Samantha on Elk Pass
As Mary mentioned on her trip report, it was an entire trip with no sticky snow, but the best part of today was meeting all the skiers on the trail who wanted to stop and chat. Every junction was another opportunity for skiers to wish me well on my farewell tour. I am gratified to hear how everyone has enjoyed this blog.
Socializing at Elk Pass/Hydroline junction
Dorothy asked me what I was going to do with all my spare time next winter. In fact she asked me twice because I didn’t give her a very satisfactory answer the first time. She can spot evasiveness when she sees it!
Hydroline
I’m a big believer in the motto “When one door closes, another one opens” so we’ll see what’s behind that door when the time comes. 🙂
It was -3°C at the Elk Pass parking lot at 1 pm with bright sun and a light breeze. There was beautiful tracksetting right out of the gate which was firm and fast. I had good grip going up the big hill with VR50(0/-4) and wore some of it off while going down the other side, although I was in full control all the way down.
Rich and Dorothy at the Elk Pass/Patterson junction
Unless it snows tonight, I expect with today’s warming that the tracks will be slick tomorrow. It was +2 back at the car in mid-afternoon.
At the Hydroline junction, I chose to ski on the older grooming on Elk Pass which had 5 cm of new snow from last night. The tracks were in great shape and well skied-in.
The tracks on upper Hydroline were filling with a bit of drifting snow, but the corduroy was still exposed and fast.
Patterson
Patterson also had fresh snow on top of the grooming but was in excellent shape.
On the way back, I skirted the big hill by taking Fox creek. It was in pretty good shape except for the very first steep downhill as you leave Elk Pass. It was pure ice and I would recommend walking down. Other than that, I experienced no significant ice or debris. What a fun trail!
Tomorrow(Wednesday) doesn’t look real promising with wet snow and a high of +4. It cools off for Thursday and more snow is predicted.
I met the Kananaskis Grooming volunteer in the parking lot as he was checking for parking passes. I hope everyone has appreciated this season with groomed trails in PLPP, Ribbon Creek, and Mt Shark and purchased a season pass or even a day pass.
Bob, quoted from above:
I’m a big believer in the motto “When one door closes, another one opens” so we’ll see what’s behind that door when the time comes.
Oh no, please don’t let it be fatbiking! Not that there’s anything wrong with that 🙂
If it was fatbiking, I’d wear a disguise!
It’s unfortunate we missed you today Bob! We spotted some of the crew you were chatting with going through west elk pass while we lounged at the fork ‘n meadow log. Good times.