Photo from Canmore Nordic Centre
I reserve the moniker Snowmageddon for the biggest of the big, but I don’t recall any mid-winter snowfall this gargantuan in the mountains during my tenure. We’ve had some big snowfalls in late March and April which melted soon after. At this time of year, it should hang around for most of the winter.
Last night we even received a small ration in Calgary, perhaps 2-3 cm and it should be enough to top up the grooming at the golf courses.
Canmore Nordic Centre. Photo by Alexander Kolesov
The PLPP grooming team was busy last night grooming trails in the north end of the park along with Upper Pocaterra and Whiskey Jack. I encourage you to read the remarks on the Live Grooming Report for details. It’s telling when you have good conditions on Packers this early in the season. You should also read Normand’s trip report from yesterday if you’re thinking of skiing in the south end.
Canmore Nordic Centre Groomer Update: “Challenging grooming conditions last night with the amount of fresh heavy snow and rain. Most Natural snow trails are covered with 30+cm of storm snow from the past 2 days.”
Nakiska received 56 cm from this storm.
We also need cooler weather for grooming to resume at West Bragg Creek and Ribbon Creek. Temperatures appear to be dropping somewhat today and tonight. We then have a period of excellent skiing temperatures for the coming week with daytime highs around -5°C in those two locales. Update Sunday 11:45 a.m: Grooming has resumed at WBC.
The Heritage Guides at Lake Louise have been trying to keep up with packing the new snow and are hoping to trackset Fairview, Shoreline, and the teaching grid on Dec 23.
The Spray Lakes road is still closed for avalanche control scheduled for Sunday morning.
Beckie Scott: “I thought, what the hell am I doing? I’m taking time away from my family, from my work, to go over and just get abused? It was so demoralizing.” The notion of clean sport was a fight worth fighting for Beckie Scott, but it came at a cost.
Quite the dump! Snow stability is poor right now. Be careful out there.
It’s like Rogers pass level snowfall. Only other place I’ve seen more in same period. Perfect timing for the holidays: heavy trail breaking workouts, mid-thigh turns and feasting. Happy holidays!