Fairview on Jan 21. Photo by Caroline Marion
The above photo shows the clean snow on Fairview trail at Lake Louise. Mary Perrott indicated that Fairview was the cleanest of all the trails she skied at LL yesterday with just a bit of debris on the final 100 metres where it approaches Moraine Lake Road.
Great Divide at Lake Louise. Photo by Mary Perrott
The photo of the Great Divide which Mary provided is indicative of the conditions on many trails which haven’t been groomed since the powerful winds of a few days ago.
Skiing on trails covered with tree debris presents its own set of issues. As Ray Yong described it yesterday, “Once you hit the treed area, it’s very different. Enough debris so that you have to be careful not to be jerked to a stop if you’re hill climbing, but fine on the return if you’re going fast enough.”
Tracksetting from the evening of Jan 21 and early morning Jan 22
West Bragg Creek
Loggers has been freshly track set and in very good condition. All skate lanes have been renovated. Classic skiing conditions are decent on the Crystal Lines, Sundog and Mountain road. Skiing on other trails is not recommended, so if you want to avoid disappointment stay on core trails. Happy trails!
Ribbon Creek
Ribbon Creek and area and Lower Skogan trails groomed. A shallow snowpack exists in many areas. Trails not groomed the last two nights will be hard and icy and contain varying amount of tree debris. Ski with caution.
The Red/Black trail at Mt Shark. File photo
Mt Shark
No more than a trace of new snow has fallen on the Mt Shark trails since the grooming one week ago, and Thursday night was clear and cold. Very strong winds have been gusting within the last few days (it was calm during Thursday night’s grooming) leaving a few areas of the trail system carpeted with needles and other larger tree debris- this is now mixed in to the top layer of the base on the trails that were groomed on Thursday evening. There are a few places where pine branches are encroaching the edges of the trail- mainly on a few parts of the 15k loop, and especially the extra 5k of this loop. Some of these were removed and this process will continue over the coming weeks. As long as everything goes according to plan, the remainder of Watridge Lake trail will be groomed and trackset on Friday morning.
Mud Lake, the nearest thermometer to Mt Shark. is at -26°C this morning. The temperature at the Lower Kananaskis lake is also -26°. The PLPP maintenance compound is at -23. Highs today are predicted to be in the vicinity of -7 with sunshine.
Canmore Nordic Centre: The trail report indicates tracksetting occurred on the natural snow on Bow trail, Rundle, and Silvertip.
Another 15 skiers signed up for the Lake Louise to Banff Loppet yesterday. As previously noted, this year’s loppet is a virtual challenge where you do it on your own time and the day of your choice between Jan 23-31. Tomorrow’s skiers will be looking at cold temperatures as they descend Tramline in the early morning but at least the sun will be shining later on with predicted highs of -12°C. The only missing link, the 11K section of trail between the Lake Louise campground and Baker Creek has been trackset.
