Spring Skiing
This weekend was an interesting mix of weather that made for some great skiing (yes, our run of perfect bluebird sky weekends came to an end). Saturday was warm and wet. It never really got below zero overnight so I decided no need to rush up at dawn to get to the ski trails. I expected they would be soft and slushy regardless of the grooming conditions…. but I was wrong. The trails had been freshly set and I got onto the Parkway from P6 in cool(+2C), drizzly weather. The track was reasonably hard so I skied up the Parkway to the lookouts. Drizzle turned periodically to rain, freezing rain, sleet and even snow so I got a complete mix of precipitation as I skied along. Made for tough visibility as my glasses iced over quickly. In spite of the rain the trails were holding up reasonably well. After the lookouts I headed down Fortune to loop around the Parkway and here the trails started to get a little slushy. For the most part I expect it was because of the volume of people skiing from P10 and the Doldrums but as I looped around past Penguin (and saw fewer and fewer skiers) the snow actually started to get soft and wet (this time from the rain no doubt). The final climbs back to P6 were pretty slow as my skis sank 2 or 3 inches into the wet heavy snow with every stride. Glad to get to my car where dry clothes and some food was waiting.

Sunday I decided to get an early start as the temperature dropped to –2C overnight and I expected the trails would be hard and fast first thing. The day started overcast and flirted with becoming a sunny day most of the time I was up there… but never totally succeeded. Parking at P10 I skied up the Parkway and out to the firetower along Ridge. This is a favourite route for a spring ski and today didn’t disappoint. Everything was perfectly groomed corduroy out to McKinstry. Just before the Wolf trail I passed 1 skier and from there to the firetower I had "first tracks" on the pristine trail. The forest was really beautiful this morning with yesterday’s precip frozen to the trees like crystal. From McKinstry out to the tower the trail wasn’t groomed but the base was solid with a few cm of fresh snow so I skied on.


Surprisingly this was my first visit to the tower this winter. I’ve skied out to McKinstry a number of times but for various reasons hadn’t gone out the last couple of k's. Today the clouds were just starting to break up as I arrived so it made a nice spot to take a break. The ski back was pretty fast with the track holding up well but things started to soften as I got back to the lookouts. A quick ski down Burma and then back down to the car ended a perfect spring ski.

There is still a bunch of snow up there and only the lookouts have succumbed to the warm weather exposing bare asphalt. Sadly, Tuesday will be the last day they groom the trails. End of the contract year I suppose which is tough to argue with. We don’t usually have so much snow this late in the year…. okay we NEVER have this much snow this late in the year. P10 and P8 were packed as I was leaving so I’m sure there would be skiers interested in skiing as long as it lasts. Next weekend is slated to be close to 20C so even with the current quantity of snow it might quickly become marginal skiing…. We’ll see. I’m sure I won’t be the only one up there when I go skiing in the Park after Tuesday.