A good (birth)day at Lake Louise

I skied for an hour on the Pipestone trails with Tessa this afternoon. Waxable skis were still working but sun-exposed areas were getting wet. I expect there will be some icy sections in the morning.

I don’t keep Tessa out for long periods of time or ski difficult trails with her anymore. According to this website, she is about 72 years old and I’m not too far behind. 

Tramline, 100 metres from the trailhead

Pipestone was trackset yesterday and has been well-used in the past 24 hours. The air temperature was 0°C and the snow was -3. I used VR50(0/-4) and it did the job wherever the trail hadn’t received too much sun. 

Moraine Lake road

I also skied out for 2K on excellent conditions on Moraine Lake Road and ended the day by skiing down Tramline which was also in excellent shape. I did not encounter any wet or soft snow on Moraine lake road. Air temp at the Tramline trailhead, which is 180 metres higher than the Pipestone trailhead, was a lot colder and the snow temperature was -5°C.

Lots of fresh snow on Fairview. This trail won’t be trackset until the Chateau snowmobile is repaired

It was a pleasure to run into Chuck and Jeannette on MLR as they were returning from another epic journey in Paradise Valley. I’m not sure if Chuck will be leaving a report, but he was somewhat surprised at the ski tracks in the backcountry that were going into high-risk avalanche terrain. 

Tramline was fast and fun

On the Banff trail report, it indicates the Bow River and Campground loops were trackset on Friday but it looked to me like they had been done more recently(like yesterday or today). You may have already read the report from the Lake Louise Visitor Centre which states the snowmobile which grooms the Chateau trails is in for repairs. I can vouch for the fact because Fairview had lots of fresh, ungroomed snow. 

I’d like to thank Helen Read for the birthday present which I found on my doorstep tonight. I’ve been drinking it while doing this update, so I hope there aren’t too many spelling mistakes.