-Skiers from Winnipeg at the Ribbon creek parking lot-
Every day for the past three days I’ve met skiers on the trail who have been enticed to come here because of the wonderful pictures they’ve seen of our snow and trails. Today, the three amigos from the Downtown Nordic club of Winnipeg were on the Wedge Connector and Bill Milne trails.
Bill Milne trail is groomed for classic and skating
They were skiing too fast for me to pull out my camera in time, so I only got a photo of them skating away from me. I later caught up to them at the Ribbon creek parking lot where they were packing up their van. Lucky guys are here for a whole week, so you might see them on the trail.
Susan and Chrystal are beginner skiers who were doing very well on the Bill Milne trail
Later, I met Susan and Chrystal on the Bill Milne trail. They are beginner skiers who had read about the good conditions and saw the photos and decided the Bill Milne would be a good place to get some practice. Susan was skating and Chrystal was on classic skis.
The Bill Milne is one of the most scenic ski trails on earth
The air temperature at Wedge Pond was -11°C but felt even colder. Snow was -10. It felt good to reach the Evan-Thomas creek and spend some time in the sun in the open area.
Frosty trees in the sun made for some beautiful sights on the Wedge connector
The air temperature at Ribbon creek in mid-afternoon was -5. The Bill Milne trail was busy with classic skiers and skaters. I was disappointed to only see one dog today.
The warm temperatures never really materialized this weekend, unless you were at a high elevation. The Weather Network forecast is for below zero temps all week, while Environment Canada is calling for temps as high as +6. Environment Canada was wrong about the past two days, let’s hope their losing streak continues.
Moose at Boulton creek
The Moose Question
Yesterday Bill reported on the Trip reports re: Mt Shark: “Parks came and fired off a bear-banger to haze the moose off, that worked for about 5 minutes before he was back at the bumper buffet.”
K-Country could put out a salt block in a safe location away from the parking lots. I’m sure they’ve thought of it, and I’m wondering what the reasoning is behind why not?
I’m pretty sure Environment Canada forecasts, even if identified as Kananaskis, are aimed to verify for Canmore or Bow Valley. K country includes the eastern slopes such as Bragg Creek which can be 5-7 degrees warmer/different/drier than various elevations in Kananaskis valley. botto line-don’t bet the farm without checking for context.
It was nice meeting you Skier Bob. Thanks for the very nice story and photos of us “Three Amigos from Winnipeg”. There are actually five of us here for the week; the other two were classic skiing.
Nice meeting you, too! I hope I run into you and all of your friends again this week. -Bob
Speaking of people coming from far away – yesterday at the Nordic Center we saw a large passenger van with a Minnesota license plate. It looked like the group, which seemed to include a number of teens and adult coaches, was just loading up to head back home. I had to smile when I heard one of the young skiers say longingly, “Can’t we stay just a little longer, Coach?”
I expect Env Can will continue that streak for many years and days to come.
It was a Ribbon Creek weekend for us.
Saturday- up from the bottom and then all of the hotel side trails, finishing up with the revamped Ribbon Creek trail going from W to E, which might be my recommended direction right now as the S-turns on the west side of the hump were pretty scraped down by braking snowplowers on Saturday afternoon, while the east side downhill back to the trailhead had good coverage and softer snow. First time on the new route-definitely not a beginner trail anymore!
Sunday afternoon, a solo ski of all the Skogan area trails- Skogan Loop-Skogan Pass-High Level-Sunburst etc. Awesome- great conditions and FAST! There was a layer of warmer air at about 1700 to 1900m, cooler above and below that, which was noticeable both when going up, and down.
The warmer air combined with bright sun led to glazed bits on a few exposed steeper sections by the time I descended at 3:30, but they were isolated and easy to anticipate in advance. Met up with about 20 other skiers- it’s good to see others taking advantage of the lesser used Skogan side of Ribbon.