Many families were enjoying the great conditions at Canmore Nordic Centre
After seeing few skiers on the trails during this cold spell, it was nice to see the big crowd at the nordic centre today.
Kit, Ania, and son Theo
After enduring this extreme cold for a week, a temperature of -15°C must be the point at which people are willing to come back out and ski, or they’re just going stir crazy and finally want some activity in spite of the cold.
Canmore Nordic Centre
It could also be that having the warming hut available at CNC has brought skiers with small children out. It’s 2.5K to the warming hut which is far enough if you have small kids in tow.
The upper part of the Banff trail loop on man-made snow is groomed and trackset and in great shape and you can take it all the way out to the meadow(2.8K) where you can access the natural snow on Banff trail and Meadowview.
Kit Richmond wins the 2006 NCAA championship
I enjoyed skiing with Kit Richmond for a while today. Kit is an NCAA champion from 2006 when he attended university in Colorado. I googled his name and discovered the photo of him winning the race. Today, he was skiing with his wife Ania and son Theo.
Canmore Nordic Centre
It’s a pleasure to watch a skier with excellent technique and how they move so fast yet make it look effortless. I was working to my capacity and Kit wasn’t even breathing hard! It’s been 11 years since his championship season, but I don’t think he’s lost his touch.
Click for larger image
Kit is now a part owner of Lifesport and we were discussing the merits of skin skis. Martin’s comment today confirmed our conclusions. With skin skis being so sophisticated and fast now, skiers are willing to accept 90% glide in exchange for never having to deal with wax. Skin skis are a real convenience for parents with children.
It’s been snowing lightly in Canmore since last night, which made for slower tracks at the nordic centre. It hasn’t amounted to much accumulation yet, maybe 2 cm(Thurs 6 pm), but it’s supposed to continue for another two days.
The Pipestone trails in Lake Louise were trackset today as was the Great Divide. Some of the north end trails were groomed in PLPP last night.
Parents taking their kids out in pulks in -15 should be have their heads examined! People love bragging that they’re Uber,amazing nordic folks dragging a freezing child in tow. -15 and below, leave the children at home.
Have you never read about babies in Norway and Sweden left to nap outside in their strollers because it is good for them? Here is a link: https://www.fatherly.com/why-norwegian-babies-sleep-outside-1417130167.html
I understand the Scandinavians are a hearty bunch but many Calgarians use dragging their children around in the cold as a badge of fitness vanity without thinking of the babies screaming and freezing that I often hear on various trails. Being dragged about does nothing for a child except potentially expose them to freezing. Ran into a couple today in West Bragg that didn’t even have the decency to return a hello because they were so stressed about baby in pulk.
I think that the kids can be taken out in cold weather, as long as properly bundled up.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/y2Kc2PoW4yoUB5Gg1
Sorry, wrong photo -)
https://photos.app.goo.gl/071c9juxbGQYxpSG3
Our closest call was when skiing a very brisk day in the Haliburton Highlands, with my son on my wife’s back. Luckily there was no wind.
We stopped for a break when someone skied up to us and asked if the tiny down booty was ours. Looking over, we spied our son’s bare foot dangling out of the backpack carrier -)
There is no such thing as bad weather. Just bad clothing.