We had a good time trail skiing for 3 days from a base at the Castle Mountain HI hostel. We skied The Kicking Horse Fire Road (near Emerald Lake), Paradise Valley near Lake Louise, and Lake O'Hara on Dec 26, 27, 28 2024 respectively. Especially on the last day, Saturday Dec 28, it was a Winter wonderland enroute to Lake O'Hara with good but shallow snow. Temperatures varied from -8c to -1c "perfect".

Kicking Horse Road near Field BC (parks #10 trail) Dec 26: 3 of us started from the Natural Bridge near Field, BC to ski south along the Kicking Horse Fire Road for about 7km. Easy track-set skiing slightly downhill. After lunch in some open meadows we returned the same way. Car to car: 14.2km, ~200m elevation gain in 4:30 hrs. About -8c to -2c with cloud but little wind was the norm for all 3 days. We returned to the Castle Mountain Hostel about 4.00pm and after check-in enjoyed a sumptuous cheese fondue prepared by Danielle. It was a pleasant evening in the nearly full, clean hostel.

Agnieszka and David enjoy lunch at the south end of the Kicking Horse Fire Road near Field, BC

Agnieszka, David, Jacek and Danielle enjoy dinner at the HI Castle Mountain hostel

On Dec 27, Jacek had to return home to work, but the remaining 3 drove to the Moraine Lake Road and Paradise Valley. For the first time ever for me, we were slightly delayed by the Lake Louise resort ski traffic which had backed up onto the #1 highway. Moraine Lake Road (MLR) ski tracks were well groomed. After failing to find a direct route up Paradise Creek from MLR (I'm sure I exited this way many years ago), we eventually found the summer trail but dropped down to the creek later. While more scenic, the skier tracked creek trail was very twisty with many undulations (probably due to the shallow snow pack). We enjoyed lunch near the "first?" bridge and continued towards the Lake Annette intersection. Before the 5th blown down tree obstacle, we gave up and returned via the summer trail to MLR and the cars. We saw no-one beyond MLR. My GPS measured 14.7km with 270m elevation gain in 5:45hrs. Very pleasant despite little sunshine.

A tasty pork dinner with red cabbage, dumplings, borscht soup was prepared by Agnieszka and enjoyed by all. Desert was home-made shortbread by David. His trifle was consumed the previous evening. Wine complimented both dinners.

On Saturday Dec 28, 2024, we arrived at the Lake O'Hara car park at 9.30am to the noise of 5 dog teams. A company who had previously operated elsewhere was preparing some rides for tourists. Since they kept to one side of the road, their interference with ski traffic was minimal and we passed them both in the morning and afternoon without a problem. Despite being bundled up, the passengers looked rather cold.

Dog teams on the Lake O'Hara access road

Dog team on the Lake O'Hara access road

Since the road was in good condition with some new snow on the trees, I managed all the way in to the actual Lake O'Hara with (purple) wax on my vintage Karthu XCD skis. Agnieszka and Danielle managed slightly better with more modern equipment. Lunch was under the Relais shelter near the lake where it was unfortunately cloudy.

David skis on the road to Lake O'Hara, BC. "Winter wonderland" compared to dry Alberta at this time.

Danielle and Agnieszka at Lake O'Hara LeRelais lunch shelter

David and Danielle enjoy lunch at the Relais shelter at Lake O'Hara, BC.

On the return, we passed many skiing into Elizabeth Parker hut. Several were towing toboggans. My GPS measured 22.5km with 620m elevation gain. I took 3:30 hours in, 30 min lunch and 2 hours out for 6 hours total. Danielle was quite a bit faster. Despite heavy ski traffic back to Calgary, there were no hold ups and we reached city limits (Valley Ridge) at 6.00pm.

Many thanks to participants: Danielle, Agnieszka, and Jacek from C&S David for making this trip so enjoyable. Only three participants/day.