The snow conditions put us all in a good mood as we struck out from our parking spot, off Hwy 40. In 400m we joined the Pocaterra trail and we were on our way.

The trail was rough but not from a lack of snow. Obviously, snowshoers had the same ideas of where to go and how to get there as us. It made the skiing a bit challenging, and that followed us to the right to the top of Lookout, where we paused for a late breakfast or early lunch.

It was looking stormy at the Lookout so we pushed off to do the south side of Lookout, and were rewarded with better conditions, deep snow, minimal snowshoer disturbance and with only a few spills, cushioned by the deep snow, the fun we were hoping for.

We decided at the Hydroline to head northwest and join up with the Elk Pass trail instead of going southeast directly to Elk Pass. We were rewarded at Elk Pass trail with a packed and tracked trail, and a lot of happy cross-country skiers enjoy their day.


Christine @ new gate - says, Welcome to The Elk Valley

We paused long enough at Elk Pass, to admire the new welcome sign to Elk Valley (photo) and began our way north up Tyrwhitt, back to the car. It seemed a long run to me, with my new (old) discount skis, but it was snowing heavily, and that added only to the beauty of the surrounding forest.

When we rejoined Pocaterra it was much better skiing, with the new snow coming down to cover the snowshoe tracks. We got back to the car at 4:oo pm, with 6hrs of skiing, and 20km distance, to everyone’s satisfaction.

Participants: Christine,Jim,Celine,Clifton

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