It’s snowing!

I’ve got some great news…

Lots of new snow in PLPP.

Elk Pass with about 8 cm of fresh snow. Dec 9, 2010

At 2 pm today, Elk pass already had about 8 cm of new snow, and it was still snowing quite heavily.

Students from Winston Churchill High were skiing on Pocaterra. Dec 9, 2010

Chip’s wish came true, and Pocaterra had about 4 cm of new snow. I would expect the groomer will be out tomorrow. I don’t know if there will be enough snow on Pocaterra to trackset, but hopefully it will be groomed with some nice corduroy. Elk pass should be in superb condition for the weekend.

Pocaterra near the hut. Dec 9, 2010

As for all the trails in between, it’s probably just a matter of how much grooming they can get done in one day. Check the Kananaskis Trail Report(Peter Lougheed Prov Park) for the lastest updates.

If you’re a beginner skier, keep in mind there’s more than Pocaterra for easy trails. Wheeler is an excellent trail for novice skiers. It starts at the Elkwood Amphitheatre and I’m betting it will be trackset.

Ribbon Creek

Ribbon Creek. Dec 9, 2010

I didn’t actually ski any of those trails in PLPP because I had Tessa with me today. On the way to PLPP, however,Tessa and I stopped and skied a loop at Ribbon Creek and were pleasantly surprised at how good the conditions were. The biggest issue here is the pine needles on the trail. The worst is the first 500m from the trailhead. As you can see in the above photo, there are stretches with no debris.

The tracks were still good, the snow has not deteriorated from the warm weather and I was able to use blue wax. Coming down Kovach from the Lookot, the S-turns were probably better than when I skied here two weeks ago. There was a dusting of new snow on the trail, and light snow had just started to fall around noon. You can see a few snowflakes in the above photo. If 3-4 cm of new snow falls here, it will cover up most of the debris and conditions will be even better.

The first 2.2K of Ribbon Creek is a great beginner’s trail. It’s where I did most of my initial skiing when I started out 13 years ago. A little-used trail near the village which would be good for beginners would be the trail from Wedge Pond. It’s called the Wedge Connector. You can go 2.4K on flat terrain except for one very small hill.

 Helen Read was at Lake Louise today and sends this info…

Great Divide was superlative today. Minus 2 at the Divide and skier tracks in the newly fallen snow.  Am guessing it will get tracked tonight?  Then went over to Moraine and Upper Tramline and it was great.  thanks for update on Elk Pass. 
-Your lac des arcs fan who wants one of those great skihere hats.   Do you sell them?

Helen, I’m glad you asked. I’ll be putting a blog post up regarding toques. Watch for it.

You can listen to my interview on CBC Radio’s Homestretch.