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Christmas at Hummingbird Plume

Report Submitted by Bob Truman
(trip) Date: Sunday Dec 25, 2022

Submitted: Sunday Dec 25, 2022 at 22:41

Discussion:

Fantastic trip reports and photos from contributors to this blog, thanks everyone!

The old gazebo at Hummingbird Plume is slowly falling apart. I have photos from 20 years ago when it was still remarkably intact.

The gazebo was, in the 1940’s, a lookout. Trees have grown up around it so there’s no view unless you walk over to the edge of the eastern escarpment to see the Kananaskis valley. There's a well-trodden, packed trail that takes you to the ridge where the views are spectacular.

The Swix thermometer at Ribbon Creek indicated a temperature of -1 at 12:30 pm. It was still at -1 when I returned. The snow temperature was -3 and VR45(-2/-8) worked well. So well, in fact, that I didn't have to herringbone on Sunburst and that is unusual. Sunburst gains 130 metres of elevation in a distance of 1.3K.

I started out on Hidden trail and followed some animal tracks alongside the trail. After 400 metres, I veered right at the junction onto the Skogan access trail. Lower Skogan is in surprisingly good shape. It's clean with good coverage and there are no ice flows. It's actually in better condition than the top of Sunburst which had a lot of tree debris and had a bit of a crust under the 1 cm of fresh snow. Possibly a result of warmer temperatures and strong winds at higher elevation yesterday.

The Screamer is in good shape. A short distance up Sunburst I encountered a mess of deer tracks on the trail. It looks like they had a party last night.

The distance to Hummingbird Plume is 6.8K with a net elevation gain of 420 metres. Return trip is 13.6K. I only encountered two other skiers on the trail.