Ski Season is On!
It feels great to be skiing in K-Country again
I’ve posted some additional photos on Facebook.
Jeff the groomer was packing Skogan Pass today. Nov 18, 2010
We headed for K-Country to check out Ribbon Creek this afternoon. Yesterday, I was speculating that we’d see some maintenance on the trails and I was correct, but the packing on Ribbon Creek already had 5-10 cm of new snow over top.
Jeff had just started snowmobile packing Skogan Pass so we followed him. Going up we only had one machine-width to ski in, but it was fine as it is all uphill anyway.
By the time we were descending he had made four passes so there was a nice wide trail which allowed for snowplowing on the “Skogan Screamer.” We didn’t get all the way up, but the higher you go, the deeper the snow gets.
The “Skogan Screamer” is the 1.1K section of trail between Upper Skogan and Lower Skogan. It’s a twisting, turning fast downhill with some tight high-banked corners.
Tracksetting – maybe
The good news is that we may have trackset trails (Ribbon Creek, Kovach and Terrace) by the weekend if Jeff can get the big Sno-cat over here. No promises, but let’s cross our fingers.
The snow temperature in the Ribbon Creek parking lot was -10, so waxing was easy. The Skogan Pass trail, as well as Sunburst and High Level are extremely challenging and not for beginners.
Moraine Lake Road
Banff trail report shows Moraine Lake Road and Upper Tramline are trackset and in fair condition. With the good conditions at Ribbon Creek, it should take a lot of pressure off MLR. Have you ever been here on a weekend when it’s the first day of trackset skiing? You might be parking a kilometre down the road. A good alternative parking spot is at the Chateau, then ski down Tramline. It’s only 1.6K ’til you hit MLR.
Canmore Nordic Centre
You may have read this in the comments already:
“hi bob,
just got back from a great ski at the Nordic Center…They have rolled the Banff Trail, Meadowview, Wolf and several other connector trails, not trackset but in suprisingly great condition…the only”clink,clink” of the poles is on the rollerski paved section.”
Cheers
Brian Mcbroom
Confederation Golf Course
“Hi Bob,
Love the web-page.
Just wanted to report that myself and others have tracked out some classic trails up and down the fairways of the Confederation Park Golf Course. There is a nice 2.5 km loop around the perimeter that has been gone over many times, and I and others have added some variations down the fairways, especially along the sides of the stream and over the bridges in the centre of the course.. Conditions are amazing and the snow coverage is great—I didn’t notice any drag or catching on the ground/grass. It is by no means the quality of a machine tracked trail, but it is pretty darn good! Likely great for working on your balance if you tried to go fast!
Thanks!”
Connor
Contest Winner
Congratulations to Walter Bober. He correctly guessed Nov 18 as the first day of tracksetting on Moraine Lake Road and wins a SkiHere.ca toque. You still have a chance to win the Elk Pass Contest
Did it again – 2 days in a row!
We hit another new single-day record with 911 views of this blog yesterday.
Hi all,
Where can we begin to access the trails on confederation golf course? Are there any fees? Are there any other good spots in the northwest to cross country ski?
Thanks!
Hi Bob, thank you for the updates, I am flying from Montreal next week and can’t wait to put my skies on, I might even venture out to Moraine after two days in Canmore, I hope itÈs gonna be nice enough for new skis, cause that’s all I got. Thank you for the great reports.
Anyone know if Shaganappi is being track-set these days?
Chip