2016-17 Winter finally settling in.

Having taken a rather extensive holiday into some warmer climates, it was a bit tough to come back into short days and quickly afterwards, very cold weather. As usual, there is no sign of climate change where we live. Early December brought lows into the -30C's, and highs of -20C's. Surely the pine beetle is in demise! Snows have been reasonable for December at altitude, but somewhat less in the Bow Valley where Canmore resides. That said, it has certainly been cold enough to make snow at the Nordic Centre, and surrounding ski resorts.

The cold weather sent us into Elevation Place (in Canmore) to make use of their world class climbing wall facility. It's been busy there! Since it has auto-belay routes, you don't even need a partner. If you have a partner, the routes range up to well beyond my capability. But, it's actually quite a social place to hang out!

Sunday, Dec 11, we ventured out to Peter Lougheed Provincial Park to check out the coss-coutry ski conditions there. Much to our surprise, the tracksetting was excellent from the Elk Pass parking lot to Elk Pass, and the Blueberry Hill lookout. Nice soft snow, albeit somewhat slow due to the cold temperature. The daytime high, though, did hit -15C, which is quite tolerable when there is no wind, and you're working on your stride and gliding. It won't be long before all the trails there are in great shape.

We've been out back country skiing (alpine touring) where you can start out at 1900m+ from the road. That has included Bow Summit on the Ice Fields Parkway in Banff, and Robertson Glacier in Kananaskis Country. Powder skiing in those places was very good for December! We'll continue to investigate....

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Hoping Santa brings more snow!!

Shadow Lake xc ski

It was -17C in the shade in this part of Banff NP, where we would be for much of the day. But a full-on bluebird sky! We were using our metal-edged cross-country skis for the 14km uphill journey - mainly for control on the way down. Waxing is easy: blue.

The first couple of kms are a bit arduous as you climb up a relatively steep crusty tracked old road - away from the noisy highway. The road had not been trackset for quite a long time. Once into the Red Earth Creek hanging valley, the new snow was deeper, and it gets quite magical. Especially when you start catching a few views of the south-facing alpine slopes of Mt Pilot, and the lit-up southeast avalanche slopes of Copper Mtn.

Before too long, we passed by the Red Earth (RE6?) campground, and started climbing above the creek again. Finally we were getting some rays of sunshine! At that point, it was -18C, but we were keeping pretty warm. Upon reaching the intersection for Shadow Lake, the new show we were breaking through was about 5-6cm deep. From experience we knew it was easier to carry skis, and kickstep up the steep trail to where it flattens out again. The trail had been used sometime ago, and was pretty supportive beneath the new snow. Before too long, we started breaking out into beautiful sunlit meadows, and finally at the Shadow Lake lodges, which were still closed for the season.

The lodges were put where they are for a reason. They are nicely backed into trees on the edge of a huge meadow that flanks the lake, with southwest facing decks, and tremendous views of the glacier-capped Mt Ball (10,807 ft).

After finishing the tea, and some tawny port*, we reluctantly tore ourselves away from the warm sunshine at 3PM, and descended back to the car. It took about half as long to get back, for a total round trip of 6 hours. On the way back, the last bits of sun were highlighting the peak of Mt Cory across the Bow Valley, that we climbed last summer.

*This was a celebration of our getting engaged at Shadow Lake 4 years ago.

Peter Lougheed Park - classic cross-country skiing!

Although this El Nino year hasn't deposited immense amounts of snow on us, it hasn't (yet) been -25C, and the snowfall has been reasonable. A check of the Alberta Basin's Snow data shows Three Isle Lake, in Kananaskis, as being on the high side of the normal range. Last year, we were on the low side of that range. And it showed as we were driving the Smith Dorrien Highway from Canmore to Peter Lougheed Provincial Park (PLPP) for another round of xc skiing on our favorite loop - Boulton Bridge, up Whiskeyjack/Pocaterra/Tyrwhitt, over Elk Pass, and out Fox Ck/Moraine (16-18 km?). Winds were blowing in the empty parking lot, making the -7C seem a lot colder. Easy wax pick: SkiGo HF Blue (-1 to -20C). Worked perfectly on the 2-3cm of new snow (deeper, or non-existent depending on wind action)!

As shown on the photos below, Whiskeyjack is aptly named for the ravenous crow-family birds that hang out at the picnic table at the top of the trail. I was putting a little chunk of bread atop my pole for a photo, and one of the little feathered flying dinosaurs grabbed the piece out of my fingers before I put it on the pole!

Tyrwhitt, as usual, was magical, and the wind had stopped blowing. Not so much sun, as light snowfall was escaping from the Elk Valley in BC. Windsift was filling the new grooming from Thursday, but it was light. The trail down Elk Pass was soft and easily manageable, albeit a bit slow - good for the double poling training.

Fox Creek was nicest we had seen it in years, as the photos below will also show. It too had been recently groomed. The flood-ravaged creek, with it's massive tree carnage was draped in lots of snow pillows. Even Moraine was in great shape. Back at the parking lot, one more car had pulled in....