SkierRoger.ca

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2024-03-28 at 19:46 - comment by Mike W

Henry L - Fortunately my Sporten skis feature a stainless steel top cap. The ski designers had clearly anticipated this sort of situation.

2024-03-28 at 19:11 - comment by MaSid

Watch the Val Kilmer movie, The Salton Sea, to fully develop a fear of badgers.

2024-03-28 at 19:01 - comment by aqua toque

Yikes! That thing came out of nowhere!

Typical behaviour though.

2024-03-28 at 18:39 - comment by HenryL

Mike, you did a great editing job of sanitizing the badger image, which you had sent me unabridged. I can understand that, seeing as young folk could stumble on these pages.

Thanks for taking us along on your trip up to these remote cabins!

Badger attack along Pipestone. This was real, unlike the recently reported Cougar attack.

2024-03-28 at 18:30 - comment by ulrikeski

Great report and photos. Definitely a less travelled place in winter.

Little Pipestone Cabin

Report Submitted by Mike W
(trip) Date: Wednesday Mar 27, 2024

Submitted: Thursday Mar 28, 2024 at 17:47

Participants:

Me on my Sporten Explorer 64s

Discussion:

Skied to Little Pipestone Cabin yesterday for the first time. Unfortunately the day was cloudy, so there weren't great views. Fortunately the day was cloudy, so the barely supportive crust didn't break down! From the Pipestone parking lot, I skied the E section of Pipestone Loop (#20) to the end of the grooming. From there, I followed the existing skier tracks on the Pipestone River. Although the skier tracks were solid, I could easily break through the crust with a firm pole plant even though I had alpine baskets. So double-poling was not an option, and I had to moderate my pole use while diagonal striding. The snowpack consisted of about 5cm of fresh snow on top of several crust layers, each 1-2cm thick and separated from each other by about 5cm of loose snow. Only the top crust layer provided any support, and only for skis (photo 1). When breaking trail in Point Camp Meadows (where the existing tracks ended), the crust was occasionally not supportive enough even for skis (photo 2).

Total distance: 39.00 Km

Photo 1

Photo 2 A breakthrough moment!

In the 3km long Point Camp Meadows, the river braids into a dozen or more streams and you have to continually find snow bridges to cross between them. I kept generally to the left (facing upstream) so I'd never be too far from the summer trail on that side. Near the far end I broke trail through a spooky forest. Wild badger country perhaps?