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First Skogan Pass Ski Ascent of this Winter!

Report Submitted by Little Bs
(trip) Date: Thursday Nov 03, 2022

Submitted: Saturday Nov 05, 2022 at 17:55

Participants:

The Little Bs, the Kazama Mountain Highs, Mike W and Carl V M

Discussion:

Sorry about this late report, but it's hard to type when you're a pair of skis. You may remember us from reports that Mike W posted last season. If not, please check out "The Little B's Make a New Friend!" at https://www.skierroger.ca/index.php?content=showski_basic&id=1099. Skogan Pass trip report coming up, but first some breaking news!

Mike W rescued us from Switching Gear in Canmore last winter - https://www.skierroger.ca/index.php?content=showski_basic&id=1054. Since then, we've had many exciting ski adventures together as reported here on SkierRoger. But a lot has happened since our last winter trip! We had several visits from PINKSS (Protection of Innocent Neglected Kid Skis Society). They found Mike W was taking such great care of us, they gave him permission to officially adopt us! And a week later Cecilie Skog, the world-renowned Norwegian adventurer, agreed to be our godmother! For how we first met, see https://www.skierroger.ca/index.php?content=showski_basic&id=1099. And to top it all off, Skier Roger gave us our own user account as an adoption present! So this is our very first report of many:

Eager for our first ski of the season, we checked the Nakiska webcams where it looked like the Skogan Pass trail would have snow all the way down to the bottom. So we set out with Dad, and a pair of Kazama Mountain High skis along with their guardian Carl V M. We parked at Nakiska at 10am: -8C, sunny, calm. At the bottom, there was at best 10cm of snow with 9cm ski penetration over a dirt base. It increased to (spoiler alert!) 40cm of snow with 30cm ski penetration near the top! No bare spots along the bottom section, but we occasionally felt something hard underneath. There was a pair of ski tracks that ended once we reached the short section where the trail coincides with a snowcat track.

Beyond that, it was only pure clean fresh wonderful snow underneath! Photos #1, 2, 3. Although we'd been to Hummingbird Plume before - https://www.skierroger.ca/index.php?content=showski_basic&id=1054, we decided to not do any side loops on the way up because we wanted to make sure we'd get to the Pass. The trailbreaking became increasingly difficult as the snow depth increased. At the top of the Skogan Pass Loop the Kazama Mountain Highs briefly considered turning around because they had been all the way to the top many times before. But once they found out this would be our first time, they happily agreed to continue. One hour of hard trailbreaking finally brought us to the pass, and the glorious view toward Canmore - photo #4. We took a well-deserved rest leaning against a power pole - photo #5, and then enjoyed the fun descent back to the car. A great start to the season!

P.S. Watch out for the big tree across the trail about 20m downhill from the lower Skogan Loop - Skogan Pass junction!


Total distance: 19.00 Km

This snow feels great!

Dad breaking trail.

The Kazama Mountain Highs and their guardian Carl.

Our first time at the top of Skogan Pass!

Taking a well-deserved break at the top.


Tickled Pink on Marmot Creek
The Little B's Make a New Friend!

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