Cheering for Alan

Alan and dad Raphael practicing for the Olympics

I need to ski the north end trails in PLPP more often because I enjoy seeing all the kids and parents. After avoiding PLPP yesterday, all ages were out in full force today. 

Before I continue, take note of this message from Tom Lambert of Foothills Nordic Ski Club, sponsors of the Cookie Race which took place in PLPP yesterday:

“We have quite a collection of lost and found, so if you are missing something, write to cookierace@foothillsnordic.ca and we’ll return it to you.”

Georgina on Meadow

The cutest thing today was when I came across Alan and his dad Raphael with a Canadian flag. Little Alan, with help from dad, would climb a small hill and glide back down, thrilled with the high speeds he was reaching. Raphael said his son was practicing for the Olympics. 

A snowy start to our ski on Meadow

When Georgina and I started out from the PLPP Discovery Centre at 1:15 pm, the snow and air temperature were both -7°C and it was snowing. There was already 2 cm on the trails but surprisingly the tracks were not slow. Many skiers were continually skiing over the fresh snow and polishing the tracks for us. VR40 worked very well with excellent grip and no icing in the fresh snow. 

Dad was giving this future Olympian a head start

The only trail which hadn’t seen much traffic was Lodgepole and the snow was soft and slow. While climbing suicide hill, three skiers were descending with smiles on their faces rather than the usual look of fear. The fresh snow made the downhill safe and easy. 

The loop of 11.6K consisted of Meadow, Woolley, Lynx, Pocaterra, and Lodgepole. To illustrate how great the conditions have been lately, this was only my second ski in PLPP this month. It tells you the conditions have been great everywhere else, too. 

By 2:30 pm the snow had let up and the mountains were coming back into view. 

4 Comments:

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  1. It was a great day out at PLPP yesterday with the silky smooth snow. Love your picture of our Jackrabbits! They were awesome yesterday.

  2. Bob, You haven’t had your usual overnight outings to Emerald Lake Lodge and Nipika. I am off to Nipika tomorrow with 5 other women, was hoping to see a posting about it but nothing recently. Hopefully the conditions will be great!!!

    • The latest trail report from Nipika says conditions are spectacular and they posted this photo: http://skierbob.ca/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Nipika-conditions.jpg Have a good time!

      • Conditions at Nipika are excellent. My humans took me there yesterday – there was a skiff of new snow which made for nice silky tracks, green wax am, blue wax pm. We skied the North trails in the am (dodging fat bikes during the Cross River Fat Bike Race – not a problem as the race course where it crossed XC ski trails was clearly marked), then the South trails in the pm – I was allowed off-leash there since there weren’t many other people around and had a great time!

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