Another 10 cm of fresh snow
With all the new snow, John the groomer was working hard again today
We had plans to ski the Great Divide today, but upon arrival it was buried in about 10 cm of fresh snow. That, despite being trackset just yesterday. The tracks had been skied in pretty well on Moraine Lake road(MLR) so we skied there.
The air temperature was around 0, so it was the kind of snow that was almost impossible to wax for. Cheryl had wisely thrown her waxless skis in the car, and they worked well in these conditions.
John had also groomed and trackset MLR yesterday but it was a struggle for the skaters with all the fresh snow. John was packing Fairview, so we checked it out and it was pretty good. I believe he was planning on laying down some tracks later today.
Fairview trail at Lake Louise. Nov 17, 2009
There’s now a new trail which circumvents the steepest part of the Fairview trail. It adds some distance but it levels out the most challenging parts. It will be welcomed by skiers who had trouble navigating the steep downhill. Being a new trail, it’s still quite rough and needs a lot more snow.
John had just put new track on the Upper Tramline, and packed the Lower Tramline, so Cheryl skied from the Chateau parking lot to the train station on her newly waxed skis. It’s all downhill, so no grip wax was required. I had barely got down with the car to meet her when she arrived. I guess that new wax was working well. Good thing we didn’t have a chance to race.
Hi Bob:
Congrats on the 10,000 km…
If readers are interested, I’ll do some writeups on multilevel daytrips based on where it is good to ski in the coming week.
MultiLevel Trips
As a former Nordic Director of The Calgary Ski Club, running the daytrip program one of the challenges we had was introducing new members to the trackset trailsystems in K-Country and the National Parks. Some new members would be novices with low fitness level, while others might be veteran skiers but new to the trails. What evolved over several seasons of research…which continues today…is a series of routes where everyone can start out from the same trailhead…and ski for an outing of their choosing…over the duration of the day the large group breaks down into subgroups based on interest and abiltiy. Strong attention is made to meet the needs of new skiers…
Lake Louise Trails: A.K.A Laggans Bakery Run
Starting from The Fairview Trailhead (Upper Parking Lot) Head out on the Fairview trail…Novice skiers can head back at a time of their choosing…At the Paradise Valley junction…Backcountry skiers can head off on a day of light touring…while track skiers continue down Fairview to the junction at Moraine Lake Road…Fitness Group may decide to take the option to ski up Moraine Road …The main group then heads down Moraine Road to Tramline Junction…some may opt out and head back up Tramline while the large core of intermediate skiers head down Tramline to the lower Village where Laggans Bakery awaits…some may wish to extend their ski by skiing the campground trails…or skiing tramline back up to the Chateau…Logistics for this trip include a car shuffle at the beginning of the day or if the group is large enough making use of a bus. Something to check out, at one time the hotels in the area ran a bus to Skiing Louise so it may be possible to catch a ride up the hill…or take a cab.
Greg;
Good to hear from you! Did you notice your pic on my blog header?
I spoke to John about the Yoho trails as he does some of the grooming. Not enough snow yet, but shouldn’t be long. We’re hoping to be able to do the Emerald Lake trail during the ski club’s Winterstart weekend.
Good to hear about the trail improvements on Fairview trail…Had skied Fairview last Saturday to avoid the crowds…but contions were poor…Fairview is perhaps the most scenic tracked trail in the Louise Area…
Good to hear about the Chateau to lower village run…had done it once….wonder if it is still possible to catch the bus (free) back up from the village…
Also I would encourage skiers to check out the trails in Yoho…its an area that often gets overlooked…and provides a variety instead of skiing Morraine Lake Road…yet another time
GGG