Ribbon Creek

Great conditions today at Ribbon Creek. My camera stopped working yesterday at West Bragg, so no photos, sorry. The car said it was -7 but it seemed colder than that, even with the sunny sky, so the snow is still in prime condition.  The snow temperature at the Ribbon Creek trailhead was -14.

If you ski down toward the village from the Kovach Lookout, those S-turns are mostly in pretty nice shape. The first two were a bit thin, but you could thread your way through without hitting any dirt.

Aspen and Kovach with all their hills and turns are always a lot of fun, no matter how often I ski them.

Canmore Nordic Centre

I just checked that new GPS trail report from the Nordic Centre. Amazing! If you haven’t seen it yet,  go to CNC. You can see where the Pisten Bully is located even when it’s parked, as it is now.

From the CNC:

“The Canmore Nordic Centre is now the first cross country ski facility in North America to use GPS technology to provide an up-to-the-minute trail report.

GPS units connected to the Centre’s three groomers transmit to an online map, showing where the machines have been over the past 48 hours, and more.  This is the most accurate grooming report possible!”

It’s always interesting to hear about trails a little further away:

Hi Bob,

First off thanks for your website, we check it frequently and the pictures and reports really inspire us to get out there.

This Christmas my family was going to Castlegar BC so we did some research and found a couple places to go Nordic Skiing on the way.  I don’t know if you want these trail reports as they’re out of your usual neck of the woods but I thought I’d share because we had such a lovely time!

First was Kimberley Nordic Centre beside the Kimberley Alpine Resort. 

We stayed at the Trickle Creek Lodge (heated outdoor pool and hot tub being the attraction there for the kids) just a 2 minute drive from the Nordic Centre’s parking lot.  They have a 3.5 km lighted night loop that was double track set with a wide skating area between.  The snow was beautiful, but I don’t think we realised how beautiful until we went back in daylight the next day.  We took the kids (aged 7 and 10) out on the Centennial trail and then onto Roller Coaster before coming back on the Trapline.  Centennial and Trapline are green runs through the woods.

Roller Coaster starts off wandering through the trees (long enough that the kids said this isn’t a roller coaster) before throwing in a number of wild dips as the trail cuts in an out of a gully.  What a hoot!  And the scenery was amazing with the nordic centre being on the mountain side over looking the valley so there were many view points. 

We expected to take the kids for an hour or so, but didn’t return for

2.5 hours we were having so much fun.  After the family finished my husband took off on his training ski and enjoyed (?) trails such as Cardiac Arrest, Lower Cardiac and K-2.  Their day fees were $25 for a family – the club president was out collecting in the evening, but we used the honour box the next day.  Here’s their website :

http://www.kimberleynordic.org/

Christmas Day took us to the Paulson Ski Trails on Highway 3 just west of Castlegar managed by the Castlegar Nordic Ski Club (http://www.castlegarnordic.ca/).  The snow up there was amazing – just don’t go off the tracks, our daughter’s pole sunk a metre in!  Being Christmas the kids and I just did a 2.3km  loop around Mud Lake. 

Tracksetting is by snowmobile some double some single track depending on how much room and how popular that trail is.  My husband went off on a long ski and visited at least two of the three wood-stove heated shelters that are along the trails.  He found the trail called Gloryview particularly memorable – very steep and narrow!  Their day fees were $18 for the family.

 Kudos to both these ski clubs for their great work.

Happy New Year, and happy skiing.

Rose Ratliffe