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big blue beanie : ADDENDUM

Report Submitted by aqua toque
(trip) Date: Wednesday Mar 15, 2023

Submitted: Thursday Mar 16, 2023 at 18:31

Participants:

aqua toque



Discussion:

Here is some additional information 3 days subsequent to the trip Masid and I did into this particular objective. I headed back with the intention of using the track we set to the top of the run for the purpose of investigating access to terrain above and beyond on Quirk Ridge.

There had only been a few cms of new snow so the track was easy to follow and it was interesting to see how all manner of critters, big and small, had made use of it. One individual with rather large paws followed it for quite some way along the Elbow. He seemed to have had issues at the first boulder-strewn section and bailed at that point (wimp).

In the Quirk Creek drainage a herd of horses had post-holed the dickens out of the trail! How do I know it was horses you ask? Well, they left unmistakable "trail apples" along the path.

Only to say, all of this reminded me of a comment I had made to MaSid alluding to the valuable and selfless public service we were providing by setting this track!

The findings on Quirk Ridge were moderately moderate and some details are included in the photo captions below.

Acceptable but far from optimal TC2T (again, turns close to town, see acronyms) were had on the ski down BBB. The top 2/3 of the run was about the same as the last trip in. Lower down variable weather had resulted in a variety of sun crust, wind crust, melt-freeze crust and crusty bun crust.


Total distance: 0.50 Km

The glorious morning sun on the flats after crossing the Elbow. You most likely recognize this shot from the closing scene of the movie "Ice Bridge".

Evidence of, you guessed it, the Mustard Men! Our previous tracks were still visible. Must be quite a treat to see on final appoach to YYC.

End of the line on big blue. From here the view of high point on Quirk Ridge is quite foreshortened. There is a lot of forested real estate consisting of tight (sometimes shoulder-width) skinny trees to get through in order to gain the ridge. That being said, the surpising lack of deadfall meant you could pretty much pick your line.

Anywho, I made my way to this point where I broke out into the open. On paper this would appear to be an awesome ski run. Upon closer inspection one notes that it gets afternoon sun and indeed, it had been melted off to the point that grass was showing in places. I pulled the plug here. It might be worth a look in another year or another life.

Mandatory mustard jacket shot.

An interesting aside. On the way out I came across this bent and tormented ski pole frozen in the rocks and ice along the Elbow. Could it have belonged to some unfortunate soul who met their demise in search of big blue beanie? I guess we'll never know.



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