Thermal roller coaster

Clearly we are headed towards spring with a rollercoaster in the temperature department. Spring like days of +11C followed by cold blustery days at -15C. Fresh snow turned to rock hard ice… and then a little more fresh snow. Overnight the temperatures drop while during the day the sun is starting to show some strength.


Fresh snow and sunny skies
We had about a week of very nice weather early in February with a few nice (small) dumps of snow and that made the backcountry skiing a real treat. I did a mini-tour of Lac Meech on a particularly unusual day. At one moment it would be dark clouds and snowing only to change to blue skies 5 minutes later…. And then back again to snow 5 minutes after that. Made for some tricky wax selection for my skis but I managed okay and the fresh powder snow made for great skiing so I wasn’t too concerned about it.


Groomers being kept busy
This past weekend was Loppet time and once again they had tricky weather conditions to deal with. A couple of days of unseasonably warm weather just before race weekend meant the groomers would be hard at work to prepare race tracks. Of course by race day the thermometer had swung 20 degrees down the scale (coupled with some strong breezes) to provide for chilly racing. The courses this year had to be modified again but only a couple of the sections had to be abandoned due to loss of snow on the hills. Hard work on the grooming made for fast tracks and it wasn’t a parkway race which was nice to see. I headed out on Sunday morning to chase the skate race as has been my custom. Unfortunately I discovered (though I expected as much) my secret shortcut had not been groomed and was an icy mess. This meant my well planned route to jump ahead of the races was dashed and some fast thinking was required. Came up with a new plan pretty quickly though which – while it meant a little more standing around (and less skiing on my part) – seemed to work out well in the end. The skiing I did manage was on really nice tracks which the groomers had clearly worked hard to churn up from the flash frozen ice. Good job on their part. The hard packed surface meant a fast race as well with a pack of 5 storming the finish line in a little over 2 hours. I took a small collection of photos – HERE


Leaders cruising through 10k
A day after the races I took a student we have working with us out for a ski in the park. Conditions were again pretty cool (at -12C) but the main trails had been very well groomed so we had a good ski out to Western cabin and back. My student is from Lyon, France and he was quite pleased to announce that he had never done anything outside in such cold weather before - a real adventure for him. Didn’t have the heart to tell him that – at -12C – it wasn’t even really that cold for an Ottawa winter.

Armand meets the groomer
Conditions continue to warm up during the days but the skiing is still great. We had another big storm swing just south of us but the snow here is reasonable. Sadly, without a little more snow, I expect it will disappear fairly quickly as we move through March. Ah well, fingers crossed for a late season storm which is always potentially out there.


Falling Flakes

SNOW!

Finally we got a good quantity of snow to fall. Helped to fix up the ski trails in the Gatineaus quite nicely. It wasn’t a massive amount of snow (5 or 6 inches) but enough to cover (most of) the rocks and roots and allow the big groomers to get out and work the snow. The season is truly slipping by quickly so it was about time we got a decent quantity of the white stuff.



Fresh Corduroy
With the snow falling last Wednesday into the evening I ditched work on Thursday morning and headed out to check out the fresh snow. Clearly wasn’t alone in cutting work as the parking lots were jammed with cars as I finished my ski at lunchtime. Fresh groomed trails greeted me at the parking lot and they were not surprisingly a little soft (tough to pack that much snow in one pass) but still wonderful to ski. Turned off onto a few backcountry trails and got the pleasure of breaking trail on a few of the gems. After skiing the powder to the Ramparts and touring Burma road I headed across the small pond on Pipe dream and got a little shock. As anyone well versed in ice mechanics should know, the fresh (heavy) snow on the pond loads/stresses the ice and effectively pumps water up through the cracks and seams onto the surface. Protected by the insulated snow, the water forms a nice slush layer lying between the ice below and the snow on top. It will freeze up in several days but in the short term it eagerly awaits skiers to venture past. I was the lucky "victim" and the slush latched onto my skis with vigor forcing me to stop and scrape the icy mess twice before successfully escaping the ponds surface and getting back into the woods. Such are the hazards of being “first” I suppose but well worth the trouble for the chance to ski the fresh snow.



Looks crisp and clean but there is a menace lurking beneath!



Frozen slush has encased my skis! The glide was somewhat reduced at this point.
Skied Saturday with Pete on a rare visit. He was so impressed with the storm he came up from his place in Alexandria to get some actual on snow skiing in the park. To his credit he gets out on the local ski trails (such as they are) at home but the big hills of the park are always a bit of a shock to the system. His technique was as always quite good but the cardio of a climb like Black Lake takes some getting used to. We skied up from Mackenzie King’s estate to the Huron lodge and then did a short detour down Ridge before skiing back to the lot. It was actually a beautiful day with sunny skies and warm temperatures when we started but the clouds rolled in about midway through our ski. As we stopped at Huron for a break a family of deer came by to get a snack at the bird feeder. Apparently they are regular visitors to the hut and have grown to accept (albeit tentatively) the presence of skiers who presumably gawk and stare as the deer wander in for some eats. On this day I had made the rookie mistake of bringing my camera without a memory card so I got no pictures from Saturdays ski. Instead my camera acted merely as ballast on this trip but lucky for me I met a fan of the blog as we all marveled at the deer and he forwarded me a couple of shots he took – Many thanks Don!


A deer "splitting the traffic" and making the short dash to the bird feeder
(photo courtesy D. Wiggans)

Finally Sunday I decided to head away from the crowds and drove up to the farthest reaches of the park along the Eardley Escarpment road. Skied the lonely trail past the Lac Richard yurt and then up to the Pontiac lookouts. No grooming out here other than the previous skiers efforts. They had all done a fine job though so the skiing was a treat. Also pleased to see that the local snowshoers had carefully walked beside the ski trail up here thus preserving the tracks. The snowshoers closer to town could learn much from these folks. Not a beautiful sunny day so I included a shot from a more sunny trip to the Pontiac lookouts . Even without the sun it was a beautiful ski and I only saw 5 other people all day. Took a slight detour off trail to a favourite spring time glade where some nice turns can be had in the warm March sunshine. As expected the snow level was a little low yet so I’ll have to hope for a few more storms before the warmer weather sets in and the “corn” starts to develop.


On a sunny day the last climb to the Pontiac lookout holds a lot of promise
More snow this week (snowing as we speak at "press time") so the skiing is finally looking good. Shame it took the first half of the season to get here but time to get some while the getting is good I suppose.


Taylor lake