K2inCanada's Blog

February 2, 2020

BC Ski Trip 2019

Filed under: Canada — K2 in Canada @ 8:06 PM

Instead of hoping I can finish all the posts I am behind on from last year before I post this, I figured I better put this together before I forget. Already started the forgetting….

It was a long trip this year, 11 days! We spent most of those in the Rockies. That also meant we had to put in two full days of driving. Going East was actually a bit of a problem this year as most of the southern part of the province got hammered with snow for 24hrs at higher elevations. Manning had received 1.5m of snow all at once on the 19/20th after being almost bare for all of December.

TripMap

Day 1 (Sat, Dec 21st): When we left town mid morning of the 21st, HWY #3 was still closed and HWY#5 had a travel advisory to not to go there because of snow clean up still. HWY#1 was open up to Revelstoke – after that there were still closures for avalanche control. Lucky for us, we were going clockwise this year and our first day’s destination was Sicamous. Taking HWY 1 adds an hour to the already long drive but once we got past Jackass Summit in the canyon the clouds thinned out and opened up beautiful views over the Thompson’s wintery landscapes. It was dark by the time we arrived at the Monashee Motel. The owner was complaining about all the snow they had to get cleared away. We walked 30min into town for dinner at the Brother’s Pub. Unfortunately they no longer served the awesome meatloaf I had there some years ago. This time around it was just regular pub food.

Day 2 (Sun, Dec 22): We woke up to an overcast sky but the weather improved as we drove towards Revelstoke. The parking lot at the Nordic Centre at Mount Macpherson was pretty busy. The people at the lodge told us about a new trail to get up to Mainline – for now called “Gentle Climb” but subject to change – which made a great addition to my usual loop. Grooming was pretty good given the temperatures were around zero degrees. They had rain the day before but a couple centimeters of snow during the night. Skins worked well and I skied for about 2hrs45min. Mix of sun and clouds. Quite nice actually!

The drive through Glacier National Park towards Golden was stunning. Lots of snowy mountains and almost blue skies. No avalanche hit us and roads were in good conditions. I guess they did a good job on controlling the slopes the day before. In Golden we checked in at the usual place, Mary’s Motel. It seemed a lot less busy than other years, maybe because it was still before Christmas and usually it fills up right after. A quick soak in the hot tub and then dinner at “The Island” – yummy. The plan was to go see a movie that night. Unfortunately we had forgotten to change our watches – time changed to Mountain time just after Glacier National Park – and when we arrived at the theatre the movie was already running for 45min. We felt quite stupid. If we would have walked over right after dinner we would have been on time.

Day 3 (Mo, Dec 23): We woke up to …. clouds. But they looked thin. And as we drove up to Kickinghorse Resort and Dawn Mountain after the usual and always good breakfast at the “Big Bend Cafe” we managed to get just above the clouds. The Lodge at Dawn Mountain was in bright sunshine, -7C. The problem with Dawn Mountain, most of their trail system is below the lodge and hence most of the skiing was done in the clouds. The trails were in great shape though and I skied for 4hrs, again using my skins. Good skiing, even in the clouds :-).

After the ski we stopped in Golden to do some shopping. We had booked 3 nights in the Truffle Pig Inn in Field over Christmas and the room came with a kitchenette since there isn’t much in regards of restaurants in Field. So we bought food to cook 2 nights and go to the Truffle Pig restaurant the 3rd night. And some bread and cheese and salami and jam and eggs and breakfast sausages and hashbrowns and pie and chips and….. We would not starve in Field. The drive from Golden to Field isn’t far, only about 50kms, but it was an exiting one. We got the first chip in our windshield which turned into a nice 20cm long crack right away – rats – and we saw a moose along the road!

We got into “town” just before dark, checked in and cooked a nice Thai chicken dinner (from a Thai soup package, minute rice and fresh chicken). The room was on the bottom floor which doesn’t have a great view but it was big and warm (floor heating!) = cozy. Definitely a nice place to hang out for a few nights and taking a break from driving. There were only 2 small problems with the room. 1. the TV didn’t work – no satellite reception with the big snow dumped they had a couple days before. 2. The fridge didn’t work. Well, #1 made us play a lot of dice and read in the evenings. #2 wasn’t an issue as we just kept all the food in the car. It was below -10C when we arrived.

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Day 4 (Tue, Dec 24): Christmas Eve morning was still overcast but the clouds were high enough that we could see the mountains around us. We took it really slow that day. Eggs, sausages and hashbrowns for breakfast. It was supposed to be a day without skiing and we had planned to snowshoe around Emerald Lake. But first off we explored the road behind the Lodge to see if we can find the elk that always hang out in town. We already checked the night before but got nothing – only ended up at a road block since the road was closed due to avalanche control on Mount Dennis. This morning though we did find a couple. They were not far out of town at all and quite close to the road. Just looked at us and then slowly walked away. Jeff got the idea to get the snowshoes and go follow them. So we did. Walking back 10min to the lodge, got our snowshoes and better clothing (it was -14C) and returned to where we saw the elk. The snow was deep and it was hard work through an open meadow and than up a wooded hill side. And trapper Jeff did spot the elk – amazing that he actually saw them. We tried to get above them – more hard work.  The elk didn’t seem to get too spooked by us, just kept a comfortable distance. They know that humans are slow in the snow. We saw the places they slept and the places they were digging for food. It was pretty cool to be able to share their space with them.

It was almost lunch time by the time we got back to the room. So we ate some more. We always eat a ton on these trips :-). Then we finally headed off to Emerald lake. It is only a 15min drive from the lodge, if that. One could ski there right from field (see previous years) but the trail wasn’t groomed yet. We have done the snowshoe hike around the lake before and it is easy walking with very little elevation change but stunning views. This time we added a circle around the Alluvial Fan Loop (supposed to be a ski trail only but we were very careful to not damage the tracks). That part was the only part were we really needed snowshoes and offered some different views. The rest of the trail was hard packed. At the very end, we took a different trail to the parking lot, thinking it would be a short cut but turned out to be the long way around. It was way less used and had fresh snow on it. We were the first ones to walk it that day other than either a lynx or maybe even cougar based on the tracks we saw the whole way. We never saw the animal but I am sure it saw us :-). All in all it took us 2.5hrs. On the drive back we stopped in at the Natural Bridge. I thought Jeff would get our car stuck in the deep snow of the parking lot as everyone else had parked on the road. But it looked like the Quattro had no trouble. Nevertheless I made Jeff park on the road as well just in case.

Back at the Inn we hung out for a bit in the room before our dinner reservation at the restaurant. It wasn’t busy at all, could have skipped the reservation, but one never knows. It was Christmas Eve after all. We had cheese fondue which was served with the typical bread but also broccoli, mushrooms and pig belly. The latter would have been something my mom would have enjoyed but neither Jeff nor I cared for the fatty pork. So we ended up ordering more bread instead :-). It was pretty good and very filling as we finished the whole pot of cheese. Did I mention already that we eat a lot on these trips? 🙂 To compensate we did a walk through town – must have hit all the roads there are.

Day 5 (Wed, Dec 25): Christmas day greeted us with sunshine and blue skis and -14C. The plan was to check out a new trail around Field, the Yoho Valley Trail. It’s a road in the summer and off and on tracked for cross-country in the winter at least part way. This year though the grooming was buried under about 50cm of fresh snow. It looked like they had not track set it again after the big dump due to the avalanche danger. Some people had skied it but Jeff wasn’t going to do what he call “backcountry” skiing. He wanted tracks. Plan B – we went back to the Natural Bridge on the way to Emerald Lake. But this time we skied there right from Field, meaning we parked the car at the lodge, walked to the Visitor Centre along the HWY (5-10min walk) and hit the tracks of the “Tally-Ho” trail. The first 10min are in the open along the Kicking Horse River until you cross the HWY and then start climbing up in the trees. There is a bit of a scary downhill to get to the Natural Bridge and one more road crossing but from there you get onto the “Kicking Horse Access Rd” trail which is a 9km out and back trail more or less along the river. Most of it is through the forest but you pop out on the river a couple times. The first 2km are very wide and have 2 tracks set. The remaining 7km are single track. Stunning views and easy skiing. I expected to see a moose or elk step onto the trail any second – we saw lots of tracks – but unfortunately that never happened. Very enjoyable plan B ski. Took us 3.5hrs all together due to many picture stops 🙂

We had a quick bite to eat and a short rest back in the room before going out once more just before dark to see if we can find our elk again. We never did but they had opened the road along Mount Dennis and we found this little sign on a tree “Carlsbad Column”. Well there was a van parked right across from it which really made us look. We followed some tracks up the relatively steep mountain side and ended up at the foot of a small ice fall. Pretty neat. I would have loved to explore more but it was getting dark and we had to get back onto the road before we would loose the trail. Next time.

Christmas dinner was pasta with a tomato-spinach-ground beef sauce cooked in our little kitchen. Didn’t miss the turkey – Merry Christmas!

Day 6 (Thu, Dec 26): Today we had to say good bye to our little cozy room at The Truffle Pig Inn. I really enjoyed being stationary for a few days and so did Jeff. Driving + skiing every day is tiring. This time around I was looking forward to each day of skiing.

Low clouds were hanging in the valley at Field and it was the coldest day of our trip, -17C. As we continued to drive east, climbing higher, the weather improved and Lake Louise was just on the edge of clouds and sun.  Today’s plan was to ski the “Great Divide”. We bundled up nicely. Jeff was hoping to do a nice long double pole ski but the tracks were very soft. Like very soft. So soft that even my skis every so often sunk into the tracks. Otherwise my Skins worked fine and I took it easy while Jeff blasted ahead. It’s a 9km ski to the Great Divide and another 3km to the Lake O’Hara parking lot on a nearly flat road. I was reasonable warm and enjoyed the views, watched the dog sleds past me and made it to the Great Divide sign no problem. Jeff still hadn’t come back so I continued on for another kilometer or so until I met him. He said the Lake O’Hara parking lot isn’t too far away, 15min for him which equals 30+min for me. I decided to go all the way. It wasn’t quite 2hrs yet. Jeff was going back to the start and then start a 2nd lap and meet me on my way back. Another 10min later disaster struck. I was on a bit of a downhill and I was actually gliding with a bit of speed which was hard to do in these conditions when my right ski disappeared into another snow hole. I had a good crash and twisted my left leg awkwardly. Getting up in this soft snow was tough and when I swung my legs around I noticed that my left ski was kinda backwards. The damn binding was broken. Rats! Now what? There was nobody around and it was 10km back to the car. Lucky for me I am the world’s best shuffler on skis. So I just put my foot onto the broken binding and shuffled my way back. Every so often, way too often, my foot would slip off the ski and I ended up stepping on it. It was annoying as hell and took a LONG time. I was hoping Jeff would be coming down again the whole way back but not knowing my predicament he decided to rather warm up in the car when he got back and wait. He just started to come looking for me when I finally made it back, almost an hour later than it should normally take me (4hrs08min). And yes it was still -17C and although I wasn’t completely frozen, I was not staying as warm as when you ski.

Anyhow, I made it and the heated seats warmed me up quickly as we drove to Canmore. A nice drive under blue skies. We had booked a place the evening before. Our usual spot was fully booked and there wasn’t anything affordable left in town. So we stayed just east of Canmore in Dead Mans Flats – who on earth came up with that name! The Big Horn Motel was right beside the highway and a Husky station with the cheapest gas I have seen in a long time, 96 cents! Room was clean and quiet. At least on the first night. On the second night the placed fill up all sudden and we had a crying baby and snoring dad right beside us – oh well. Other than the Husky restaurant there was no food anywhere in walking distance and the motel owner didn’t recommend the Husky for dinner. So we googled a place we can drive to that isn’t in downtown thinking it might be less busy. And so we discovered the “The Iron Goat Pub & Grill“. Beautiful log home like looking place, awesome food, great service and we got a table right next to the fireplace. Not the cheapest place to eat out at but well worth the money spent. My Alberta Game Meatloaf (bison, elk & beef) was delicious and so was the coffee cheesecake came in a glass. A great finish to the day!

Day 7 (Fri, Dec 27): We woke up to blue skies and sunshine and -10C. Breakfast at the Husky restaurant was surprisingly good! Our skiing destination was in the Kananaskis Country today. Jeff has this website he goes to, Skier Bob, that always posts information about the trials in the area. He showed me some great pictures taken at the Ribbon Creek area and I wanted to try those. But I also wanted to go back to Pocaterra, Peter Lougheed Provincial Park, one of my most favourite places to ski. By the way, if you have not read my previous ski trip blogs, skiing in Alberta parks is FREE and the trails are always in good shape. Pocaterra won. There was quite a bit of wind on the drive out and I was a bit worried about temps. But then the temperature actually got warmer halfway along the 45min drive and then dropped again to something around -10C. Balmy, especially since we had a lot of sunshine, and a few clouds.

It was a great ski and Jeff decided to take it easy and ski with me. We were both using our skins. Pocaterra trail was freshly groomed and in prime conditions. Unfortunately we could not do the full loop as some of the southern trails weren’t groomed due to avalanche risk and we had to cut back down on Whiskey Jack. It was a long way down but we missed out on our favourite trails of Fox and Moraine. Neither of which were groomed. I forced Jeff to shuffle up Moraine through the deep snow for a bit to get the views but he was grumbling about “stupid” backcountry conditions the whole time :-). Lucky for me the first viewpoint was close :-). Wheeler had a bit of snow on it but since it is a gentle downhill for the most part we managed. Back up the 2nd Amos intersection – I was getting tired – and up Lynx back onto Pocaterra. A much shorter ski than we used to, 3hrs45min, but still a great ski. No moose though!

Since we finished earlier than usual and it was such a beautiful sunny day we took a different route back to Canmore, Route 742 through Spray Valley Provincial Park. What a beautiful drive. It would have been even better with the sun up higher. Road was in excellent shape. We stopped in at Shark Mtn which is another cross-country ski area but it wasn’t groomed yet. A bit later we got to Spray Lake and that’s where we saw them. Mama moose and baby moose!!!! They walked right onto the road about 100m ahead of us. Obviously we stopped. They started walking towards us on the other side of the road. I stayed in the car to not spook them until the walked right by us. Sooo cool. A couple more cars had stopped behind us and they both turned around and followed the little family. Mama moose walked right up to a small SUV that was parked on the other side of the road (empty) and started licking the salt off it. Junior was a bit nervous about the two running cars right behind it. I finally got out of the car but stayed my 100m behind. Mama moose didn’t seem to care much but junior was dancing around her ready to leave. Eventually they had enough off the two cars right in their faces and walked into the bush. Someone sure got some good close ups that day but I thought they were crowding the animals a bit much. Or maybe I was just jealous :-). But also very happy having seen the moose. Apparently seeing a moose in Kananaskis is the routine thing to do in the summer.

It was slowly getting dark as we finally left the valley behind and dropped down into the Bow Valley. Quiet a windy road to get back down with beautiful views over the Bow Valley and Canmore. We took it easy for dinner and just went right back to The Iron Goat. This time the pub was packed and we pretty much got the last table in the “overflow” area. We had pizza tonight which was really good. Still no complaints about the place. As I mentioned earlier, the night was a bit rough…

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Looking down into Canmore

Day 8 (Sat, Dec 28): We changed plans. Instead of heading back west,  and doing a non ski day fat biking at Nipika before heading down to Kimberley we decided to go back into the Kananaskis Country to ski Bill Milne Trail and Ribbon Creek. It was another sunny day and I wanted the views. Took us a bit to find the best starting point for the Bill Milne trail until we ended up at Wedge Pond Parking lot. It was cold, -14C and the parking lot and the first km were in the shade. I was freezing until we hit the wide open valley across the highway. Well yeah, there were quite a few road crossing on Bill Milne which was a bit annoying but the views did make up for it. The trail is pretty flat and even I double poled a lot of it. It was also busier than I expected. Glad we did it but I am not sure it’s going to be on my top 5 list with all the road crossings. It is about 7-8km to the end of the trail where it joined the Ribbon Creek trail system. A lot of their trails weren’t groomed and we ended up only doing the Ribbon Creek loop – which turned out to be enough. A lot more up and steep downs but our skins worked well enough. Near the top end we actually had to rescue a woman that had gone off the trail. The banks were steep and the snow was very deep and she got stuck with her skis. Jeff helped to get them off and then we both pulled her back onto the trail. Lucky for me, no crashes that day :-). Other than the steep downhill, it was a slow ski – too many picture stops, 3hrs40min.

Now it was time to finally head west and it was a long ways to Kimberley! But the day was nice and the roads easy. On our way through the Canmore area we saw a big herd of elk on one of the off ramps. So we left the highway to take some pictures. Unfortunately Jeff decided to pull of the road not knowing that there was quite a drop. And for a while it looked like we may have been stuck for good and needed a tow truck. I am sure the Albertans that pulled up behind us were shaking their heads – BC tourists. But with a bit of back and forth and a lot of force we somehow made it out. Love that Quattro! And I did get a couple pictures :-). Back on the highway we had one more close call with animals – an ermine (black tip tail) ran onto the highway in front us at 120km/hr but fortunately he turned around just in time. The rest of the drive was uneventful. It started to cloud over as we neared Kootenay National Park and it was dark by the time we got to Radium – no big horn this time around. Another 130km to go, although at the time I thought it was only 70km, oops. Anyhow, we made it to Kimberley and got the last room in the Kimberley Hotel downtown. It was pricier than I remembered and the Indian Restaurant no long existed. We walked into town and had a great dinner at the Pedal & Tab pub.

Day 9 (Sun, Dec 29): Back to the familiar trails at Kimberley Nordic. Compared to other years though they had a lot less snow and the trail coverage was thin and quite icy. Mind you they still did a pretty good job grooming what they had. And it was fast and Jeff finally got his 50+km double pole ski in. Actually he did 60km that day. I was as usual taking it easy looking for the MOOSE that apparently had been seen around the trails just a couple days before. Well, I did not see it but I found fresh tracks! Tried a new trail – changing it up from the usual 6km loop – and that’s were I saw the tracks. A nice ski under mostly blue skies. I skated for the first 90min and switched to my skins for another 2hrs or so doing my furthest distance of the trip as well.

We had already decided the day before that we would not push on to Rossland that day but stay in Cranbrook. That also meant we would be skipping Paulson for the very first time. But it allowed us to make Sunday night our movie night. We had to choose between Star Wars and Jumanji 2. Jumanji won and I loved it.

Day 10 (Mon, Dec 30): It was a drive-all-day day to gain some ground towards home all the way from Cranbrook to Princeton, a 6+hr drive. Roads were okay but it was overcast for the most part (made it easier to just drive by Paulson). Saw another big herd of elk in the fields just outside of Creston. The bigger surprise was a big flock of wild turnkey somewhere between Creston and Salmo (after Kootenay pass).  Off course we stopped along the road to watch them for a bit. Had to walk back a bit. Until a snowplow come down the road gunning for our new car parked along the part he was cleaning. Jeff was sprinting back to move it out of the way but the snowplow driver was nice enough and lifted the blade just in time to get around us. Probably the biggest excitement of the day :-). No bighorn sheep in Grand Forks and no deer in Midway but another bunch of elk before we reached the Okanagan. I think it was almost dark when we reached Princeton and checked into our usual Motel, The Cedars. They had plenty of snow in town. Dinner was at the usual pub.

Day 11 (Tue, Dec 31): The last day of the trip and it lightly snowed on us as we drove up to the China Ridge Ski trails into the clouds. One could hardly see the cabin from the parking lot it was so foggy. But there were still tracks and we headed out for our last ski of 2019. It was actually pretty nice. The trees were covered in frost. As usual lots of animal tracks on the tracks and twice we saw deer. As we reached higher elevations towards the northern end of the trail system, along Lind Burn, the sun made an appearance. Really quite beautiful but I was also getting tired. We didn’t cover much ground in the 3hrs ski but it was a good last ski to the trip.

The drive home was uneventful I believe. It was New Years Eve but we were in bed by 10PM.

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