The magic of winter at West Bragg Creek

Mountain road at 2.8K

Dec 5, 2019

It doesn’t get much better than this. Cold snow, excellent tracksetting and grooming, blue skies with no wind. Seeing all the dogs was icing on the cake.

I started the day with a nice ski on Hostel Loop which was trackset last night or early this morning. I branched off for a short ski on Telephone which is covered in fresh snow so I could take a picture. When I arrived at Snowshoe Hare, I couldn’t resist the beautiful corduroy so I skied for a kilometre or so.

Dave and Moose on Mountain road

The final K on Hostel is all downhill and it was safe and fun today. The last time I remember doing it, probably a dozen years ago, conditions were icy and I had to hang on for dear life.

The first 2K of Mountain road saw a lot of activity today and the tracks were getting a bit wide. After the Moose Connector it was excellent.

Mountainview

As I was sking up Mountain road at about 2.5K, Dave and his dog Moose went flying by. Dave looks like a fast skier, but he had extra help being pulled by Moose. They were amazing to watch. When I recognized Dave and said hi, he stopped so I could take a picture. Last winter I took a picture of them in a snowstorm on Mountain road.

It was a pleasure to run into Steve Riggs on Mountainview. As I posted earlier today, Steve was one of the first ever commenters on this blog back in Dec 2008.

This photo was taken by Groomer Jeff

The temperature stayed cold all day and it’s supposed to stay below freezing for the next week, so conditions should remain excellent.

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Hostel Loop

Fairview at Lake Louise is trackset. I got the word from the Heritage Guides. They also sent these remarks:

“Fairview: Good condition. This is as good as it gets for early season, but be aware of lurking hazards just under the snow and twigs. Lots of twigs.”

They will attempt to trackset the Shoreline trail tomorrow(Friday).

A number of trails were roller-packed at Mt Shark today. Check the Live Grooming Report for details.

Canmore Nordic Centre

Jim Hendry sent me the following email regarding this weekend at the Canmore Nordic Centre:

“This weekend the biggest ski race ever held at Nordic Centre is going down. Like 700 racers from all over North America. Not going to be the place for a quiet Sunday morning ski. By Monday everyone will be gone and back to normal.”