Chip at Black Prince. (See details on Chip’s Backcountry report)
Chuckley: “25cm new snow. Up to our knees at times!”
Moose at Black Prince trailhead. Photo by Chip.
Mary Perrott: “We and another couple traded off trail breaking in about 25 cms. of snow. It was fun to ski and not be able to see your skis in front of you, not even a ripple in the deep snow!”
Chip: “There was heavy snow falling, the mercury read -2 and it was clear that there had been substantial accumulation.”
Goat Creek with fresh snow. One skier track and one fat bike track.
I imagine the new grooming indicated on the PLPP Live Grooming Report is buried in fresh snow.
25 cm is exactly the amount of snow which the Mud Lake(Chester Lake) weather station received today.
Kazzy said it was snowing all day at Lake Louise. The Banff/Lake Louise trail report indicates the Townsite, Upper & Lower Tramline, and Moraine Lake road were trackset today.
Breaking trail on Goat Creek
I did a scouting trip on Goat Creek and am optimistic we’ll see some grooming there and on Spray River soon.
The situation at the Goat Creek trailhead wasn’t promising with less than 1 cm of snow in the parking lot but it got deeper the further I went. At 4K there was about 4-5 cm.
In 4 cm of fresh snow, it hardly qualifies as “breaking trail” when compared to Mary and Chuckley in 25 cm.
The first 900 metres to the Banff boundary had quite a few rocks. I skied it anyway, and was surprised I only had two small scratches when all was said and done. Of course, need I say that I walked down the first rock-infested hill from the parking lot.
Here comes Ryan on his fat bike on Goat Creek
With the temperature at -1, the snow was borderline, so I used my Fischer Twin Skins and although slow in the fresh snow, I had good grip.
I met Ryan who had come from Banff on his fat bike, and he said the snow continued to get deeper all the way to Banff. Ryan is the owner of Rebound Cycle in Canmore and we had a nice chat. I could see the look of relief on his face when he realized I didn’t have horns! 🙂
Goat Creek Dec 18, 2018
Probably the same amount again by Friday.