Although this was an exploratory trip, I was helped by a previous day's verbal phone advice from Norman, a GPX summer track from Bob Spirko and the general knowledge of the ski area by Carl.

My car thermometer measured +10c when we started at 8.15am and about +13c 4 hours later when we finished. Rather weird for skiing as we found out. We skinned up the north side of the main ski runs until we met some ski racers in training near the gold chair. Obviously they did not want us interfering with their training so we followed their directions onto the "mountain road" and Spirko's route. We ascended this for nearly 500m vertical before encountering a mostly snow covered tributary of Marmot Creek. After a brief foray up this, we retreated back to the "monster glades" for an early lunch. The snow was soft but marginally isothermal in places.

Clifton and David descending a tributary of Marmot Creek

Carl and Clifton finish lunch in the Monster Glades of Nakiska Ski Resort

Since the glades above did not suggest particularly good skiing, we decided to ski back down in bounds. On previous trips eg 28 Jan 2020, Ramblers have enjoyed powder in this area, but today the off-piste snow was very wet and the inbounds runs packed down. However we enjoyed a good descent at the edge of the groomed runs. It didn't seem worthwhile repeating, so we called it a day at 12.15pm. Carl compared racing ski equipment today with that of his youth with a couple of the racers. Apparently it hasn't changed a whole lot. (long straight skis for the downhill eg 230cms)

Thanks to Carl and Clifton for joining me David on this exploratory ski trip that was aimed at Fisera Ridge.

Stats: 9.4km, 550m vertical in 4 hours. PS. Not sure where the 30km database distance comes from, but it seems way off. Spirko's one-way GPX is only 7.5km giving about 15km return to Fisera Ridge.