It really doesn't get much better especially in early winter: good snow, good weather and better company. Don't bother to go now, we skied it out!

When we left the Sunshine Parking area at 8.45am it was about -10c, but it warmed through the day to reach -5c, but with a breeze above treeline. The Healy creek trail was well packed but in good condition and we made our way easily to the campground. Here we turned right and followed a set of old tracks up the narrow drainage before emerging out onto Bourgeau meadows. As we enjoyed lunch behind a large tree, two other skiers passed us with similar yo-yo objectives.

Soon we reached the top of the first ridge and deskinned. For a few metres, it was a little slabby, but improved lower down to give a fairly short but excellent run veering slightly to skiers left to the drainage where we found an old up track. We were on about 10 cms of nice powder in hazy sunshine. I think we skied this slope 4 times before returning to the cars the way we came at 3.15pm.

The car park was thinning as we left at 4.45pm to arrive Calgary about 6.15pm. I'm told that we skied 17.4km and 1100 vertical metres.

From what we could see of the Sunshine ski area, Goatside looked very thin and probably closed. The divide looked better and was presumably open.

Thanks to Damian, Arnold, John, Lisa and Nancy for joining C&S David.

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