It was an incredibly beautiful day of skiing at Mt Shark
The skiing at Mt Shark today would qualify as a “Best Day.”
Sammy the dog with Sue and Chris. Happy birthday to Chris tomorrow.
What a terrific day, and I’m not just referring to my ski at Mt Shark, but to most of the trip reports which have comments like this:
Pipestone: “Could not ask for better day.”
Baker Creek: “Not sure I have ever skied on better tracks and snow.”
PLPP: “Beautiful day in the mountains.”
Castle to Baker: “Fabulous snow conditions. Lots of people enjoying yesterday’s new tracksetting”
Canmore Nordic Centre: “the parking lot was full”
Mt Shark: “the recent trackset is fantastic and the glide perfect”
Luke was enjoying today’s ski with his person Ramona.
Thanks for all the trip reports.
Unlike yesterday, I was on a pair of high-speed skis and the screaming fast descent to the Spray bridge at the end of the tracksetting was a blast. I’d even consider it nearly controllable with the 1 cm of fresh snow on the trail to help with the snowplowing.
This lady had a handful, but the dogs all seemed to be in control and responded well to her commands.
The grooming for that fast downhill is perfect with no tracks on the fastest sections. There are no straightaways; the trail twists and turns all the way down. I’ve descended this hill on icy conditions and it was terrifying.
That was all fun, but my biggest enjoyment of the day was seeing all the happy dogs and smiling skiers.
Jean-Francois(orange jacket) and his companions at the Spray River bridge
The air temperature at 1:35 pm was -4°C and the snow was -5. It snowed lightly, off-and-on throughout the afternoon. VR45(-2/-8) performed well. Thursday night’s tracksetting is still in excellent shape and the snow has not been affected with any warm weather or rain. The trail beyond the Watridge Lake turnoff is prone to tree debris, but not today. It was clean and white.
Tracksetting ends at the Spray River bridge at 5.7K
It was delightful to meet Jean-Francois and his crew at the Spray River bridge as they were returning from their trip to the Bryant Creek cabin. Jean-Francois occasionally leaves trip reports on this blog and I was happy to see his report on today’s trip.
Mt Shark offers some spectacular views
I took the short side trip down to Watridge Lake where lots of people were congregating. It’s 3.6K to the Watridge Lake junction, and a further 2.1K to the Spray River bridge. The downhill to Watridge Lake is about 200 metres.
I am pleasantly surprised at how the cortisone injection has helped my shoulder. The doc must have got it in the right spot. Glad to hear that Helen’s hip is feeling better, too. Days like today are treasured immensely when I think that some day I may be too decrepit to navigate that scary hill at Mt Shark.
Lake Louise Heads Up
Going to Lake Louise tomorrow(Sunday)? So is everybody else. The line-up at the Banff gates today was 6 lanes, 400 metres deep. Half an hour to get through for people buying park passes. People are going to see Ice Magic. If you need a pass, you can take the express lane and buy your pass at an info centre. They are available online somewhere, too.
