kananaskis
After all the excellent ski trips I’ve enjoyed over the past three weeks, I thought it was time to take Tessa skiing on her favourite trail.
Wedge Connector
The snow at Wedge Connector has been through a freeze-thaw cycle, so the tracks were slick and fast but with a snow temperature of -5°C, I was still able to get good grip with VR45(-2/-8).
Christine was using fish-scale waxless skis and also had good grip. The thermometer in my vehicle registered -2, but it felt a lot colder.
Wedge Connector
The tracks were in excellent condition except for some occasional tree debris, but not enough to detract from an enjoyable day.
The Wedge Connector is a very easy trail with a couple tiny hills. It offers up some lovely views of the surrounding mountains and passes through a picturesque meadow. It’s 2.4K one-way, and ends at the Evan-Thomas creek bed.
Terrace trail near Kananaskis Village had a lot of tree debris
I also checked the trails at Kananaskis Village and was disappointed to see that Needlemania has returned. Terrace trail has been groomed recently so the tracks were in nice shape but had a lot of tree debris. I continued for a short distance on Kovach but the carpet of pine needles was too annoying for this to be considered enjoyable skiing.
Enjoying the fireplace at the Delta Lodge at Kananaskis
Rather than frustrate myself on marginal conditions, I joined Christine and Tessa at the beautiful Delta Lodge and warmed up by the fire with a cup of hot chocolate.
Just a reminder to enter the draw for a home waxing set-up courtesy of Lifesport. Enter in person at the store. The deadline to enter is Jan 30.
Check the Loppets page for upcoming races. This weekend it’s the Huckleberry Loppet in Golden, BC and next weekend, on Jan 31, Nipika has a classic loppet and on Feb 1 a skate loppet.
Looking at the weather forecast it would appear this winning streak of cool weather and excellent conditions will be coming to an abrupt end this weekend. According to the Weather Network, PLPP and Lake Louise will escape the meltdown. In any event, you should get out and ski now!
Hi Bob,
Not sure where to put this,so I figured I would tag your latest post.
I skied West Bragg today around noon, the tracks had been set on the weekend and were in pretty rough shape. There was also some pretty sketchy ice flows–metal edges would have been nice a couple of times. Overall coverage was pretty good, but I did end up with an array of debris in the wax by the end.
The skaters looked like they were enjoying themselves, I had good weather at about -3c, not sure how well things are going to hold up with the upcoming heatwave.
See you on the trail and keep up the good work.