The past few days have been pretty close to perfect skiing in the park. Comfortable temperatures and fresh snow have made for some really nice skiing. Saturday, with a few inches of fresh snow down, last week’s hard, icy tracks had been transformed. Not to say that the icy tracks – with their infinite glide - aren’t enjoyable but the new snow is what it’s all about. Everything was groomed up nicely on Saturday so I chose to skate some of the staples of the park as well as getting onto the Camp Fortune race trails. The race trails are less used by park skiers but they offer some really nice twists and turns and have a nice rhythm to them. Granted they don’t go anywhere per se as you end up right back where you started but they’re still a lot of fun. Sunday brought a few more inches of fresh snow so I strapped on the classic skis and headed onto the smaller trails to take in some powder. Despite my late start I even got to break in a few of the tracks… but I missed out on first tracks of some of the more sweet lines – gotta set my alarm earlier. I spent 5 hours randomly roaming along the trails and - had I brought enough food and water - I might still be up there. Monday brought different conditions again. The trails were now skied in and pretty fast but the temperature had dropped (to -10 C not too bad really) but a stiff breeze had blown up making it pretty cold in the open. Bryan had taken the day off work so I met up with him at Western for lunch. I would suspect Western to be pretty quiet on a Monday lunchtime but today was “ski day” for some local high school and there were kids everywhere (along the trails, in the huts) enjoying the snow. Bryan had nabbed the last two seats in the hut so we managed to enjoy lunch amidst the din. We also managed to avoid the bulk of the kids on the trails in the afternoon thanks to the teacher who ANNOUNCED SEVERAL TIMES AT HIGH VOLUME their route for the rest of the day. From Western we skied out to the Ramparts before catching back on to Western trail and then along Ridge and back down to P7. Some of these trails were a first for Bryan so there was lots of added excitement at a few of the drops. Conditions are fast now that the trails have been skied in but there’s lots of soft snow on the side should one have to ditch so no worries.

Certainly a great few days on the trails and it makes all the bitter cold, dark nights of skiing in January worth it to get out and fully enjoy the trails in prime shape now. It also reminds me that the season is slowly approaching an end. Only another month of guaranteed good skiing and then…. Maybe a few days(a week? 2?) into April … base willing. Time to make sure I get all my ski plans (tracks to ski, places to go) in place before I have to coat the boards in storage wax and put them on the shelf for another year.

Have you skied Charlie's descente yet this year? Times running out!