Beautiful conditions, spectacular scenery
Watridge Lake Road. Apr 8, 2011
The tracks at Mt Shark were in perfect shape from last night’s grooming. Watridge Lake Road is groomed and trackset all the way to the Spray River bridge. My red Toko was gripping well, Cheryl used VR55.
Cheryl’s just thrilled at the bottom of the long downhill on Watridge Lake Road. Apr 8, 2011
In past years, the grooming would end at the Lake. This extra section adds 2.2K with a fun downhill at the end. It’s an elevation loss of 90 metres. Not sure if I’d want to do it in icy conditions, but it was perfect today.
Turning off Watridge Lake Road onto the Red/Black trail. Apr 8, 2011
We had some hilly fun on the Red/black trail on the way back, and the 2K Blue trail.
The Red/Black trail has a lot of small hills. The colour coded trails are all groomed for skating. Apr 8, 2011
The conditions out here should still be good for classic skiing tomorrow morning. After that, you’ll need waxless or klister. The skating should be good for a while yet.
Animal tracks along the Red/Black trail. Apr 8, 2011
The Spray Lakes Road(aka Smith-Dorrien) is in rough shape from the Canmore end. Numerous potholes and standing water. Early in the day it should be frozen, and better to drive on, but it will be pretty muddy later on.
Holy awesomeness! I have not been able to get out lately, so I have to live vicariously through your pictures – thank you, this is a nice little boost. Those look like some sorta kitty tracks – lynx perhaps?
Thanks for posting this update yesterday, Bob (and for all your other posts throughout the season!). We went to Shark this am and Swix Violet 0 degree wax was great for classic from 10 till noon, at which point it got a little slippery so I switched to skate skis. High overcast and watery sun, +1, when we left around 1 pm. Not much evidence of skier traffic from yesterday, probably because of the temporary road closure for avi control.