Elk Pass for the final time

I thought 10:30 a.m. was early, but it wasn’t early enough. In fact, I don’t know if it even froze last night. The snow was borderline wet when I started with my waxable skis, but even with VR55(0/-3) I had marginal grip. In retrospect, I should have used waxless skis today.

At the Elk Pass – Blueberry junction, I noticed the skier-set tracks on the left. Is that the way to MaSid’s couch?

It would have been a good day for klister, perish the thought. In any event, I made it to the top of Elk Pass with a lot of double-poling and herringbones. I was compensated somewhat by the return trip which was still reasonably fast and fun.

This was probably the last time I’ll see these magnificent pillows of snow along Elk Pass this winter

When I passed the Blueberry Hill junction I saw the skier-set tracks heading off into the meadow, and wondered if that was the route to MaSid’s couch? I was going to check it out on the way back.

The top of Elk Pass

At the top of Elk Pass I skied a few hundred metres into B.C. on the trail to the Elk Lakes cabin. Just as I got back to the picnic table, my right pole strap broke. Funny, as I was climbing the final hill to the top of Elk Pass, I noticed how frayed the strap was, and figured it was time to replace them. Or is someone telling me that ski season is over?

I fashioned a “keeper” loop out of duct tape so the pole would not fall out of my hand, but I couldn’t exert any pressure on it. It’s mostly downhill back to the parking lot, so it wasn’t a big issue, but with little grip, I didn’t do any further exploring, so MaSid’s couch whereabouts will remain a mystery.

I wonder how many skiers have managed to find the “hugging tree” along Elk Pass? You can see it in the photos below.

You’d think I’d be in better shape after skiing 20,000 kilometres! Thanks to Rod for the photo.

The snow on the big hill was already getting soft as I returned to the parking lot. I walked up the south side. The temperature at 1:30 pm was +8°C.

Milestone

I finally checked my log book, and back on March 13 I clocked my 20,000th kilometre as I skied on Whiskey Jack. Fitting that it was on WJ as I’ve probably skied that trail more than any other. To clarify, that’s 20,000K since I started skiing back in 1997, it wasn’t all this winter.

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