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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.

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canada general moosling snow

Skogan Pass

Our wonderful plan to get an early start back-fired a little, as we set of skiing in the freezing cold. It didn’t take much convincing to make a stop at Nakiska for a quick hot chocolate before we continued. By the time we re-emerged there was a little more sun around, and it felt a little less like we were about to freeze our toes off.

As the sun rose higher it even turned out to be a nice day. The trail had been groomed yesterday, and the going was easy.

We ate lunch in the sun at the pass, admired the hoar frost, and then flew back down the hill, dodging the walkers and fallen learner-skiers that had swamped the trail.

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general

2012 totals

Some random stats from 2012…

Distance ran/hiked: 1,245km
Distance biked: 1,508 km (36,141m elevation)
Places travelled: Nowhere outside of BC and Alberta, Canada
First half-marathons ran: The Rocky Mountain Soap Marathon in May.
First ultra-marathons ran: The Grizzly 50k Ultra at the Nordic Centre. Surprisingly awesome fun.
Other races: Rundles Revenge Half Donkey, and the 24 Hours of Adrenaline
Random cyclists who stayed from warmshowers.com: Seven

And I started full time work again, saw an awesome display of Aurora Borealis over Canmore, and we had various family members staying with us for 7 weeks or so in total, towards the end of summer and into autumn.