Your eyes don’t deceive you. The miraculous phenomenon known as Frozen Thunder is taking shape at the Canmore Nordic Centre. It will be groomed and ready for skiing on Sat Oct. 21. Expectations are that we’ll have 2K of trails to ski on.
Frozen Thunder is an annual occurrence at the Canmore Nordic Centre
These photos were taken this afternoon while the dump trucks were hauling snow from the big freezer.
As you can see, the snow is still uneven and lumpy but will eventually be groomed with corduroy for skating as well as a classic track. It looks rough right now, but it’s truly amazing how smooth and skiable it becomes after Groomer Paul works his magic with the snowcat.
Karly Coyne is looking forward to skiing on snow this weekend
As I was riding my bike to the big pit where Frozen Thunder is stored, I encountered Karly Coyne who was dryland training for biathlon. She is looking forward to being on snow this weekend after a summer of poles hitting pavement. Karly won a silver medal in the 2017 Cross Country Ski Nationals in March.
Frozen Thunder being loaded into a truck
Frozen Thunder is geared more towards racers and training, and was originally intended to give the national team skiers a headstart on the season.
The general public is welcome to access Frozen Thunder when the trail is not being used for training high performance athletes. Public skiing on Frozen Thunder is permitted all day on weekends and after 12:00 noon on weekdays.
A day pass or early season pass must be purchased at the daylodge to access Frozen Thunder. Canmore Nordic Centre season passes are not valid for access to Frozen Thunder at the start of the season (October 21-November 17, 2017). This is due to the cost of creating and maintaining Frozen Thunder.
The snowcat pushes snow from the pit to the excavator for loading on trucks
Individual season passes for the Canmore Nordic Centre are 10% off until Oct 31, and can be purchased online.
Waxing tips for Frozen Thunder
With the warm temperatures, it will be difficult to get any grip on your classic skis with normal hard wax. Come prepared with waxless skis or the dreaded klister. You can avoid any grip problems by using skate skis. Experience tells me that by by noon, the snow will be getting slushy. On weekends, the general public can access Frozen Thunder at 9 a.m. when the snow is in better shape.
