Tyrwhitt loop

Tyrwhitt

“Without doubt Tyrwhitt is the most beautiful and skiable trail in the skier Bob domain. I was there as well today and was awestruck.” -Greg Foord

By skiing the late shift, I was in PLPP at the right time of day to avoid any excessive wind. That is, until the final 2K of my 18K loop.

Tyrwhitt

As you’ll see in the photos, when I was at the Moraine/Fox Creek junction, a powerful gust of wind blew a massive cloud of snow down onto the trail, and me. Thereafter, I could hear the wind howling in the trees.

Tyrwhitt

Unless you ski on fresh grooming tomorrow, I expect you’ll be dealing with a lot of tree debris on the trails.

At 4 pm, Dylan was heading onto Moraine with the snowmobile and drag renovator to start working on that trail. As I was leaving, I observed snowcat tracks heading onto the west side of the road onto Lodgepole(Snowcat=Pisten-Bully, not a cougar or lynx).

Elk Pass

I had a wonderful afternoon of skiing on the loop which Helen named the SkierBob Special. She knows it’s my all-time favourite. It includes Whiskey Jack, Tyrwhitt, Elk Pass, Fox Creek and Moraine. We had a trip report from Bill Richardson who did a similar loop earlier in the day but experienced some wind.

As Bill mentioned, Tyrwhitt was absolutely perfect. Whiskey Jack and Elk Pass were close to perfect with incredibly fast tracks. Not icy, just really fast.

Whiskey Jack

Fox Creek had some tree debris but not as much as I would have expected. I found the snow to be reasonably good and although the tracks are washed out I still enjoyed it. I managed to finish Moraine before the wind took its toll. With fresh grooming tonight, it may not have too much debris on it tomorrow.

I kept an eye out as I was nearing the end of Tyrwhitt for MaSid’s tracks going into BC and they were easy to spot. Also saw Alf’s a little further along.

Dylan getting ready to work on Moraine

The air and snow temperature were both -6°C and I had excellent grip with blue wax. As everyone else commented, the winds were brisk on the drive out.

A I was enjoying the pleasant downhill on Tyrwhitt, I thought to myself that the tracksetter laid down the perfect tracks: he lifted the tracks in the correct spots and put them back down in the right places. Kananaskis grooming is outstanding.

Ribbon Creek parking

Due to overflowing parking lots on the weekends Kovach Ponds parking lot has been plowed out to allow for more parking space. Trail users accessing Bill Milne Trail from the Ribbon Creek side are asked to park in Kovach Pond. This parking lot will also serve as an overflow for Troll Falls.

Parking at Kovach Pond will also avoid one road crossing.