It’s been a few days since I’ve put up a new post, but we’ve been skiing every day. Thanks for the comments and updates in the interim.
Working backwards, we skied on Cascade Fire Road yesterday(Sunday). The air temp was -9 and there was no wind. There had been a lot of new snow in the past 24 hours in Banff, but just as we pulled into the parking lot, the tracksetter was leaving. It was still snowing lightly, and the new grooming and tracksetting had a bit of fresh snow over top. There were quite a few skiers on the trail, so the tracks were well skied in. It is trackset all the way to the Stoney Creek bridge, approx 14K one way. Click here to see more photos. You can read a comment about this trail from Rachelle on Who’s Bob Truman. My photos on this trip were quite unique to say the least.
On the 27th, for our turkey trot, we skied from the Pocaterra hut. It was a balmy -4 when we started out. Pocaterra trail is now trackset for its entire distance. We veered off onto Lynx and Amos which were skier-tracked only. Wheeler was trackset and exceptionally fast and fun. Next, we climbed Whiskey Jack which was trackset, then enjoyed a thrilling run back to the hut.
Moose Loop at West Bragg Creek Dec 24, 2008 Photo by Steve Riggs
On the 26th, we took Tessa to West Bragg Creek. I was impressed with the good tracks we found on Crystal line and Moose loop. The photo was sent in by Steve Riggs from his Christmas eve ski at West Bragg.
I managed to sneak in 16K of skate skiing at the Canmore Nordic Centre on Christmas day morning. I didn’t feel guilty about eating a big Christmas dinner later that day! Conditions on the man-made snow were excellent. Still a few rocks and debris on the natural snow, but you can ski all the way to the end of the Banff trail on pretty good conditions. There has been more snow in Canmore since Christmas, so it’s probably even better now.
It was a fairy-tale experience on Christmas eve when we skied with our energetic springer spaniel, Tessa, on the Kananaskis Village trails. She hadn’t been out for a lengthy run since the cold snap started 10 days ago. The trails were in prime condition and the temperature was around -10. I couldn’t have asked for a nicer way to spend the day.
This email from Helen came in today(29th) in regards to skiing at Ribbon Creek yesterday:
“Absolutely splendiferous with light snow falling (we got quite a dump in Lac Des Arcs) and it was -7 air temp and -10 snow temp. Started off with -4 to -6 Blue (OK for flat Ribbon Creek)but changed it to -5 to -10 green to get a bit more traction uphill at the Link/Kovach junction. For a Sunday, had the trails mostly to myself. The Trans Canada hwy was not pretty and people were driving too fast for the icy conditions. Four cars went off the road between Lac Des Arcs and hwy 40 exit this morning. Keep that snow coming!”
Helen: Have I been doing it wrong all this time? I thought blue wax would give you more grip than green. It’s been so long since we’ve had to use green wax, maybe I forgot what it was for. – Bob
