Skiers on Morant’s curve in the Lake Louise to Banff Loppet
Once per year, in preparation for the Lake Louise to Banff loppet, a trail is groomed through Banff National Park. This year it’s a little shorter than
usual(only 50K), with the race ending at Sawback. The race is this Sunday Jan 22.
I’ve had a few emails asking if the trails are open to the public previous to the race, and the answer is yes. They usually give the trails a final grooming/tracksetting on Saturday afternoon.
The section between the Lake Louise campground and Morant’s curve would be a good one to experience if you’ve never skied it before. Chuck and Chris Thomas have left recent trip reports about it.
Watridge Lake road at Mt Shark
A good option for skiing this weekend will be Mt Shark. It was trackset last night and with the cooler weather, it should be excellent. The trail report states…
“At least another 5cm’s of snow fell over the Mt Shark trail system on Jan 19th. This, combined with last weeks snowfall, and daytime high temperatures barely rising above the freezing mark have left good conditions and a reasonable base throughout the Mt Shark trail system.”
The Live Grooming Report shows the Kananaskis Village and Ribbon Creek trails were groomed/trackset today. This should have refreshed these trails somewhat after the midweek meltdown, but I’m guessing they might have some Margarita snow(crushed ice) mixed in.
After my positive report about Goat Creek on Monday, it was a shame the warm weather came. It’s probably extremely icy now, and I would not ski it until there’s more snow. Ditto for Cascade Valley.
When I go four days without skiing, you know I must be ill, and indeed, I’ve been down with the flu.
We skied to Rummel Lake today, really nice snow ! Skied at Chickadee Valley yesterday and it was fantastic too. A few open spots on the creek, however, don’t ski into them! On Wednesday we skied the 13km loop at Pipestone near Lake Louise. It was also very good, lots of snow. It snowed on us all day!