Tuesday in PLPP

Update: See comments for an update from Jody re: Mt Shark

We skied every freshly groomed trail in PLPP yesterday. It meant retracing our steps on a few K, but the tracks were perfect and the snow was, well, not bad. If you had waxless skis, as we did.

Wheeler. Apr 12, 2011

Whenever I arrive at a trailhead and see a freshly groomed and trackset trail, especially the perfectly groomed trails in Peter Lougheed, it always excites me, and I can’t wait to get started.  We began the day at Elkwood Amphitheatre in bright sunshine, and went along Wheeler to the Packers junction. The tracks were soft enough to get good grip, but still hard enough to glide reasonably well.

I was having a little gabfest on the phone today with Paul from CBC, as he was collecting information for the ski show at 7:40 a.m. tomorrow(Thurs). I told him that after skiing all winter on cold snow with fast waxable skis, it’s hard getting used to the waxless, but I’m slowly coming around. He didn’t have much sympathy!

Packers had lots of fresh snow on it already. It was groomed on Sunday night, but they had snow on Monday, about 5 cm. We did not proceed up Packers, but instead, turned around and headed back down Wheeler and turned right at the Amos junction.

Amos(between Lynx and Woolley). Apr 12, 2011

I found myself remarking to Cheryl a number of times over the past few ski trips that “Gee, I don’t think I’ve skied such and such trail in this direction yet this winter.” With only a few groomed trails to choose from now, the favourite route may not be possible anymore, so it feels a bit like a novelty.

We turned right at the Lynx junction and went 1.9K to Pocaterra which had tons of fresh snow. Turned around and skied back to Amos. By the way, the big hill on Lynx was in pretty nice shape. Not icy at all, as it’s quite shaded.

Getting back to Amos, we turned right and took Woolley to Meadow, then back to the vehicle at Elkwood.

If you can get onto the fresh grooming, the skiing is still fun. Wax would not have worked yesterday. The snow is just a bit too wet or icy, depending on if its shaded or sunny, although on the fresh grooming I can’t say we encountered much ice.

Great news, grooming will continue in PLPP and at the Canmore Nordic Centre until Thurs April 21.

What does your Top 10 list look like?

After reading Molly-Jane’s report I have to say I had a big smile on my face. I’m a bit melancholy these days, knowing that it’s almost over, but her enthusiasm and cheeriness really brightened my day.

So brighten my days with your own Top 10(or top 5, or even top 1) list. I would love to hear from any readers about some of your favourite ski trips or experiences this past winter. Leave a comment below, or send an email bobtruman@shaw.ca. If I have time, I’ll try to compile one of my own, too.