More snow at West Bragg Creek

Starting out on Mountain road

I had a lovely ski at West Bragg Creek today. There was 2-3 cm of new snow overnight but a few skiers had been out ahead of me to break trail. Groomer Dave had started another round of tracksetting by late afternoon. 

Loggers

I skied a perimeter loop of the core trails with a side trip down Iron Springs. I didn’t encounter any significant hazards anywhere, just the odd blade of grass or small twig. 

West Crystal Line

Skiing is not recommended on Iron springs and I only went to the top of the hill, which is .9K from the Sundog junction, but I didn’t see anything that would cause a problem. 

Right off the bat on Mountain Road I encountered a happy dog named Sena. She looked to be part Husky, so the cold and snow were no problem for her. 

I ran into Chris Shank on Sundog, near the Iron Springs junction

I saw seven other skiers braving the cold temperatures including Jean-Francois who posts trip reports on here. With the bright sunshine and no wind, I didn’t feel the cold. It was -18°C when I started at 2:15 pm and -16 when I finished around 4 pm.

Top of the Iron Springs hill

Of course, at the top of the Iron Springs hill I suited up for the mostly downhill back to the parking lot.

Loggers was beautiful and there were no rocks at the high point where the bike trail crosses the ski trail. The high point on Loggers is 110 metres net elevation from the parking lot. 

East Crystal Line

It’s been years since I skied East Crystal Line and the steep downhill was where I acheived my fastest speed of the day at 37 KmH. That green glide wax is worth its weight in gold but my skis are ready for another application. Polar grip wax allowed me to stride up every hill without any fish bones. 

A common sight at West Bragg Creek: Alf Skrastins with a snow shovel.

As I was completing the loop on Sundog and nearing the parking lot, who should I see shovelling snow but Alf Skrastins. He was adding snow to the Bunny Loop while at the same time creating a path for the horseback riders so they wouldn’t use the ski trails. 

Groomer Dave

I sure appreciated having the warming hut at the end of the day in which to change clothes. 

I, and all my readers, also appreciate receiving trip reports on these cold days when not many skiers venture out. From the sounds of Rands’ report, Brewster Creek is in reasonably good shape. 

The sign says it all.

The temperature in the mountains is supposed to “warm up” over the next few days. The Weather Network is predicting -13 at Boulton Creek(PLPP) tomorrow(and 5 cm of snow), with further improvement in the days to come. The Mud Lake(Chester Lake) weather station reached a high of -12.8 today. 

Lost and Found – Mt Shark

Petra posted this earlier today: A request for anyone heading out to Mt. Shark Trailhead.  Upon return from a cold, yet beautiful ski into Bryant Hut Shelter this weekend, I appear to have lost my prescription glasses.  I think they may have fallen on the ground at the Mt Shark Trailhead parking lot.  We were parked near the outhouses.  The glasses have a turquoise frame and were in a black cloth sack.
******

This bitterly cold weather is good for something…

“While most Albertans despair the cold, those on the front lines of the fight against the mountain pine beetle are quietly rejoicing,” said Janice Cooke, an associate professor in the University of Alberta’s department of biological sciences. Read more The colder we go, the more we kill.

2 Comments:

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  1. And the cold is good for killing ticks too, which gives me a much better attitude about it.

  2. This was our third day in a row skiing WBC. Its so good to finally ski our favourite trails again and today we did Iron Springs loop…those were our tracks you were skiing in, Bob. Yesterday we did Moose and overall we’d say the conditions are very good , but the snow is slow as you would expect. Glad to hear a bit if a warm up is coming in the next few days.
    Happy Trails
    Heidi and Peter

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