With the sunny warm weather forecast, 11 Ramblers decided to 'take their skis for a walk in the mountains'. The recent long stretch of warm weather and lack of new snow for an extended period of time prepared the group for doing a tour with little expectation of any yo-yo turns.

We made good time up to Commonwealth Lake and followed a well beaten ski track towards the col between Commonwealth Peak and Pig's Back.

We found a great flat spot in the sun below the col and enjoyed a pleasant lunch break.

We proceeded the short distance up to the top of the col where we were rewarded with great views of Mount Smuts, Smutwood Peak and the Fist.

Had we had any appreciable amount of new snow - it would have been a good skiing down the West side of the col. Unfortunately on this day the upper slopes were hard due to wind affect and the lower slopes were sun affected. Getting down through the trees in the sticky soft snow was an interesting exercise.

In a short time everyone was back in upper Commonwealth Creek. After a short break in the sun, we navigated the roller coaster track out on the South side of the creek, back to the skid road. We were all back at the vehicles by 3 PM. Total distance was 8.5 km, total elevation gain was 500 metres and total trip time was 5.5 hours. Thanks to Philip, Rosanne, Manfred, Bill, Arnold, Brian, Inge, Yolande, John and Nancy for joining me Kevin (S/C) for a pleasant ski tour in K-Country