SkierRoger.ca

SUNDANCE LODGE ++

Report Submitted by DEMOCRATIZE AB
(trip) Date: Thursday Dec 28, 2023

Submitted: Thursday Dec 28, 2023 at 22:20

Participants:

A champion for the legalization or real democracy skiing on light green wax which provide very good glide and grip.

Discussion:

The Sunshine Road XC skiing parking lot was over populated and beyond full capacity with downhill skiers parking in the lot and all over the road. People were pretty pissed they had to line up 20 minutes for a bus to line up for the gondola.

Healy Creek trail lost a lot of snow in the last couple of weeks. Skiing was fair to good with some icy sections and thin snow under some trees exposing some avoidable rocks. The recent rain and heat made the conditions seem like the first or second week of April. I have never seen a melt down like this at this time of year on the Healy Creek trail. It will take 10cm of new wet snow and packing to make it good overall. I walked the first 150 meters of trail. The snow speed was fairly fast.

The Brewster Creek trail had some significant melting as well for the first couple of kilometers or so. Conditions are fair to very good on a multi species tracked skier trail with 6 cm of new crusty snow since the last skiers skied up. Conditions improved further up with nice silky snow under the crust. There are a 1/2 dozen trees fallen across the trail, some which need ducking under.

Beyond Sundance Lodge the trail breaking was relatively easy with ankle deep ski penetration. Fairly fast snow to pounce on.

At Sundance Lodge the temperature was -4C after the sun was well down.

Total distance: 21.00 Km

4 comment(s) posted

Comments:

2023-12-29 at 13:15 - comment by DEMOCRATIZE AB

I should state that coming down the hills in the dark on the Brewster trail, I did not hit any rocks even without a headlamp but the snow was pretty chunky or cruddy with some fresh snow on top. In a couple of spots I had to avoid rocks under some big trees and where the ground heat melted the snow on the trail. Small trees had fallen on some of the hills which took the screaming fun out of skiing parallel down fast after dark thirty.

I skied up the trail in the day so I could remember where any bad spots were and where trees had fallen onto the trail as I did not bring the headlamp. It was a lot for my brain to remember. The headlamp is better to use than the memory as I had to be much more cautious than I normally would be.

The crud rutted hard snow on the lower hills (with a skiff of refreshing newer snow on top) was created by wolves, skiers, snow bombs and snow shoers which made for a lot of ski chatter while snowplowing down in the dark to control my speed snow on the fast snow.

2023-12-29 at 13:39 - comment by The 13th Troll

FYI - If you cannot get into the Sunshine Corner parking lot because of the Alpine Skiers/Rock Climbers you can park at the Historic Cave & Basin area (probably a better idea for overnight parking anyway since it has more security to help prevent break-ins). The easy ski along the Sundance Canyon - Old Healey Creek Road is pleasant.

2023-12-29 at 23:55 - comment by DEMOCRATIZE AB

Howdy The 13th Troll,

Thanks for the security tip about the hot springs parking lot. I never thought of that. I hear of many cars getting broken into in parking lots. No thieves seem to care to break into my junker econo box car, likely because they feel sorry for me driving something worse than they are. With the "farm style" interior with matching masks hanging from the rear view mirror, they are also likely scared of picking up some sort of disease as well.

I used to ski out of the hot springs parking lot but it ads length to my ski when I want to take the horse/backpacking trail to Sundance Lodge. I may have to revisit that lot again once we get more snow. Certainly it adds much more scenic beauty to the ski trip to Sundance Lodge.

2023-12-30 at 16:11 - comment by Chuck

Thank you for such a useful report. This is the information we need... I'll wait for more snow!