18K of Cross-country ski heaven

Thanks to Tracksetter Jody for the great grooming on Tyrwhitt despite a low snow pack. Thanks also for his early morning Groomer’s report. Getting set to groom Elk Pass and Blueberry Hill tonight.

Fantastic and beautiful. I’m thrilled to say this day has finally arrived! I skied the Tyrwhitt loop for the first time this season on wonderful conditions, but wait! It will be even better tomorrow as Jody was grooming the 20 cm of fresh snow on Elk Pass.

It’s wonderful to be back skiing on Tyrwhitt

Air temperature was -5°C and the snow was -6. I used Swix V40(-3/-10) and it gave good results. I wanted to try out the wax that I’ll be giving away. More on that later.

Whiskey Jack has about 10 cm of fresh snow over the most recent tracksetting, but the tracks are still okay. From what I could see of all the skiers coming down, it sure made it easy to snowplow on the steep parts while descending.

Rocco, Alex and baby Luca on Whiskey Jack

I passed a delightful family of skiers about one-third of the way up Whiskey Jack. Alex was pulling baby Luca in a pulk while a very animated and boisterous Rocco led the way. It cheers me up to see young kids so excited about xc skiing.

Pocaterra from the Whiskey Jack junction

Greg Burt and Tony were flying down the steep section but came to a halt and chatted for a while.

It was such a pleasure to reach the new tracksetting on Tyrwhitt. There’s just a skiff of new snow which fell after it was groomed, but you can still see the corduroy.

Dawn on Tyrwhitt

It’s a low snow pack and you’ll notice a few (rare) places where Jody couldn’t put in a track. A few of the dips are a little more pronounced than usual, and some twigs are exposed. None of these inconveniences diminish the incredible experience of skiing this superb trail. It was all made more enjoyable by seeing the skier with his dog…in his backpack!

Skiers emerging from Tyrwhitt at the Elk Pass – Hydroline junction

There’s about 20 cm of fresh snow on Elk Pass but it’s being groomed and trackset as I write this. Jody had to start grooming at the Upper Lake parking because there were still too many vehicles parked at Elk pass parking lot at 4:20 pm to get the truck and trailer in.

Fox Creek was about as pleasant and fun as it gets. New snow, good tracks, no debris and double-poling all the way to Moraine junction. Moraine was enjoyable, too, despite the snowshoers who chewed up the tracks on two-thirds of the trail.

Good conditions on Fox Creek

It looked to me like the snowshoers were originally on the Boulton interpretive trail but took the spur up to Moraine. Now when other snowshoers see these tracks they’ll follow them and we’ll see lots of snowshoers on Moraine and Fox Creek tomorrow.

Jacqueline and Hannah with a free Swix wax

I met Jacqueline and Hannah in the Boulton Creek parking lot. When they realized who I was, they began asking me questions about wax. It turns out they needed some grip wax, so they are the first recipients of a free Swix wax.

Nice to hear all the positive trip reports today. Nobody has mentioned rocks! Thanks to Ray, we know that Cascade Valley was trackset today.

Castle Junction to Castle Lookout has been groomed.

I’ve received a lot of last minute entries for the Emerald Lake Lodge contest. It might take me a day or two to get them all displayed.

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