Beautiful conditions at Kananaskis Village

Descending the steep hill from the Kovach Lookout

I didn’t get her name, but the young lady in the above photo was descending the steep hill from the Kovach Lookout and she told me she had fallen a couple times, but as you can see, she was still having fun. 

Flying down Lower Kovach

I met lots of skiers with big smiles on this spectacular sunny day. Last night’s tracksetting on the Kananaskis Village trails was in great shape and a real treat on which to ski.

I also skied the Bill  Milne trail but I’ll  do a separate update for that. 

Terrace trail near the Village

The sun was shining but the snow was still cold enough to use purple wax. The air temperature at Kananaskis Village in mid-afternoon was -1° and the snow was -3 as I started on Terrace trail, heading north. 

The only “inconvenience” I encountered was a bit of tree debris on Lower Kovach but it was mostly embedded in the tracksetting so not a big problem. There were a few bottle brushes on the trail from last night’s wind but surprisingly few needles. 

Aspen

The tree debris disappeared as I made my way up to the Kovach Lookout, and the snow was pristine at the top. I enjoyed meeting Gudrun and Howard from Red Deer at the Lookout. 

The descent from the Lookout to the Village was pure enjoyment on the great conditions. All the S-turns had plenty of snow and were easy to negotiate. 

Terrace

With tonight’s expected snow, most of the tracksetting will have some fresh snow on top by morning. Most forecasts are predicting around 3-5 cm. The clouds were moving in as I was leaving around 5 pm. 

Gudrun and Howard at the Kovach Lookout

As I write this at 7:30 pm, the Ribbon Creek snowcat has begun the Friday night tracksetting. So far Hay Meadow has been trackset.

Unfortunately, tomorrow(Saturday) is going to be our last day of sub-zero temperatures in Kananaskis. The predicted high on Sunday is +6. 

Goat Creek, Spray River West, and Spray River East were trackset today. 

Golden, BC: the final day of the Dawn Mountain Challenge is Feb 28.