We have Mary’s encouraging report on the Great Divide, Anna’s report of excellent conditions on Pipestone and this one will cover Moraine Lake road, Fairview, Tramline, and the Bow River loop. We have Lake Louise covered. It was a good place for skiing today.
Moraine Lake road at 2.5K
Chris Thomas’ also had a positive report on Emerald Lake and Yoho. I hope someone went to Elk pass today and will give us a report. I see it was trackset last night.
I should also mention that on the way out, I stopped at Castle Lookout to see how the snow was surviving the heat wave. Very well, I’m pleased to report. It looked good in both directions with good tracks and “purple wax” snow. The Banff trail report indicates that Castle Lookout to Baker Creek was trackset today. Castle Lookout to Castle Junction was trackset two days ago and the tracks looked good.
June and Phil at 6k on Moraine Lake road
The air temperature at MLR trailhead at 1:30 pm was +2°C and the snow was still very nice at -3. I used VR50(0/-4) and had good grip 99.9% of the time. The only place where the snow was wet was at the very end of the MLR tracksetting(the viewpoint) where it had prolonged exposure to the sun.
The first time this winter where the sky has been clear at the end of the tracksetting and I could see all 10 peaks
The Banff trail report indicates that MLR was trackset four days ago, but it appeared to be fresher than that. The condition of the snow did not deteriorate at all today, so tomorrow should still offer good skiing.
Fairview was in excellent condition
Fairview was in excellent condition with the exception of occasional tree debris which was of no consequence.
I hadn’t gone 20 metres on MLR when the Parks Canada groomers crossed the trail right in front of me, tracksetting Tramline. Two hours later I came down Tramline, all the way to the train station. Nice cold snow, excellent tracks, but the tree bombs were already making an appearance and depositing a lot of pine needles on the trail. It wasn’t wind that was causing the mess.
Tramline
Tessa skied on the Bow River loop and the Campground loop and reports excellent tracks with the occasional sunny spot where it was difficult to get grip.
With all the early snow in Kananaskis and Banff this winter, I didn’t make as many trips as usual to Lake Louise in November. I guess I’m making up for it now.
Lake O’Hara fire road will be trackset on Thursday mornings
Temperatures on the trip home were similar to Ray’s although mine were observed a lot later in the day. Lake Louise at 4:30 pm was zero, Banff was +6 and Canmore at 5:30 pm was still +8.
There’s a bit of snow in the forecast for Saturday and cooler temperatures.
