Chateau tracksetter Jeff Douglas
The Chateau Lake Louise is responsible for grooming the “Upper Lake Louise” trails, mostly in the vicinity of the Chateau. Most of the grooming is done by Jeff Douglas and here is his first report of the season:
Hi All!
Chateau tracksetter Jeff Douglas. Grooming trails involves more than riding a snowmobile.
We know this update has been a long time coming, sorry for the delay, but we really haven’t had much help from Mother Nature. Most drainages just started to freeze last week and with so little snow to work with it has been very time consuming to get any trail even remotely ready for a snowmobile, let alone a decent track in it. A lot more shoveling is in order for any other trails to be ready.
Chateau tracksetter Jeff Douglas
Fairview Loop (#2): Double Trackset, Dec. 2. Fair condition. It’s rough in places and bumpy in others but four straight days of shoveling has finally given us something more to ski on! Several drainages haven’t been freezing, but just yesterday things started to at least hold snow and not melt out, so hopefully they stay that way. Use caution and have fun!
Chateau tracksetter Jeff Douglas(left) also instructs new skiers at the teaching grid
Upper Tramline (#3): Double trackset. Fair condition.
Shoreline (#4): Poor condition. Skier trackset.
Lake Trail (#4): Although the Grounds team is on the lake, they are flooding the portion inside the pylons it to make it thicker, just centimeters at a time. Holes drilled in the ice where the ski trails are made tend to be less than 5cm thick. Meaning walking on it is risky (please don’t!) and using a snowmobile on it would not be a smart decision. Today slush has returned to a significant portion of it slowing the freezing process. This may take awhile.
Upper Telemark and Peyto Trails (#5): Poor condition. Skier set. This will be our focus in the coming days.
Teaching Grid: Leveled.
