Good timing at Pipestone

-Andrew went by with the groomer-

After enough cajoling from Chuck, or should I say hectoring, I decided to check out the Pipestone trails today, and I’m glad I did. 

Before the grooming occurred, there was a reasonably good skier-set track

I skied the perimeter loop which included 10.3K on Pipestone and the final 3K on Hector. Preferred direction of travel is counter clockwise.

With 5 – 10 cm of new snow, but being late in the day, I had a nice set of skier-set tracks to follow to the high point on the trail at 7.9K where Pipestone loop meets Merlin. There were no skier tracks thereafter, but something even better.

Pipestone

When I pulled into the Pipestone parking lot at 2 pm, my car thermometer indicated an air temperature of -3°C.  A dozen vehicles were in the parking lot. My skis already had VR50(0/-4) so I went with it and it worked well all day. 

Fresh corduroy

A couple other skiers coming in the opposite direction had told me the downhill was going to be a bit sketchy in places. Little did we know what good fortune lay in wait for me. I hadn’t skied for 100 metres past the high point when I heard the growl of a snowmobile approaching, and in a few seconds, Andrew went by with the groomer and laid down a beautiful bed of corduroy for the trip home.

Pipestone

Even with the new grooming, there are still some dips, holes, hummocks and rills(thanks JeremyN) on the downhill but I had no trouble in the fresh grooming and soft snow. 

The Pipestone trails are dog-friendly, and I could see the tracks of a skier and a dog ahead of me, but I didn’t catch up to them until we were at the parking lot. It was nice to see Martin and Jip, names you’ll recognize from the trip reports page. 

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