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....

Video Block

Double-click here to add a video by URL or embed code. Learn more

Hoping Santa brings more snow!!

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....