Winter conditions in April

At the north end of the Pipestone trail system, from km6 to km8, I love the ambience and remoteness of the area, yet I can cruise along a trackset trail through this beautiful territory. Today was especially wonderful with the superb conditions and occasional misty clouds of snow falling from the trees. 

The trail markers are a metre lower than back in December

I’m happy to report the rumours of grooming ending at Lake Louise on Mar 31 weren’t true. Parks Canada will continue to groom for a while longer. 

I enjoyed meeting Barb Banff on the trail

Before hitting the Pipestone trails I stopped at the Visitor Centre and asked them about grooming and they said it will continue with no firm end date. Chuck’s report also confirms it.

I didn’t think it was very cold but these two skiers are from Brazil

The conditions on Pipestone today were magnificent. Yesterday’s tracksetting had about 3 cm of new snow on top but it was well skied-in by the time I started at 12:45 pm. The new snow made the fast downhills very easy to enjoy under full control. 

Trail marker at the north end

The temperature was -6°C, the sky was overcast and it was trying to snow. Pipestone under a sunny sky is beautiful, but at this time of year, I’m grateful for clouds. I skied the #20 Pipestone trail counter-clockwise.

My last four ski trips have all been a level above excellent. 

One of the remarkable features of this winter has been the lack of “defensive” skiing, a term coined by Ray Perrott. I can recall skiing on hardpack once(but it was fun!), but never on icy conditions this year. Nobody has even mentioned “boiler plate.”

As I write this at 6:30 pm, it’s snowing in Canmore with a temperature of -7. The coming week has snow and sub-zero temps in the forecast every day. Tired of winning yet? 

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