Category: trip reports

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canada general snow trip reports

Skiing to Skoki

Skoki Lodge is another of those wonderful places that I still hadn’t gotten around to visiting, either in summer or winter. It’s mostly a place to stay overnight (Kate and William stayed there on their royal honeymoon), but they do serve up afternoon tea.

We planned to leave Canmore at a fairly civilised time, after making some calculations based on other ski in times we’d seen, and the fact we wanted to catch afternoon tea at the lodge if possible. But we were skiing up there from the lower parking lot, which magically added another 4km or so, and suddenly our calculations weren’t looking so good.

Also – it was kind of cold! Which was actually fine, as it kept us moving.

On Ptarmigan Lake we started to run into other groups of skiers. A couple of guys had their kit for kite skiing – we didn’t realise how windy it was until we started the return journey.

And then we ran into this unicorn who was also out ski touring. Those guys get around, don’t believe the hype.

Heading up Deception Pass, it had settled into a glorious blue sky kind of day.

But at the top of the pass we had some decision making to do. Thanks to the extra distance, we didn’t have a lot of time ahead of us before sunset. But it was still conceivable we could get back down to the Lake Louise ski area by sunset, and maybe have to only do the last little bit of skiing in the dark. And we did have headlamps.

I was definitely struggling to keep up with the others. Being semi-injured for the last 7 months or so hadn’t been great for my fitness, and then having 3 weeks or so of couch time thanks to a cold hadn’t really helped either. Plus I’d decided to wear new boots, and they were definitely rubbing. So at this point I was feeling a little humbled, rather than strong and fit. But we were so close! And I’d never been to Skoki before!

So of course we decided to go for it.

In the end we made it to the lodge only 15 minutes or so after the quoted time for afternoon tea started anyway. Perfect timing!

We had afternoon tea, dealt with blisters, relaxed, drank tea from thermoses, and then re-skinned our skis for an assault of Deception Pass from the other side.

And by the time we got there – well, the sun was still up in the sky at least. Lots of time!

The scuttle back across Ptarmigan Lake was slow and windy. With my telemark skis I managed ok with no skins, but was counting down the marker posts until I’d closed the final gap. And then we were at the final pass, skins off, nothing but descending ahead of us.

And such ridiculously beautiful dusk light that I very nearly skied into a tree on several occasions.

From this point on though, it was fairly fast going. There was some double poling as we drew closer to Lake Louise ski hill, but there was a lot of cruising through snow singletrack through the trees, and for a while there I felt like I was on my mountain bike.

And then the sky started to turn pink, and then pink didn’t even come close to describing it any more.

And we skied down the ski out back to the car, staring at the fading light of the sunset, and made it just before the dusk became too dark for comfortably hurtling downhill at high speed. A very excellent ski day.

Distance: 28.3km
Elevation gain: 1082m

Categories
canada general moosling snow trip reports

Elk Lakes Cabin

It’s been such a long time since we’ve been out for a winter hut adventure. Nearly five years! So we (I) decided that to avoid having another winter drift away, it would be a good idea to start getting organised, and so the Elk Lakes Cabin idea was born.

I’d cycled past there last year, as I headed south to Fernie, but hadn’t actually checked out the hut. But I knew it was there somewhere, four or five kilometres beyond the groomed Peter Lougheed Provincial Park ski trails that take you to Elk Pass.

The three of us had a disorganised morning, sleeping in, then slowly getting everything packed and loaded into the car. Somehow this all took much longer than expected, and by the time we arrived at the Elk Pass trailhead it was after 1pm.

“Plenty of time” we said to ourselves… then “well, we have headlamps”.

As we set off we realised it was much colder than we’d been expecting. It’s sometimes hard to keep warm while skiing at small child pace too. After a couple of kilometres the small child was inserted into a sleeping bag and loaded into the pulk we had borrowed, and we set off at a more determined pace.

We’d headed along the Hydroline trail to Elk Pass, thinking we had a better chance of being warm up there – maybe we’d even find sunlight! And we managed to get a few minutes of sunlight before it disappeared behind the mountains for the day, but then the temperature just kept dropping.

Beyond Elk Pass it’s just backcountry skiing. There was a bit of a skier set track for the first kilometre or two, but it was much harder work to tow a heavily laden pulk through. Or so Alex tells me.

Theoretically this section is downhill. In reality, it didn’t feel very downhill, except for the final section just before you drop down onto the meadow before the hut. And by the time we reached that point, it was properly dark, headlamps-on skiing. Which was thoroughly exhilarating given the strength of our headlamps.

As we reached the meadow, we descended into a lovely cold pool of air. Alex’s thermometer was reading -25oC or so. My hair and jacket had gathered a thorough coating of white frost, and we kept moving, hoping that the hut was magically warm.

The hut was not magically warm. The combination lock on the door was frozen shut, and took some convincing to unlock, and then we were on a mission to build some fire and raise everything to a more reasonable temperature. Dinner was cooked, port was drank, and we sat down to play a family game of Settlers of Catan before bed. Finn had convinced us to bring it along – I’d taught him how to play the week before, and he’d developed an immediate obsession.

An early night to bed, we had more hut-guests arrive around midnight. They eventually settled down, and when we awoke the next morning (at 8.45am, a perfectly reasonable time) we discovered that 3 of the 4 of them were Australian, and very friendly hut-mates.

Our mission for that day involved nothing more than skiing back out again, but what with another game of Catan to play, and a slow breakfast, and then slowly packing, it was after 11am by the time we were on our way. Thankfully it was a bit warmer now, and the sun was shining!

We convinced Finn to ski across the meadow, then threw him into the pulk for the rough climb up to Elk Pass. We spent most of the climb singing loudly.

On reaching Elk Pass we snacked, booted Finn out of the pulk, removed skins, and started the ski down. Which was a lot of fun! Some sections were slightly ridiculous with no grip, but still possible.

As we pulled into the carpark, having just flown down the last hill, Finn’s conclusion was, after yelling “YAHOOOOO!” most of the way down the hill: “Mama, that was the best adventure ever, that was such a fun adventure!”

Distance: 10km (from Elk Pass trailhead to Elk Lakes Cabin)
Elevation gain: 240m (each way)
Time: 4.5 hours to the hut, 4 hours back to the car

Categories
canada general hiking moosling trip reports

A lake full of Helens

Maybe one day I’ll be up to date again, but in the meantime, here is another post finally coming about a month after the actual action.

This day was gloriously warm, and felt more like summer than post-leaf autumn.

With a visiting grandparent, we decided to get out hiking somewhere different. And for some reason, we’d never hiked up to Helen Lake. It lies just by Dolomite Peak up on Hwy 93 – an area we’d ski toured, but not visited in summer. Which is crazy, because it’s amazing.

Up near the treeline, views were gorgeous.

The lakes had started to freeze, which just meant there were lots of ice chunks around to throw into them.

We spent some time up there disturbing the peace as the boy gleefully threw ice into lakes.

On the final alpine stretch of trail to the lake there is quite a lot of trail braiding – it’s hard to pick the right trail to walk in.

There was a certain amount of bribery going on as we hiked. We haven’t been doing enough family hikes this summer, which of course we only realised now that summer is over. The boy did pretty well though for a 12km hike with around 420m of elevation gain – but occasional distribution of m&ms and raspberry jubes helped matters.

Dolomite Peak lurks dramatically trailside for most of the hike – looking even better for a sprinkling of snow on top.

My cunning plan after the hike was to ride back to Canmore. It was a great plan, but not as well thought out as I’d imagined. By the time we finished hiking, there was not an awful amount of daylight left.

They ended up dropping me off at Castle Junction, and I rode the 50km or so home. Which didn’t hurt my knee too much!

But the Helen Lake hike is highly recommended, and we’re already working on our hiking to do list for next year.

Categories
bikes canada general trip reports

Escape to BC

It was cold, with a forecast for rain. A group of us had planned a family/no family bike trip to Revelstoke. As the weekend grew closer and the forecast for Revelstoke looked increasingly terrible, the families lost enthusiasm. But in a bold move, we decided to go anyway, sans famille.

Friday night we drove out to Revelstoke. Saturday morning we rode the McPherson trails in Revelstoke – I was feeling stronger than I expected, but a summer of no mountain biking hadn’t helped my fitness. Then it started to rain. We eyed off the sky dubiously, debated a little, then high-tailed it to BC.

As we drove, we started to be able to see a distant patch of blue sky. Would these hours of driving be worth it?

We reached Vernon. It was warm! It was dry! It was sunny! We rejoiced, and rode our bikes on the Kalamalka trails.

The dust got in my eyes, but I didn’t care, because I was finally riding a mountain bike again.

We soared back to the parking lot just before dusk, and it felt a little like we were getting away with something illegal.

The only problem now was – where were we going to stay tonight? It was a gorgeous warm long weekend. Surely no-one else had realised this, and the campgrounds would be deserted?

Nope.

We went from campground to campground, but found nowhere to stay. In the end we gave up and went to the sketchy campground in town. As we packed up the next morning, the guys in the permanent set up across from us had already started drinking.

The plan for Saturday morning was to ride the Myra-Bellevue Provincial Park trails, near South Kelowna. And they were amazingly fun too!

Somehow after that the afternoon devolved into go-karting though. I’d never been before. And now I never have to go again.

On our third night of BC we acquired luxurious private Kelowna accommodations, camping out by the house of someone’s family. Great views, lush green grass, and the weather was still perfect.

Day three of riding took us to Smith Creek. Which has an uptrack that inexplicably feels flowy and like you aren’t actually climbing. But then when you reach the summit, you have an amazing long downhill in front of you. And there are any number of interesting features along the way.

Three of us decided to go back for one more lap. I don’t know if it was a sensible decision. My dodgy knee certainly didn’t think so. By the time we reached the top I felt like my legs were about to fall off. But in a good way.

And then it was time for the epic 6 – 7 hour drive home. Worth it? Absolutely. Next year Moab?

Categories
bikes general travel trip reports

Scotland: The end and the stats


 


 


 



 

  • Clamato juice is so tasty because it’s full of MSG! Excellent.
  • Glaswegians are a pack of communists.
  • Finn has developed a fear of walking around on aeroplanes.
  • Terry’s Chocolate Oranges can be purchased for £1 from Tesco!
  • Watching multiple episodes of Border Patrol on the plane is counter-productive if you’re hoping to pass through immigration in a non-furtive manner