Tina, Lori, and Dave on Moraine Lake road
The snow is slow in coming this winter, but at least we are fortunate to have excellent early snow at Lake Louise. All weather forecasts are predicting snow this weekend, but I’m cheering for the ever-optimistic Snow Forecast which is predicting 19 cm in PLPP.
Tramline was beautiful in the morning sun
I was skiing up Tramline from the train station this morning at 10:30 a.m. Conditions and weather were wonderful for the 3.2K up to Moraine Lake road. The tracks had a dusting of fresh snow. The air temperature was -8°C and the snow was -6.
The view from Moraine Lake road was stunning
I figured it would be warming up later, so I used VR45(-2/-8) and it gave a bit too much grip. A colder wax would have been better, and when I added wax later in the day, I used VR40(-4/-12) with good results. The temperature warmed up to -1, but the snow stayed crisp and cold all day.
Moraine Lake road
As we’ve already heard from Paul and Nancy, Moraine Lake road was in great shape. I climbed to the top of the big hill, enjoying the company of Tina, Lori, and Dave for part of the way.
Bow River Loop
A skiff of fresh snow kept the speed down to safe levels when coming back down the big hill. It was nice to simply make the right turn onto Tramline and enjoy an additional 3.2K of pleasant downhill to the train station. Tramline was crowded with skiers as I descended. There was a bus at the trailhead, so that might explain it.
Liz sets a new track through the freshly shoveled snow on Bow River Loop
I bought a shovel at Wilson’s and went back to the Bow River Loop and covered all the remaining thin spots. Liz happened along the trail while I was working and pitched in. As well as scooping snow with her hands, she set the tracks through the new snow.
Glad to see that Mary and Ray checked out the Hwy 40 access to Upper Pocaterra. This is only available to us for one more day. The barricade comes down on Dec 1. Hopefully the Elk Pass trailhead will have some snow in a few days.
Make sure you look at the photos on Chuck’s trip report.
