Pipestone. Photo by Chuck
Dec 11, 2020: With sunshine and light winds, Saturday promises to be a banner day on the ski trails. The predicted highs of -10 will make for easy waxing and will preserve the snow.
Early-season conditions exist 0n trails which have been roller-packed or groomed so watch out for hazards such as thin base, uneven terrain, exposed roots/rocks. To avoid such hazards, ski the trackset trails which are generally in much better condition.
Pipestone. Photo by Chuck.
Lake Louise
Chuck’s photos show some new snow on yesterday’s tracksetting at Pipestone. Seeing as how the parking lot was full, and 15 cars were lined up on the road, the trails will be well skied-in.
Chuck skied the entire Pipestone system which resulted in a 26K day. See all his photos.
The Great Divide at Lake Louise remains as the best bet for beginner skiers.
Pretty well everything(except Lower Telemark) at Lake Louise has now been trackset and is in good shape. Expect some fresh snow on top of the tracksetting.
The Campground Loop and Shoreline trails were trackset today.
Elk Pass meadows. Photo by JeremyN
Peter Lougheed Provincial Park
Update Dec 12: Tyrwhitt, Lookout, and the first 2K of Elk Pass were trackset. The trail report doesn’t mention Hydroline, but it is usually trackset as well.
All the trails in PLPP have either been trackset or roller-packed. Today, the trails on the west side of the road were roller packed including Lodgepole, Braille, Meadow, and Sinclair.
The bottom of suicide hill has not been packed due to thin ice. On the trail report, they refer to this as “pink house hill.”
The Pocaterra and Rolly Road training grids have both been packed(not trackset).
“Large piles of snow at west end of grid block access to Lodgepole Trail.”
The big piles of snow have been put there on purpose to build up the snow depth in that sun exposed location. It will eventually be smoothed out with the snowcat.
I expect some of the trails in the south end of the park will be trackset this evening. Check the PLPP trail report in the morning for details.
Mt Shark
Watridge Lake road and the 2k Blue loop have been trackset. Other trails have been packed.
Yoho
Kicking Horse and Yoho Valley Road have been trackset.
Canmore Nordic Centre
The area in front of the daylodge has a 6 lane practice grid and terrain for skating. The Frozen Thunder 2.5k is also groomed for classic and skating but is not suitable for beginner skiers.
West Bragg Creek
We haven’t had any reports but I expect the conditions are poor/marginal.
If I’ve missed anything, leave a comment.
Castle Junction trails snowmobile packed, thin snow (we only looked from the road).
Baker Creek to Protection Mountain trackset, see my trip report (probably more done than we saw), tracksetter crossed road before campground, no grooming in campground.