-Mireille and Christiane from Quebec at the Mt Shark trailhead-
Trackset yesterday, the snow at Mt Shark was still cold enough at -3°C for me to get good grip with VR50(0/-4). The air temperature at 3 pm was +2, and the wind was blowing in the open areas.
Watridge lake road at Mt Shark
I encountered occasional but insignificant debris in the tracks to the Watridge Lake junction. Thereafter, for about 1K, the trail had a lot more tree debris and I found it more efficient to ski on the corduroy. For that 1K, the nature of the forest seems to change and the trees are closer to the trail.
Watridge lake road nearing the Spray river
Watridge Lake road is trackset all the way to the Spray river at 5.8K. Most people only go as far as Watridge Lake at 3.6K. That could be because at 4.8K there’s a steep, winding downhill which descends to the Spray river. Today it was fun and the conditions were nearly perfect. The hill loses 80 metres of elevation over a distance of 740 metres. It’s a workout when returning.
Aaron had classic skied all the trails earlier, and was now skating the entire network.
I also skied a few sections of the other trails and for the most part they were clean.
In the open area at the trailhead there is a training grid with 4 classic tracks and a wide skating lane.
Today I met blog readers Bruce, Mireille, and Christiane who traveled all the way from Rosemère, QC. They’re here to take advantage of all this early-season snow. I hope they’re reading this because I want to change my recommendation for skiing tomorrow: the Bill Milne trail may not have the best conditions considering the reports we’ve had today. Lake Louise or PLPP would probably have colder snow.
I see from the PLPP Live Grooming Report that some trails were trackset today including Lodgepole, Braille and Spruce road.
The sky at Mt Shark was overcast and it certainly looked like it could snow. The Snow Forecast is calling for 3 cm tonight at Lake Louise.
