Tramline & Fairview & Bow River Loop Track skiing on 11-Jan-2026

Participants: Philip, Alda, Shirley, Bob, Jane

The snow at Tramline trailhead had not suffered from the warmer conditions that were around Banff and Canmore. The temperature at our start was -5C. Tramline was single tracked and it appeared to have been a few days since the track had been refreshed. Rather than ski the Fairview trail from the upper Tramline, we opted as a result of a request to ski it from Moraine Lake road. Not huge numbers of people on Moraine Lake road considering it was a Sunday. At one of the meadows we stopped to examine the "snofa" looking a little worse for wear. Apparently the constructor "Ma Sid" of skier Roger fame has not been out to the site for awhile due to automobile problems.

We opted to have lunch at Lake Louise, so took the side trail which passes the upper parking lot. As the temperature was reasonable, lunch was somewhat leisurely except for assaults by a Clark's Nutcracker bird in an attempt to get our in-hand lunches. Likely being at the LL boathouse and near the trees made it much easier for the attempted robbery. Jane commented that she had never seen behaviour like this from this species of bird before, although we are all familiar with such from grey jays.

After lunch, it was back to the Upper Tramline. En-route a downed tree across this section of trail necessitated a short detour into the bush. Let's hope this is cleared before the LL-Banff Loppet. At the base of Tramline, we all opted to do the Bow River loop. A very scenic but flat route along the river to a pedestrian bridge and then return.

We opted to remain on the north/east side for the return since the pedestrian walkway on the river vehicle bridge had not been cleared. New to some of our participants, some commented on the nice scenery along this route. Snow conditions were also fine and had not been affected due to its low elevation. Hopefully this bodes well for my future planned trip Baker Creek to Morant's curve/return on Thursday.

Some may want to be aware that there seem to have been a number of trees downed from high winds in the LL area. We noticed a number of remnants of downed trees which had obviously been cleared by the trail groomers on these popular trails. This may not been the case for less popular/travelled trails.

Thanks to all for a fine day of skiing and great company on what would normally be an earlier season trip.

Photos to come.

Bob West