Dave, Julie, and Sarah from Huntsville, Ontario on the new grooming on Moraine Lake Road
I was primed to ski the Pipestone trails on yesterday’s new tracksetting. Surprise! I couldn’t even get near the parking lot, there was so much new snow!
Moraine Lake Road
The tracksetting would be completely covered in any event with up to 20 cm of new snow. I decided to have some elk stew at Trailhead Cafe and ponder my options.
Tramline
I made an educated guess that Moraine Lake Road would be the first place to receive new tracksetting. Upon arrival at the trailhead, a car was stuck in the snow and was being pushed – and it wasn’t even in the parking lot yet! I parked on the road with all the other vehicles.
I was happy to see brand new grooming and tracksetting and I set off with yesterday’s wax which was VR40(-4/-12). It took me up the big hill with no slippage and no icing, perfect. Air temperature was -4°C.
Tracksetting in progress on Tramline
With so much new snow, and snowmobile grooming, the tracks were a bit soft but not bad. Skating looked like it would be a lot of effort. Light snow continued to fall for the entire time I was skiing.
The return trip was very easy, safe, and a bit slow. I was able to stay in the tracks the entire way down the hill and didn’t even reach 40 Km/H.
It was difficult to enter any parking lot
Upper Tramline was being trackset as I skied it. Pretty sure that’s the first time I’ve skied Tramline without seeing footprints on the trail.
I also skied to the lake and checked out the Ice Magic sculptures. To expedite vehicle traffic during the Ice Magic event, 100 metres of the ski trail has been plowed around the Fairview and Tramline trailheads. The trail through the parking lot to the lake is not groomed right now. There is a skier-set track in a lot of deep snow.
The Great Divide was also groomed and trackset today.
Lake O’Hara fire road was trackset on the 29th but will be covered with fresh snow. The website indicates that it will be trackset again on Thursday(Feb 1).
