It was a "white knuckle" drive between Kananaskis Trail junction and Dead Man's Flats with two cars recently plunged into the ditch. A number of participants commented about the drive.

Sun on the Mountain Tops - Bow Valley

. Due to the road conditions and some late arrivals we were a little slower at getting to the car shuffle. Once at Lake Louise we found the course marking flags on the lake and hit the trail about 10:45am.Temperature was -15C.


Gang at Start Point of LL to Banff Loppet

Coming off the lake - LL to Banff Loppet

The first part goes around the parking lot and over to and down the Tramline trail. About halfway down we encountered Ron's group coming up. We had regular regrouping to make sure that no one got lost with the many trail junctions. From the base of the Tramline the route proceeds along the west side of the river, crossing Louise Drive and through the edge of the campground.

Skiing Through the Campground - LL to Banff Loppet

It then follows the Bow River trail and crosses the river at the pedestrian bridge. This section had reasonable tracksetting covered somewhat by new snow.

Shortly after the pedestrian bridge, the trail veers off to head towards the railway crossing using a dead end service road. From here the trail was skier set although easy to follow with flags marking the way at strategic points.Eventually we came to the highway crossing under the bridge across the Bow River. It was necessary to be careful as there were stones under the snow under the eastbound bridge. Under the westbound bridge it was a little better with minimal stones under the snow. From the bridge the route climbs up to the former 1A highway (before it was rerouted to the new overpass).We had lunch in a meadow in the sun near the former junction of this old and new highway at about 12:20. Temperature at luch was -10C.

After lunch we skied to near the end of this road and then headed into the trees. The route seems to be an old wide trail alongside the river. Eventually, it climbs up to the road near Morants Curve, the location of the famous train photo by CPR photographer Nick Morant. I would say that this section was quite interesting and scenic. Almost all of us chose to walk along the road although one skied atop the massive drift beside the road for awhile. It is not possible to ski this section off the road as the edge of the road drops right to the river and is built up with concrete slabs. The walk was about 300m. but there was little traffic to dodge.

Gang at Morant's Curve - LL to Banff Loppet

Once past Morants Curve the trail follows the railway for quite a distance to Baker Creek, I let the "speedsters" fly on this section encouraging them to find a place in the sun close to Baker Creek Chalets. One train on this section had a conductor who gave a number of blasts to his horn, probably to encourage us on. Surprisingly, we encountered a group of skiers traveling in the opposite direction to us. I later learned this was a group coordinated by Helen Read out of Canmore from Skier Rogers website trip reports. As we neared Baker Creek our slower group encountered part of the forward group (medium Speedsters) at a trail junction. It seems part of the group (fast speedsters) had taken one trail but since there were no flags the proper direction was uncertain, I suggested to this group to take a break while I checked out the other trail. It brought me to Baker Creek with a trail heading up to the chalets, Turns out it was a minor diversion and I saw the rest of the group (fast speedsters) lounging at a table with Adirondack chairs living "the life of Riley" in the sun at Baker Creek Chalets. With the help of Damian we signaled to the others to come up to the picnic table.

A brief time to get the group organized and we were on our way again. The route crosses the highway at Baker Creek and requires a 50m. walk to get to the trailhead at the Baker Creek Day use area. There is next a nice downhill run under the hydro-lines to the road crossing at the Protection Mountain Campground. The route then follows the railroad for quite a way until it climbs up a hill to a nice viewpoint.

Damian enroute - LL to Banff Loppet

A slight downhill and then a second lesser viewpoint. The final section is through the trees to a road crossing Hwy 1A and then a short distance thereafter to the Castle Lookout Parking Lot. We arrived back at the cars about 4:45pm.

A quick car shuffle to Lake Louise PL and we were heading home. We were all wondering how bad the highway was going to be driving it in the dark. But it turned out to be significantly better although the wind was still blowing snow across it.

Thank you to all participants: Yolande, Damian, Shirley, Inge,Celine, Jane, Barbara, Jim, guest David Heath for joining me on this epic ski, for good company and keeping the group together at requested regrouping locations. We had quite a diversity in speed of participants but it all worked extremely well and thanks go to Jim for assisting in this.

Many thanks to Celine for providing pictures of the trip.

Bob C/S