Windtower mountain towers over Ray who is standing on West Wind Pass. It was a further 610 metres elevation gain to the peak.

When you drive the 30K stretch of the Trans Canada Highway between the Hwy #40 turn-off(I now call it Casino corner) and Canmore, how many peaks can you look at and say you’ve been on? I just added one more to my tally on Saturday.

Ray, Mary and Keith on the pinnacle of Windtower mountain. It was windy and cool, and we were being pelted with sleet when taking this photo

From the highway, Windtower is an impressive looking spire and I had no aspirations of conquering it until Ray, Mary and Keith invited me to tag along with them.

It’s a significant climb, with a net elevation gain of 960 metres, but it was not that difficult, even for me.  There was still the occasional patch of snow but of little consequence. The peak offers terrific views in all directions.

Windtower mountain as viewed from the Trans Canada highway near Dead Man’s Flats

There are significant drops on both sides of the peak(at cairn), so be careful up there. A small man-made rock wall will help shelter you from the wind and provides some protection while having your lunch.

The trailhead is along the Spray Valley road and is the same one that you’d use to start West Wind Pass, which is a rewarding hike in itself.

View of Windtower from the east

Now when I drive along the highway, I can look up and see a number of peaks that I’ve enjoyed conquering including Barrier, Allan, Yamnuska, Heart, Pigeon, Grassi Knob, Lady MacDonald and Ha Ling.

Other hikers have written in detail about this trip on their websites, so here are some links that will give you more information about hiking to Windtower: Explora8ion, OutdoorEscapade,   Summitpost, Trailpeak.

More photos from this hike:

[Show as slideshow]

Update June 13, 2013: “The provincial government has plans to demolish the long-abandoned teahouse, helipad and gazebo structures at the top of Mount Lady MacDonald this summer.

Officials with the department of Environment and Sustainable Resource Development confirmed this week that a contractor has been hired to remove all structures at the top of the mountain and reclaim the site by the end of August.”

Read more: Lady Mac teahouse set for demolition

For a few years now, I’ve been looking out my front window in Canmore at Mount Lady MacDonald, anticipating the day when I finally hike up to the teahouse. When Ray asked me to join his group for the hike, it was all the encouragement I needed to get motivated.

Our group at the Lady MacDonald teahouse. Thanks to Ashley for the photo.

I’m glad we did it yesterday because when I look out my window today, Lady Mac is hidden in a blanket of low clouds and rain. Warning: Don’t hike up there expecting to have tea and sandwiches. We had our pick of the window seats which offered spectacular views, however.

Below is Ray’s description of our hike:

Ashley and Anita were having lunch on the helipad when we arrived at the teahouse

“Sunny skies saw our group of eight hiking up the trail to the Lady MacDonald ‘tea house’, which of course, isn’t. We enjoyed the varied terrain, especially the rock garden, with nary a tick to be seen! The skies began to cloud up with predicted long weekend rain, but the day stayed warm and calm for most of our hike. There was a bit of snow near the ‘tea house’. After a half-lunch, some of us hiked up the next bump from which we could drool over the Lady’s summit. But with the weather looking like it was deteriorating, we decided to save the top for another day.”

The deck of the Lady MacDonald teahouse. Can you spot the three sisters in the background?

Interesting about the rain which didn’t come. When we were at the teahouse, as I peered across to the south side of the valley, it sure looked like it was raining. Indeed, when I got home, it had poured quite heavily in the shadow of Mt Lawrence Grassi.

This is a fairly steep hike with 880 metres of elevation gain over a distance of 4.4K.  It starts out easy enough along Cougar creek, but after 600 metres the trail goes vertical. At one point, for about 500 metres you’ll have to pick your way through a boulder field.

On the return, we stopped to administer first-aid to a hiker whose leg had been rubbed raw from the side of her boot. Fortunately, I had some compeed bandages in my pack, and Keith had moleskin. We patched her up, and hopefully the remainder of the trip down wasn’t too painful. Go prepared for these eventualities, especially in early season. Perhaps consider a couple shorter, less challenging outings to see how your boots feel.

[Show as slideshow]

Update May 17, 2013: It’s been a week since I posted this and conditions have improved concerning the ice flow. It’s now passable with a modicum of care. See photo below:

May 17, 2013: The ice flow on East Highline is now passable. I was standing in the middle of the creek bed when taking this photo.

******

The Highline trail is in pretty good shape except for one killer ice flow. The ice flow is in the Ship’s Prow creek drainage which intersects the Highline east, and is located about 100 metres above the East Connector.

Biker on Highline trail

It’s difficult to cross because you can’t walk on either side of it due to a steep canyon wall on one side and impassable tree debris on the other. Walking or biking across the ice is sketchy because it’s on a slope. I skirted the ice-flow by taking a little-used trail which takes you off the main trail for about 400 metres.

Hikers on Highline east connector

Overall, there are occasional patches of ice and snow and a bit of mud, but of little consequence. You won’t do much damage by biking it. I took a short detour at Three Sisters creek and checked out the old Quarry. A little further upstream is the waterfall, but there’s still lots of snow on the last 100 metres of the trail. I noticed that you can no longer descend to the base of the waterfall because a significant section of the bank has crumbled away. It’s more like a cliff now. You could probably get down(with some difficulty), but you’d be stuck there forever because it would be impossible to climb back up.

Ice flow on Highline east

The water is flowing in all the drainages – the previously mentioned Ship’s Prow creek, Stones Canyon creek which becomes a spectacular hidden waterfall, and an unnamed drainage which only flows for a couple weeks. All are easy to cross on foot or on bike, except for the Ship’s Prow creek ice flow.

The secret waterfall on Stones Canyon creek near the Highline trail’s west connector

You can avoid the ice flow by doing a loop in the middle portion of the trail. Start at Quarry Lake, go east under the power line to the Peaks of Grassi trailhead(1.7K), ascend the east connector(1.4K), turn west at the forks and go across the top to the west connector(2.0K), descend back to Quarry Lake(1.7K).

Hi Bob,

[Show as slideshow]

Henry’s ski wax collection

(Henry, one of our regular commenters, lives in London, ON, where he is still recovering from the trauma of leaving the Rockies for going on 29 years now!)

Hi Bob, I humbly admit that in about 40 years of skiing I have almost never cleaned the assortment of dirt from the wax

containers. A geologist would have a field day with them.

These waxes would probably have seen a lot more of the world had they not been stuck to the bottoms of my skis and the slow poke who was running them. I’m sure these waxes have run over their fair share of snow fleas too!

This collection started mostly in Calgary in 77. Some of the originals are still in the collection, I’m sure. These have seen diverse places like Snow Dome and Blueberry Hill, from the Selkirks and Monashees to Killarney and Algonquin Parks, tours like the Lake Louise Telemark and the Canadian Ski Marathon, and the Traversee de Charlevoix, and so many of the places that readers of Skier Bob writes about. All by an average guy. So, I urge those who might be sitting on the fence regarding the joy of cross country skiing to go out, buy every wax they need, and start living their ski dream. And do it with friends and family!

Bob, keep up the good work on the blog site.

Regards,

Henry Leparskas

******

Gord Newel sent in this photo of his wax kit…

I’ve been informed that the Canmore Nordic Centre’s last day of grooming and ticket sales will be Tuesday April 23. Frozen thunder is hibernating and will arise from its deep-freeze in mid-October.

Keep those trip reports coming!

Peter, Nancy and Kevin at Canmore Nordic Centre on Sun Apr 21

Found these on twitter today….

Oh yes this is for sure what my wax box looks like…said someone who never waxed, ever

******

I know a lot of my readers have dogs. Here’s a heart-warming story with a happy ending(be prepared to cry…tears of joy).

After 10 long years, Ginger the basset hound

Lots of skiers were enjoying the return of winter today in Canmore. As you’ve already read from the trip reports, the cold temperatures combined with some new snow has rejuvenated the trails at the Nordic Centre.

Jeannie, Brian and Roy were taking advantage of the new snow

I started on Banff Trail loop then proceeded as far as junction 31 on Meadowview, about 5K out. Other skiers had warned me there were some icy patches if I proceeded further beyond #31. I returned the same way because I’d heard rumours that Banff and Bow trails weren’t in very good shape. Apparently the new snow had covered some of the bare patches, but it wasn’t enough to ski over without scraping the ground.

The temperature was -4 at noon with some well-compacted fresh snow in the tracks. It was quite windy, and the tracks had wind-blown snow in them for the first 500 metres from the daylodge.

All things considered, an excellent ski day for the middle of April. The photos below are from today at the Canmore Nordic Centre.

[Show as slideshow]

I’m glad to see that Trip Reports are still coming in, and it appears there’s been some pretty decent skiing this week. Sad to say, I haven’t skied for two weeks. Anyone else experiencing severe withdrawal symptoms?

If you have any ideas for next year on how we could improve this blog, let me know. After five years of fine-tuning, we seem to have achieved absolute perfection except for those occasional spam comments that still sneak through.

Janet left a comment that may be worth exploring: “I didn’t get out as much as I would have liked to this year, but I certainly have enjoyed reading your blog! I’d really like to ski some of the other areas that you talk about, but not alone. Perhaps part of your site could include a section for people with similar skill levels to meet up with each other, so we are able to ski with a group/partner?”

Any thoughts? Would you like to see a “Meet-up” page? I actually had such a page on here a few years ago, but it wasn’t utilized much, but then again this blog was not as well-read back then either.

This season it’s been fun following the progress of a young ski racer from Canmore, Joelle Sevigny, in our Adopt-a-Skier program sponsored by Lifesport. Here’s her sixth and final update(see previous updates here).

On March 22 I travelled to Whistler with my family to attend one of the most anticipated event of the year, the Canadian Cross-Country Ski Nationals! After hours of driving on a winding road where I was tossed in the car from side to side, I was glad to see the mighty mountains of Whistler and Callaghan Valley.

Joelle(#308) qualified for the A final of the sprint skate. It was shorts and t-shirt weather at the ski nationals in Whistler

Since I wasn’t able to attend Nationals last year, which were held in Mont-Saint Anne, Québec, it was fun and challenging to finally race against some of the elite competitors of the country.

If you’ve read my previous posts, you know that I was sick for two NorAm meets this year. This prevented me from knowing where I was standing compared to the western girls. It also made me nervous to see how I would fare against the nation altogether.

It was a fun experience especially skiing on the superb and challenging 2010 Olympic trails. One of my memorable moments was during the start of the 7.5 km skate mass start with sixty other skiers and having someone stepping on my pole. I then went stumbling down to the ground and skiers passed me from every side. I got up quickly and from being a little mad that I fell, I got a push to go faster.

The podium for the Junior Girls Classic Sprint including both 1995 and 1996 girls. From L to R: Mia Serratore, Joelle, Andrée-Anne Théberge, Sophie Carrier-Laforte, Jennifer Jackson, Ember Large.

Now coming back home after a hard week of racing, I can say that I am content and satisfied with my performances. My best result was a 5th place in the 1.2 km classic sprint, which included 1995 born girls. After all four races I ended up placing 5th in the overall junior girl 1996 birth year. Also, at the beginning of the season, my main goal was to finish top ten in the overall standings, which I accomplished!

Another highlight of my trip was seeing the sea for the first time; on one of the training days my parents took me out and I saw the splendor of the Pacific Ocean. We also had a beautiful week filled with sunshine, not what I was expecting coming to the west coast. On the last day it was around eighteen degrees and I raced in shorts, something I don’t get to do very often.

This year, Nationals concluded the racing season, winter flew by and I haven’t even noticed! However even if spring has arrived, I still plan on doing some more mileage around the Bow Valley.

Thanks to Bob, Lifesport and Swix for all the support and for providing me awesome equipment. It was a privilege to have been chosen for the adopt a skier program.

See you around!

Joelle