Emerald Connector
After skiing at Lake Louise yesterday, I stayed overnight in Field at Truffle Pigs Lodge, wanting to check out some of the Yoho trails (and eat delicious food at Truffle Pigs Bistro).
Emerald Connector and Emerald river
The Emerald Connector was first on my list. Starting out from the Natural Bridge, the temperature was -6, overcast, and no wind.
The sun appeared for a short spell on the Emerald Connector
From the Natural Bridge I skied for 300 metres on Tally Ho and reached the Connector. There was 1 cm of fresh snow on the trail but the tracksetting was excellent. I knew I would be grateful for the fresh snow, especially when descending the ultra-steep section(later in the day) which I was now about to climb.
Emerald Connector
The next 700 metres of the Connector is the re-routed portion which is very steep with lots of turns. The trail was re-configured a few years ago in order to avoid an avalanche slope. There is grooming but no tracksetting on this section.
Trail on Emerald Lake
The Connector is a mixed bag of conditions. In some places it was excellent, but there were also some sketchy parts, mostly bumps and uneven terrain. Five places along the trail there was a plethora of spruce cones, thankfully only for a few metres each time.
Tree Hugger trail
The fresh snow got deeper and deeper, until there was 6 cm on the trail as I approached Emerald Lake. The first part of the Connector, from the top of the steep hill for 3.6K is trackset but there was no tracksetting on the final 3K. Total distance, counting Tally Ho and the steep hill, is 7.6K.
Alluvial Fan
While skiing along the Emerald River, I kept an eye out for Dippers but didn’t see any today(Dippers are birds, not NDP voters).
After completing the Connector, I skied out to the Alluvial Fan. The 500 metre trackset trail on the lake, which avoids the avalanche zone, was in excellent shape. No slush, no exposed ice.
Upon reaching the other side of the lake I took the Tree Hugger to the Fan. Now there was closer to 8 cm of fresh snow on the trail.
The Alluvial Fan tracks have been walked in, and with the fresh snow, not much remained of the tracksetting. On the way back I took the Horse trail which had no footprints and good tracks.
It warmed up to -2 but with the fresh snow on the trail, my VR40(-4/-12) worked well all day.
The dining experience at Truffle Pigs in Field is amazing and overindulging might have been responsible for slowing me down today.
Good luck to all the participants in the Nipika Loppet tomorow. I hope we get a report from someone.
Hi Bob, Missed you yesterday–we went up towards Ohara and it was fantastic! Denise did call Joe and he is out there today. You are right–no set schedule for us–Joe is a carpenter most of the time and we are lucky to have him when we can. Great photo’s you posted! That Connector is getting better as the days go on. Cheers, Marilyn & Bruce
Good to hear, thanks for the update. -Bob
Thanks for the update Bob. Do you know often they groom the alluvial fan?
I’m not aware of any set schedule, but it was last done on Jan 19. With all the fresh snow, I was surprised that it wasn’t being done yesterday, in preparation for the weekend. This is only a guess, but I bet they are having equipment problems.