When I surveyed the devastation from the June flooding, I had my doubts that we’d be skiing on Whiskey jack this winter, so I was elated to be making my way up this wonderful trail for the first time this winter. Here’s the article I posted last July Disastrous damage on Whiskey Jack.
Skiers climbing Whiskey jack
The snow conditions were very good and you would barely know anything had changed. There’s a big hump in the trail where two huge culverts were installed to carry the water from Spotted Wolf creek under the trail, and that’s about all. If you are very observant and have a good memory, you might notice the trail is a little wider(on the right side as you’re climbing)where they had to excavate the dirt from the side of the trail to fill in the massive drainage ditch created by the raging creek.
Rick arrives at Pocaterra with a broken pole
From the top of Whiskey jack I turned left onto more excellent tracksetting on Pocaterra. Fast and fun all the way down to the “new” Lynx junction where suddenly the snow coverage wasn’t so good anymore. The conditions on the “new” Pocaterra looked dreadful but many skiers were trying it out anyway. I only went up 50 metres and that was enough for me, as I didn’t have my rock skis on today. Let’s hope this storm in the offing will bring some much-needed snow to this part of the park.
Rick puts the finishing touches on his pole repair
Lynx and Amos were okay. I’d consider them to have fair early-season conditions. At Wheeler, the snow was much better.
When I arrived at the “old” Lynx-Pocaterra junction, people were standing around talking as is usually the situation here. Then I saw a skier arrive and ask, “Anyone got duct tape?” Luckily for Rick, it’s a staple in my backpack, and he proceeded to improvise a splint on his broken pole. He still had 10K to ski, so I hope it held together.
Yulia, Jen, Alex and Igor were enjoying the good snow conditions on Whiskey jack
Duct tape came in handy for the one time I had to use it myself. About 7 or 8 years ago, my pole strap broke while on Tyrwhitt. I made a new one with duct tape which worked surprisingly well.
It’s been a while since we talked about the essentials which you should carry in your backpack, so you might want to review this post from two years ago What’s in your pack?
The new contest has been posted Win 2 free nights at Emerald lake Lodge, and we already have our first photo entry, thanks Cameron.
I can’t recall seeing the blizzard icon on a weather forecast before. Environment Canada is forecasting blizzard conditions for Calgary, 10 – 15 cm for Canmore.
The carbon pole repair lasted the rest of the day with full pressure on the pole. We jammed one stick inside and put duct tape around the break. Then we put another stick along the side and with of the help of Skier Bob’s additional duct tape wrapped it all up. Thanks. And then MEC gave me a new one for free.
Rick M