Home page Home page

Rocky Mountain Ramblers Association

Trip Report
Trip Date:
24-Dec-2019
Activity:
Trail skiing
Trip name:
Elk Pass, Hydroline
Coordinator:
David
Report:

A major storm had dumped 50-100cms of snow on the Rockies in about 2 days. The avalanche hazard was HIGH everywhere with natural activity in the trees to valley level. One could stay home, ski the resorts or ski the cross-county trails: back-country was definitely out. Though Parks were obviously scrambling to groom and prepare the trails in time for the post-Christmas rush, I picked PLPP for my first ski of the season.

We decided to stop in at the Peter Lougheed Visitor Centre at 9.30am to get the latest updates. The warden implied that it was groomed to Elk Pass, so we set off around 10.00am in -10c temperatures. Initially the trail was track set but on reaching the Hydroline Junction we discovered that even the grooming of the Elk Trail ceased. So we skied up hydroline towards Elk Pass on excellent snow, some sun but little wind.




Ramblers ski up Hydroline in PLPP in Kananaskis: Note the new snow on the foreground trees

At the Patterson Junction we met other skiers who hinted that Blueberry Hill had seen traffic so we headed that way. Unfortunately when we got to the picnic table it looked like about 4 skiers were breaking trail in knee deep powder up Blueberry Hill so we decided to forego that pleasure and had an early lunch instead.




Lunch at Blueberry Hill Junction: Christine,Ross,Clifton,Toshiko,Carmie,Brian

Then up to Elk Pass, down Hydroline and back to the cars by 1.45pm. A short day in good weather on excellent snow which needs to be at least groomed. Maybe we should have skied the north end of the trail system where much more was trackset. Thanks anyway to everyone for a short but fun day.

Merry Christmas to all readers. This snow will provide a fabulous base for further skiing as soon as the avalanche activity settles down in a few days.This was also Toshiko's first ski trip with the Ramblers - welcome.

Participants: Christine, David, Carmie, Brian, Clifton, Ross, Toshiko