It was a bluebird sky day for most of the day with bright sun. This helped to ease the pain about snow conditions on some sections of the route. The original weather forecast (before the trip was called) had indicated some snow for Thursday night which never materialized, nor did a lighter snow forecast for Friday night. We headed out shortly after 9:00am less one member. Their car was in the parking lot but their person was nowhere to be found. We surmised they were likely ahead of us.

Conditions on the ski-out were hard snow but two of us managed to get up on special blue wax while one used half skins and the others full skins.

Climbing the Lake Louise Skiout

We regrouped at the edge of the final downhill ski run above Temple Lodge and removed skins. The snow on the ski trail was a definite improvement over the ski-out but was still quite crusty and hard. Gradually the snow improved as we climbed to the pass.


The meadow near the Halfway Hut

Some skinned up and others walked the last section to Boulder Pass. There was minimal wind until we climbed to near the top but still relatively light.At the Pass the snow was rock hard as usual and we found our missing participant.


At Boulder Pass looking across Ptarmigan Lake

Turned out they misread the start time thinking that the meet time at Valley Ridge was actually the trailhead meet time. Oh well!


Skiing across Ptarmigan Lake

The ski across Ptarmigan Lake was on hard wind blasted snow with the wind at our back.


Looking across Ptarmigan Lake to Fossil Mountain & Deception Pass

Climbing to Deception Pass

As the snow up to Deception Pass was wind blasted and rock hard, all skinned up. We watched a few overnighters returning from Skoki Lodge come down while we ascended and could see the descent to Ptarmigan Lake was going to be challenging. Nearer to the top there was some wind deposited powder snow off the snowmobile track. At the Pass some removed skins while the half skinners left them on. The upper part was fairly hard and wind blasted.

The upper descent from Deception Pass to Skoki Lodge

After we got down closer to the trees the snow seemed less hard and there was more consolidated powder to ski.


Coming into the trees on the way to Skoki Lodge

It turned out to be a reasonable ski down. We arrived at the Lodge about 1:45pm and most of us had lunch inside the Lodge.


Skoki Lodge in winter

Some even had soup, tea and cookies provided by the lunch staff. Jane arrived about 15 minutes after us with her son and his partner. They had left about the same time behind us.


The friendly birds alight at Skoki LOdge

An item of note for those that may want to ski the Skoki, Little Pipestone and Big Pipestone Loop, the Lodge manager indicated he may pack the route down to the Pipestone using the snowmobile in March. I gave him my email so he can notify us as to when when it is done. This is a route I would like to ski this year preferably as a Rambler trip.

About 1/2-3/4 hour later we left to start the climb up to Deception Pass.

Getting ready to go after lunch

Most of us found this to be longer than they remember and somewhat tiring. At the pass, those with full skins removed them while the half-skinners left them on. The descent was not pretty. The group got down through a combination side-slipping, snow plowing, side stepping and ultimately some walking. A challenging descent for sure. The ski across the lake was windy with some blowing snow. At Boulder Pass some walked while others skied the traverse which was rock hard as usual.

Once into the trees, the snow had improved and was softer with the sun on it. The ski to above Temple Lodge I would say was quite enjoyable.

Descending the trail between Halfway Hut and Temple Lodge

This left the ski-out to navigate. This proved to be much better due to downhill skiers packing it and it appeared to be somewhat softer snow, facilitating a reasonable snowplow on steeper sections. Jane's gang passed us about 1/2 the way down the skiout. The last of us arrived back at the cars around 5:45pm well before dusk but we were the last cars in the parking lot. Of note, there were two participants on this trip newer to this type of skiing (particularly the downhill sections) and they did quite well considering the challenging conditions.

Thanks to Simon and Bill for photographs documenting the trip. Much appreciated.

A big thank you to participants: Bill, Terry, Damian, Simon, Toshiko for toughing out the snow conditions on some sections and for good company and conversation during the trip. Thanks to Bill for assisting monitoring the back of the group on the descents and showing the participants newer to this type of skiing things that could help with their technique on descent.

The stats as per Simon were:
8.5 hours total (4.5 hours to the Lodge, 30 minutes lunch and 3.5 hours back to the cars)
1133m Elevation Gain
28.5 km's total.

Bob C/S