This comment came in from Cindy Kelly, and although she was at Moraine Lake road yesterday, it still describes the conditions we had today:
At Paradise creek, I was happy to meet blog reader Tasha
“I skied on Moraine Lake Road in the afternoon on Friday, November 2nd. There hasn’t been any further grooming done and the roller packed conditions are deteriorating due to sun and warmer weather. Last Monday, the road was well covered but by yesterday, there were short sections of trail where you could see the asphalt through a very thin glaze of snow/ice, and where you could see a strong skate push or pole plant had gone through almost to the asphalt. You can still get a nice ski in but be prepared for tricky waxing for classic skiing; and skating may become more difficult if the snow keeps melting. Lets hope for more snow and cooling.”
Blog readers Dan and Stephanie on Moraine Lake road
The snow has been through a freeze-thaw cycle, so it’s a bit crusty and very fast. I heard of one skier falling down seven times on the return trip to the trailhead. She must be okay, though, since she’s running in Winterstart tonight.
I was on my skate skis today, so I didn’t have to worry about grip, but classic skiers were slipping in the icy tracks even with red wax. Klister would have given the best grip today. The snow did improve the further you went, but not significantly.
The Great Divide trail was very icy
Earlier, I skied out for 2k on the Great Divide trail and turned back because it was so icy.
It looks like a cooling trend will happen mid-week. If we get some more snow, conditions should improve considerably.
The best part of today was meeting all the blog readers on the trail. It gave me a good excuse to stop and rest and renew my energy to tackle the next hill. I was originally only going to skate to Paradise creek at 2.6k, but somehow managed to get to the top of the hill and the 7.1k point. That was a major accomplishment on skate skis for me.
No, the conditions were not great on MLR today, but I loved it all the same! We cut 45 min of our time for 18km that we did last weekend, and worked on our skating technique in the soft snow. I did one face plant and one huge seat drop! Beats x-country skiing in Southern Ontario which usually doesn’t start until January, if at all! I have skied more so far this season than I probably have in the last 10 combined in S.ON.