“Hair-raising, jaw-clenching survival skiing session”

Mar 19, 2021: I enjoyed the detailed, descriptive trip report from BDski which came in early this morning. BD did the 42K Cookie Race course which sampled most of the trails in Peter Lougheed Provincial Park. 

Bear tracks on Tyrwhitt. File photo

I admire BD’s perseverance on difficult conditions and can relate to everything he reported, but I’ve learned my lesson regarding spring skiing on sketchy conditions and am now content to read about others’ experiences. If I was skiing, however, I would have enjoyed seeing the bear tracks on Upper Pocaterra. 

Bear tracks on Whiskey Jack. File photo

Every year the first bear tracks appear around the same area in PLPP, namely Whiskey Jack, Tyrwhitt, and Upper Pocaterra. It’s time to start carrying bear spray. 

Overnight tracksetting in PLPP included Elk Pass, Blueberry Hill, Patterson, Lower Lake, and the big hill at the start of Hydroline. According to the grooming report, the temperature did not even drop below zero last night. 

For anyone thinking of going to Mt Shark today, Oleg gave this comment “Snow was quite soft and saturated in sunny spots, but white-knuckle fast in the shade. The Spray Lakes road is indeed a neverending stretch of potholes.”

Canmore Nordic Centre trail report remarks “Day time heating is quickly making water out of our snowpack. Read the trail report for specific conditions on the trails.” According to Facebook comments, it’s raining in Canmore this morning. 

As spring arrives, winter returns

Hoping to see Winter Wonderland return to PLPP. File photo of Elk Pass.

Mar 18, 2021: Check the Trip Reports page for a detailed account of conditions in the south end of PLPP from Ray Perrott, and the north end from Keith Bagnall. 

See the Trip Reports to read about Chuck’s trip to Skoki Lodge today

This recent stretch of warm weather may not be that surprising at the lower elevations, but it is unusual to get such a long period of above-zero temperatures in PLPP and Lake Louise at this time of year. 

Spring officially arrives on Saturday March 20, and that is also the day when ski conditions should start to improve. There are small amounts of snow in the forecast for Saturday and Sunday, but Monday should see a significant snowfall. 

Watridge Lake road at Mt Shark. File photo

Snow-Forecast.com is predicting sub-zero highs starting Saturday, and 7 cm of snow on Monday for PLPP, and similar for Lake Louise, with totals around 18 cm over the next five days. All the forecasts are predicting colder temps and snow, so something should materialize. 

Tracksetting

Most of the trails at Mt Shark have been trackset over the past 24 hours, but take note, Watridge Lake road was only trackset as far as the lake. The expected high for Friday at Mt Shark is +2 with 2 cm of fresh snow and/or rain. Driving the Spray Lakes road is not much fun in the spring. Expect lots of mud and potholes. As Oleg mentioned on his trip report, “The road is indeed a neverending stretch of potholes.”

Warm weather skiing

Woolley trail in PLPP. Photo by Alf Skrastins

Mar 17, 2020: Thanks to Alf Skrastins for this report:

PLPP-North Trails
We decided to take advantage of the most recent grooming at PLPP, which was all at the north end of the network. Even with a noon start, the snow was still very hard and icy, so we opted to cross the road and go up Suicide Hill to Meadow to start.

Fossil Mountain circuit. Photo by Rainer

Meadow was fast on impeccable grooming and we followed it past the Visitor Centre to Woolley. Woolley (which actually has meadows) was wonderful. We looped around Marl Lake via Amos-Wheeler-Amos, then across Lynx to Pocaterra.

Tokumm Creek. Photo by Chuck

As the snow softened, the sun exposed patches became stickier and slower, which was pretty exciting after a bit of icy downhill. Still it was an amazing day of warm weather skiing under a sunny blue sky with the fabulous Kananaskis scenery.

There were only a few skiers on the trails and the grooming will remain in good shape as this melt-freeze cycle continues. More photos

Thanks to Rainer and Chuck for the beautiful photos from Fossil Mountain circuit and Tokumm Creek. Check the Trip Reports for more details and photos from their ski trips. 

Avalanche in mid-flight

Mosquito Creek avalanche. Photo by Chuck

Chuck captured some amazing photos on his Mosquito Creek ski trip today. The avalanche is spectacular, but the wolverine tracks are also very interesting. Most animal tracks would not be identifiable after being snowed upon but the three-print diagonal of a wolverine is unmistakeable even after it is a few days old and obscured. 

Wolverine tracks. Photo by Chuck

The fact that Chuck submitted his report and photos tells us that he knows where to go to avoid the avalanche danger. 

The first time I heard an avalanche, I thought it was thunder. It was mid-April of the year 2000 and I was skiing to Blueberry Hill for the first time ever. I thought it was odd that it would be thundering on a clear day in early spring. I eventually clued-in. 

Grooming in PLPP has resumed. CMS submitted a trip report from last night’s tracksetting… “Fresh tracksetting was wonderful. Right from the start we had control snowplowing on the downhills, although noisy…”

I imagine tracksetting will continue as long as the temperatures drop below zero at night. Weather forecasts for PLPP indicate daytime temperatures will be at zero or below starting on Sunday. There’s even a bit of snow predicted for Friday. 

Thanks for the tracks!

March 15, 2021:

It was announced yesterday that grooming has terminated for this season in both West Bragg Creek and Ribbon Creek. 

This would be a good time to acknowledge the dedication and hard work of all the tracksetters in the SkierBob universe. We’re very fortunate to have grooming personnel who take a lot of pride in their work and make the trails so enjoyable for us.

Tracksetter Jeff

A special thanks to Ribbon Creek Tracksetter Jeff for his 38 years of diligent and conscientious work on the Ribbon Creek, Kananaskis Village, Bill Milne, and Skogan Pass trails. We’re sad to see you go, but we hope you have an enjoyable retirement. To me, it seems like an important part of Kananaskis will be missing with Jeff not here. 

I don’t have everyone’s photo but would like to add any that are missing if you can send them to me.

The tracksetters from Parks Canada – Lake Louise are pictured but requested that I not identify them by name. 

Final report from West Bragg Creek

Boomer Groomer in the Snow Rabbit on Feb 3, 2021.

Mar 14, 2021: The recent warm spring weather has turned WBC into daytime mush and morning ice. Our Grooming Team has used all the tricks they have up their collective sleeves and now have to admit that ‘spring has sprung the grass has ris – we wonder where the flowers is’…. we can do no more.

Iron Springs at West Bragg Creek on Feb 23, 2021.  Photo by Steve Riggs

It has been quite a season on WBC ski trails. We had an amazingly early start to skiing and grooming with a large dump of snow in October which was groomed to the delight of thousands of smiling skiers. As one of our groomers noted, the season that followed could best be described as ‘Hero to Zero’  with periods of outstanding skiing interspersed with other periods of drought.

We were blessed by the generosity of donors who helped us keep fuel in the tanks and grease on the wheels and of course bring on board that fantastic addition to our grooming fleet – ‘Erica’ the Snow Rabbit which helped us immensely through those dry patches!

On behalf of BCT and the whole ski grooming team – Jeff (Boomer Groomer) Hughes, Bill (Billy) Hoyne, Peter (The Rookie) Farran, Dan (Danny Boy) Creaser, Jeremy (Wobbly) Neufeld, Josh (Mr Miyagi) Leung and David (DNA) Cebuliak – we would like to thank you all for your generosity and all the fun times.

See you all next November for more winter goodness in WBC! 

Possibility of a new ski trail?

Lionel ski trail in 1982. Photo by Henry L

Mar 13, 2021: Skiing from the winter gate to the back door on Hwy #40 would be about a 9K trail. Thanks to Alf Skrastins for this great idea:

The Nordiq Alberta ski pass program has been a huge success. It has provided us with exceptional ski grooming plus the bonus of extra funds that could enhance skiing opportunities for next year.

Lionel ski trail in 1982. Photo by Henry L

The value of those surplus funds are not enough to purchase much equipment or to build much new trail.

So, my suggestion is to make better use of what we already have. Decades ago, Highway #40 was groomed for skiing from the winter gate to the Pocaterra “Back Door”… it was known as the Lionel trail.

Hwy #40 in PLPP. Formerly known as Lionel ski trail.

Given the popularity of the Moraine Lake Road, grooming Highway #40 should be a no-brainer.

Ideally, the winter gate would be moved south by a few hundred metres to provide a paved parking lot. Add some portable toilets and a portable trailhead kiosk, and you’ve got a functional trailhead.

I would suggest that the highway could be groomed for multiple uses. Classic track setting would create an ideal “easy” trail. And it would create an obvious loop with Pocaterra trail.
A wide skate lane would provide an opportunity for skate skiers. A separate groomed lane could be created for fat-bikes, hikers, snowshoers, skijoerers, winter hikers, etc.

That is a small infrastructure cost, no additional grooming equipment… but more grooming staff time… and it would produce a tremendous addition to the PLPP trail network.

Milestones

Chris and Karl on Elk Pass. Nov 20, 2020

Mar 12, 2021: Congratulations to Chris and Karl for completing their 1000K quest this winter. They arrived at their goal on the trails at Lake Louise today.  Chris and Karl have submitted 40 helpful trip reports this winter from trails throughout the empire. Thank you!

MaSid on Elk Pass. Nov 20, 2020

Congratulations to MaSid for going skiing 60 times this winter. I am fascinated with his off-track trail-breaking and couch-building. The Elk Pass meadows have been the subject of many beautiful photos this winter. 

Oddly enough, I took pictures of Chris, Karl and MaSid on the same day on Elk Pass. 

Cascade Valley elk, Jan 16 by Chuck

I have collected over 80 photos in the “Favourite Photos” file from this winter, many of them sent in by readers. Rather than fire all of my guns at once, I will post a few occasionally throughout the remainder of March. The photos are all interesting, scenic, or unique in some way.  The photo by Chuck of the elk peering through the bushes would be one of my top 10 from this winter. 

Tracksetting

Mt Shark trails were trackset Thursday night/Friday morning. 

Tunnel Mountain trails in Banff were trackset today.

Redearth Creek was trackset yesterday.

Peyto and Upper Telemark were trackset today. 

Superb conditions on Elk Pass

Elk Pass

Mar 11, 2021: When I was able to stride up the big hill with minimal herringbones on waxable skis, I knew I was in for a glorious day. As Keith mentioned in his trip report, the weather forecasts don’t look very promising but I think these wonderful conditions should last for one more day anyway. 

Ray, Mary, and Keith

We’ve had a number of trip reports from PLPP, so I’ll keep mine short. Thanks to everyone for your reports. 

Kirsten and James on Elk Pass

The air temperature at the Elk Pass trailhead at 2 pm was zero, and the snow was -4°C, with blue skies and no wind. The texture of the snow looked like VR50(0/-4) would do the trick and it was the right choice. I had excellent grip with no sticking. Early skiers were able to use colder wax. 

With the nice weather, it was a day made for socializing. At the top of the hill I was thrilled to meet three of our regular trip reporters, Ray and Mary Perrott and the aforementioned Keith Bagnall. 

I skied down the other side of the hill with total control on snow which allowed for easy snowplowing when necessary.  

Steve and Jo Riggs on Elk Pass

Another gabfest ensued when I ran into Steve and Jo Riggs at about the 4K mark. Steve has been writing reports on this blog for as long as I have. Steve has a much better camera than I do, so make sure you check out his photos. 

Fox Creek was in reasonably nice shape and the skiing was enjoyable.  Just a bit of debris and a few small icy patches. 

When I skied at Kananaskis for the first time 24 years ago, I had no idea where this activity would take me. Today on Elk Pass I reached the 25,000 kilometre milestone with a few more Ks for good measure. 

The milestone was achieved when I arrived at the Elk Pass/Blueberry Hill junction and lucky for me, Kirsten and James were there to snap a photo. 

Trails in the Ribbon Creek and Kananaskis Village area are being trackset this evening. 

The Chateau grooming team at Lake Louise was busy today and trackset the following trails: Fairview; Lake Louise surface; Lake Louise Shoreline; Upper Telemark; Peyto.

Thursday night is usually when Mt Shark gets groomed and trackset. 

Cold and freshly trackset

Mar 11, 2021:

Update from Ribbon Creek Tracksetter Jeff:

“Skogan Pass groomed for perhaps the last time this season. It’s great skiing up there at the moment. A big shout out to our guest groomer Tracksetter Darwyn from Cypress hills Who was behind the wheel tonight getting some grooming training. Let him know how he did for anyone who skis up there.”

Tracksetter Darwyn at Cypress Hills

I’ve met Tracksetter Darwyn from Cypress Hills a couple times, most recently in Dec 2019 when I was skiing at Cypress Hills. The Cypress Hills snowcat was originally used at Ribbon Creek. 

The Hay Meadow thermometer is registering a cool -18°C this morning. It will warm up considerably with the various forecasts predicting anywhere between -4 to +5.  This is the last cold weather we’ll see at the Ribbon Creek area for at least a week. 

Peter Lougheed Provincial Park

Elk Pass. File photo

Trackset yesterday/overnight: Elk Pass, Blueberry Hill, Hydroline, Patterson, Upper Lake, Fox Creek, Boulton Creek, Moraine. 

“Snow fell on Wednesday evening, heavy at times in the south end, with accumulations ranging from not much more than a cm at the north end of the trail system, to at least 6 to 8cm’s at some higher elevations areas in the south.  The snow stopped just after midnight, and the sky cleared.  Some of Wednesday night’s grooming will have no new snow on top of the grooming, and some of the earlier grooming may have up to 4 or 5 cm’s.  The new snow was mixed well in to the icy base, with higher a percentage of ice in the final mix at lower elevations.”

The Lower Lake thermometer is offline, but the PLPP maintenance compound was at -19 at 6 a.m. The Weather Network indicates -15 at 7:45 a.m. with a predicted high of zero. 

Lake Louise: Moraine Lake road and the Great Divide were trackset yesterday.

West Bragg Creek

“A light dusting of snow allowed for some basic grooming and track setting overnight. Expect shallow tracks with icy sections . Challenging spring conditions persist and with warmer weather forecast, we expect the grooming season in WBC to end in the next few days. Be safe!” 

Check Nordic Pulse for grooming details. 

Waxing

Here’s some waxing ideas and advice from Space Dogs Ski Club. It includes suggestions for spring skiing.