It was a very mild day, with even more than the usual Chinook roller coaster temperature swings on the drive to the Elbow Falls area. It went from 17 degrees in Calgary to 8 to 17 to 10 to 17 again at the trailhead, and 17 again at the end of the day. The Chinook cloud, however, denied us even one glimpse of sunshine. This day, in fact, was an all time record high for the entire month of November for Calgary (23.1C)
We walked up the 1920s pack trail, which takes a high line on the slope above Powderface Ridge. The tread of this trail is quite fragile on a steep side hill, so it is not surprising that it basically disappeared after the exploration road was built in the 1950s. The trail was restored in more recent times after attention was brought to it by Gillean Daffern.
We waved to a party trudging over the snowy and icy Powderface Creek trail just below. They were surprised to see anybody above them and were not aware of this snow free route. The creek trail is in a deep V-shaped canyon and never sees the sun all winter long, creating very icy conditions.
Reaching the Cori Robb trail, we ascended the 13 switchbacks to the White Buddha climbing wall.
The White Buddha trail
Rock climber dude on the White Buddha
Ramblers on the summit of Vents Ridge
There did not seem to be a lot of energy for descending the potentially icy north slope down to Prairie Creek and crossing the creek, so we opted to drop down the ridge, which was totally bare.
There were an amazing number of cars parked on the road in the area, and a lot of traffic, including motorcycles out and about on a weekday.
We were back to the trailhead quite early (12:45) and a good time was had by all.
Participants: Joe,Carl, coordinator and scribe,Carmie,Yolande,Linda,Robert,Mohsen,Peter,Carl,Margo.