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canada general snow

Simpson Pass – Healy Pass touring

With the wee Moosling safely in daycare, Alex and I headed out with friends for one of our rare “doing-stuff-together-without-toddler” adventures.

We headed up to the top of Wawa chair, and then skinned out across the meadows, dropping down through the tress to Simpson Pass for some surprisingly spectacular untracked powder.

Unfortunately our awesome tree run ended all too soon, and then it was the interminable slog across to Healy Pass.

Despite threats to the contrary, the ski to Healy Pass didn’t last forever though, and so eventually we crested the pass, took some photos, admired how well we’d coordinated our outfits for the day, considered banding together as a singing/skiing group “The Snow Wiggles”, and then removed our skins and headed downhill.

On the way out we ran into a couple with super skinny skis and incredibly enormous backpacks (not literally, thankfully, although there are portions of that downhill track where I could definitely see that happening if you weren’t careful). Hopefully they had fun camping, as the skiing portion of their trip didn’t look enviable.

And then we even made it out in time to pick up the Moosling from daycare! All in all, a complete success.

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canada general snow

Lunch break skiing down Main Street

Skiing and races over lunch break.

(photos aren’t mine)

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canada general moosling snow trip reports

Brewster Creek Trail

Along Brewster Creek Trail we skied, from the parking lot at the base of the Sunshine Village access road, and up to Banff Sundance Lodge. The trail was groomed all the way to the lodge, and we climbed and climbed. Finn skied for a while, and then ran for a bit, and then fell asleep in the Chariot.

After lunch on the verandah of the lodge, we headed back downhill, zoom zoom. The day never quite manage to be properly sunny with blue skies, but the overcast weather that threatened never really settled in either. A fun day out, that tempted us with ideas of connecting through to Fatigue Creek Trail, Citadel Pass and Sunshine Meadows for a long summer run.

Distance: 21km return
Elevation gain: 521m

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canada general moosling snow

Chester Bloody Lake

Against my better judgement I visited that accursed lake again, and found the weather pleasant, the snow soft, and the crowds a little alarming. It could have been worse! And now I don’t have to go there again for another year at least.

The Moosling skied for a little while from the carpark, then just got distracted trying to dive into the powder at the side of the trail.

And so he was carried for a while…

Before spending some time napping in the Chariot.

After lunch at the lake, Alex dug a hole. Then it filled with people.

A little running around at the lake, and then we started our descent.

The Moosling and I found an awesome method of descending – he could run between my legs while I held him and skied, lifting him up when we started going too fast for him to run.

We descended the the final kilometres of the path like that, and my thighs are still burning today (and I do have video footage, which I’ll have to try and edit and upload, because photos just don’t quite capture how amusing the whole thing looked).

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canada general snow

A couple of days in Invermere

A day skiing at Panorama (well, half a day, after a good sleep-in and a lazy morning), followed by food, and fireworks, and watching a bonspiel (a curling tournament) out on the frozen lake.

Then the next day we went out for a ski on the lake, and weren’t eaten by a Bald Eagle. The fog lifted, and it was a gorgeous day.

There was even some Moosling skiing action. The groomed loop was about 10km, but we just went out and back. Rough going in places, but fun.