Lovely weather and 3 cm of fresh snow made for a nice 19K trip along Goat creek and Spray river west yesterday(Sunday), with the usual “conditions.” There was a pretty good skier-set track on one side of the well-used initial 4k of Goat creek.
Chris and Doug had skied to the Goat creek bridge and were now returning to the trailhead
I’m trying to make up for all the winters when Goat creek wasn’t skiable. This was my eighth trip so far, and it never gets boring. It’s an interesting trail with lots of variety, magnificent scenery, dangerous curves, and a few sustained downhills.
Goat creek at 8k had two good tracks
The air temperature in Canmore at 2 pm was -4°C, but 280 metres higher at the Goat creek trailhead it was -1. Chris and Doug who I met on the trail said it was -15 as they were driving from Calgary, but it warmed up quickly in the space of a few kilometres as they approached the casino.
Spray river west is double trackset with a skating lane
The snow must have still been quite cold because I used the same wax as yesterday(and the day before, etc), VR40(-4/-12), which worked well enough that I didn’t feel motivated to use anything stickier. It got a bit colder as I neared Banff.
Approaching the Spray river bridge at 9K
The new snow on Goat creek was well-packed by all the multi-users for the usual first 4K which today extended to more like 5K. Thereafter, I had a nice track to the end of the Goat creek trail at 9.4K. Spray river west takes over at that point.
Having been trackset a week ago, the Spray river west tracks were holding up well, and it didn’t seem like they received as much new snow near Banff.
Who made these tracks on Spray river west?
Many skiers had gone before me, and skied in the tracks, and scraped the downhills, but they were still ultra-easy to negotiate. I had the best of both worlds really, fast but safe.
It’s indicative of this winter’s wonderful snow and weather when I’ve completed eight trips on Goat creek and never once had to remove my skis for the steep winding downhill to the Goat creek bridge.
I saw a variety of animal tracks in the fresh snow and followed tracks of, well, I’m not sure what it was, for a couple K soon after reaching Spray river west.
Speaking of animals, namely wolves, Nipika Mountain Resort caught some wolves on a remote camera, and now they’ve also posted a video where you can hear them howling. You can see them on Nipika’s Facebook page
The Kicking Horse Ski Club in Field, BC is hosting a Moonlight Ski on Jan 22, and also have the following Ski Tour/Lesson coming up:
More photos from Goat creek – Spray river
