Warm weather at West Bragg Creek

Andrew and his dog Bajoue enjoying the downhill on Iron Springs

Morning skiers at WBC still had cold snow, but by mid-afternoon the north-south trails were getting wet. The snow and trail conditions in these photos look very nice, but the snow is wet in many of them.

Looks great, but the snow was wet on this section of Iron Springs.

You never know when we’ll get another opportunity so I wanted to ski the Elbow-Iron Springs loop while I had a chance. The temperature upon my arrival around noon was +2°C so I waxed with VR50(o/-4).

I had barely gone 100 metres up Sundog when I met Atticus, getting my day off to a great start. He was the first of many happy dogs that I saw on the trails today.

Dan and Hannele with thier dog Atticus on Sundog.

The tracks were very slick and fast but not icy. On some hills I had to step into the loose snow in the middle to get grip. With lots of hills on Elbow, I finally stopped and pulled out the final weapon from my wax kit which was VR55. It worked well until I reached the sunny areas on Iron Springs. A few spots were getting slushy and some rocks and dirt were starting to show.

Loggers

I had a strenuous upper-body workout to the top of the Iron Springs hill. The coverage was still good and the snow was cold on the north-facing downhill to Sundog. I was very happy to be going downhill for a while.

Loggers was in pretty good shape. West Crystal Line which is completely east-west and shaded by trees was in excellent shape with nice cold snow.

The weather is getting even warmer, so West Bragg will now be into the thaw-freeze-thaw cycle with icy tracks in the morning, slushy tracks in the afternoon. Tree bombs were exploding with regularity this afternoon, and some trees were dripping water onto the trails.

If I was to ski there again, I would definitely be using waxless skis.

We had a nice run for a week or so at WBC, and now we can look forward to winter and more snow – soon, I hope.

Lost and Found

Andy wrote: Found on MLR today – gloves and thermos in one location and vest in another. Gloves and vest are at the LL Visitor Centre but I had no room for the thermos it’s still up there.

Gary Finley wrote: (Moraine Lake road) we picked up a black MEC thermos bottle today, beside the trail near the top. Email me to claim it.

Erin wrote: Pair of Rossignol Skis found this morning at Mount Shark trailhead. Call or text 4068991568