Hilda, Parker Ridges Off-Trail skiing on 26-Mar-2023

Excellent: good north facing snow, sunny skies, nice warm sun, cozy hostel with everything working, good company. What more could you want?

While the forecast for these 4 days was for a sun/cloud mix with cold (-20c) overnights, it was out to lunch and we had 4 days of glorious warm sunshine and estimated nights about -10c.
On day1, Sunday, we met at Lake Louise and drove in convoy to Bow Lake where we checked out possible skiing. Since most everywhere including Bow summit and Crowfoot glades looked skied out we continued to Hilda Hostel and initially tried above on Parkers Ridge which faces east. This was crusted so we headed up Hilda Ridge and found some reasonable powder on its NE aspects, before settling in the hostel. The usual difficultly with starting the propane heaters was resolved by patient Gordon.
Day2, Monday we headed back up Hilda Ridge looking for north facing powder. We followed an old uptrack to a high outlier of Hilda Peak before enjoying an excellent powder descent to the old road about 1 km north of the hostel. Slightly crusty higher up and a bit tight in the lower trees before dropping sharply onto the tracked road. I name this Hilda northeast. Pretty darn good. Ed excelled at cards.
Day3, Tuesday dawned bright and sunny. so we headed as for Monday but looking for Boundary Lake where old MIN reports indicated good north facing ski slopes. We found the lake but thought the slopes too steep and unconsolidated for our liking. However, further south, more moderate slopes provided excellent virgin powder before returning to the hostel via the old road. Once again Ed showed his card prowess but was dethroned in a cut throat playoff won by Kim.
Day4, Wednesday we cleaned and vacated the hostel by 10.00am before deciding on northeast Hilda Ridge once again. It did not disappoint and we enjoyed 2 or 3 shorter runs before returning to our cars by 2.30pm. On dry roads the return drive was uneventful. Calgary and Canmore were about +6c.
On the middle two days we skied approx 10km and 700-1000m vertical in about 6 hours (some did more than others). On the first and last day we skied less. Thanks to all for making this trip most enjoyable.