There’s already up to 10 cm of fresh snow over last night’s tracksetting on Elk Pass. The snow depth is variable and to my surprise, there was more in the mid-section than on the top of Elk Pass(at the Trywhitt – Hydroline junction).
Heather and Gary at the Elk Pass – Fox Creek junction
When I started out, the trail had about 3 cm of new snow. It got deeper further on, and the tracks were completely obliterated and the trail was chewed up from 2.5K – 5.5K as you can see in the photos.
Skiers returning from the Elk Lakes cabin
The air temperature at 2 pm was +2°C and the snow was -1 and it was snowing. I used my fish scale waxless skis and they gave good grip but the glide was painfully slow in the fresh snow. Some people were having a modicum of success with wax while others were not. I could see some pretty big divots in the tracks from skis which were clumping.
Tyrwhitt had about 5 cm of fresh snow
I met Heather and Gary at the Elk Pass – Fox Creek junction. They were using purple wax and reported overall good results with some occasional clumping. I met a group of five skiers who were returning from the Elk Lakes cabin who were having major clumping problems. A couple had given up and were carrying their skis.
Fox Creek
As I neared the end of Elk Pass there was a lot less fresh snow on the trail, and the tracks returned. I skied a short distance down Tyrwhitt to take a picture. There was only about 5 cm of new snow, and one track had been skied in by two skiers.
Elk Pass
The skiing was quite pleasant on Tyrwhitt and I wanted to go further, but my feet weren’t very happy in the boots I was wearing today. With my fish-scale waxless skis, I have to wear boots with SNS bindings. It felt like the start of a blister, so I turned around and headed back the same way I came.
Rather than taking the big hill on the return, I skied on Fox Creek which was in very nice shape with about 3 cm of new snow which did a good job of covering all the debris.
There was about 2 cm of fresh snow at Pocaterra, and I’ve included a photo.
It was snowing lightly when I left the park around 5 pm.
Ski Tour Canada is back in action on Friday at the Canmore Nordic Centre with the seventh race. Ladies 10K starts at 9:45 am and men’s 15K at 1 pm. Canadian Alex Harvey is 4th in the men’s overall standings.
Below are a few photos from Wednesday’s Ski Tour Canada 30K skiathlon
Carry a couple of thin food-market vegetable bags to fold up and stuff in your boot’s hot-spots. I’ve dealt with hockey-skate-heal-knobs for decades and tried a lot of things to mitigate the problem… Veggie-bags are the best. One bag torn into two pieces will suffice.