Photo by Gord F
Considering the warm weather we’re experiencing, I was pleasantly surprised by Gord F’s trip report from the “Backdoor.” I didn’t think the snow would have been faring so well. The photo above will be recognized by most of you as the Elk Pass – Blueberry Hill junction in Peter Lougheed Provincial Park.
Photo by Gord F
The prologue to ski season this year has been unusual and extraordinary. It was unexpected and a nice surprise to have the early snow and groomed trails at Lake Louise and West Bragg Creek. The news that we’ll have grooming in Kananaskis was welcomed with hundreds of people buying season passes to ski in K-country.
Late October is usually when people start logging in to this blog, but this year, it was a stampede. The views during the final two weeks of October were up 606% over last year with an average of 9247 views per day from Oct 17 -31.
I hear the stores are selling cross-country gear like hotcakes. I’ve even noticed that this blog’s Gear Swap page is busier than usual.
Snow in the forecast
The weather forecasts are predicting a return to cold weather and more snow on Thursday for the trails in the SkierBob domain. Hopefully we will be able to start using our K-Country passes in PLPP soon. According to Windy.com, Elk Pass is expecting 16 cm and sub-zero temperatures by the weekend.
Kananaskis Grooming – the answer is “yes,” so let’s enjoy this accomplishment
The volunteers with Nordiq Alberta have done tremendous work to get grooming re-established in PLPP, Ribbon Creek, and Mt Shark, and the work goes on. I’m sure all your questions will be answered in due time. In the interim, as K said in his comment, let’s pony up and buy our passes.
Nice to see parking lot fee payments will be voluntary as they should be. Poor people can continue to ski for free if they can not afford Kenney Parking Lot Fees in our Parks.
Once Joe Biden eliminates the Keystone XL Pipeline, Kenney can stop building the pipeline to no where and shift tax dollars back to our Parks where there are better returns on investment for our tax dollars rather than wasting them on subsidizing American oil companies with cheap ass discounted below market value environmentally unethical heavy Alberta bitumen.
If the unintelligent Conservatives would have been less American influenced and built value added oil refineries in Alberta decades ago, rather than foolishly exporting our raw crude oil then the discussion of Parking lot Payments in Alberta Parks would not be an issue today.
Viva live poor XC skiers in Alberta Parks free of costs. Keep on skiing and keep your ski tips up!
Great commentary on how short sighted economic gains can lead to long term pay-to-play pains!
Good thing we got new gear last year!
So far I’ve just seen rain in SW YYC.
So far looks like this next system is coming in wet to start. Raining in Banff and Louise and not turning to snow until morning. Blast! Saw some pictures from ramblers up at picklejar lakes and three lakes valley last few days. Still pretty snowy in places, but gaps in between depending on wind and sun exposure.