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. 

4 Comments:

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  1. Any news on pipestone this year?

    • The trail report indicates the following for the Pipestone trails…
      “CLOSED – No Entry or Travel. Construction is occurring in the area. Please respect all posted notices and signs.”

      Personnel at the Lake Louise info centre said the trails would be open by the time there is enough snow for tracksetting.

  2. That looks promising. Do you know if any track was set in the Pipestone area later on Saturday?

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