SPRAY RIVER FROM BANFF TO GOAT CREEK PARKING LOT AND BACK
Trip date: Thursday Feb 02, 2023
Submitted by DEMOCRATIZE AB
Particpants:
A champion to legalize your right to introduce and vote on government bills skiing on 210 Madshus Voss metal edge long narrow light boards.
Discussion:
The chinook winds were blowing today which dumped some mixed dead tree debris into the tracks slowing things down a tad. The Spray River West Trail was generally fast with a few sections that were slower due to detritus in the tracks at night. Judging by the feel of the skis under the diffused moon light, it felt like low to low moderate amounts of track debris with moderate levels under some trees on the out track. A good 1 cm of new snow should cover most of it up. There are no rocks on the trail that I saw. Skate skiing was my preferred method to ski much of the trail as it was faster than classic in most areas.
The Goat Creek Trail had somewhat different conditions. My Green Swix wax was not very effective for grip. The snow was Lightening Hopkins fast on the lower part of the trail which was sweet. Skiers had skied off some of the new snow on the trail leaving firm snow in the middle of the track. As I climbed up the trail I side stepped some of the hills wider. This came in handy skiing down to reduce speed on some corners and at the Goat Creek death bridge at night.
The upper 2/3 of the Goat Creek trail to the parking lot was generally moderate speed skiing only. The snow blowing from the trees was somewhat slower to ski on. Also there was low to moderate levels of tree debris in the tracks which slowed things down a bit as well. Skiing up one fairly steep hill the wind was so good it actually blew me up the hill which was nice. I was blowing in the wind (uphill) as Bob Dylan would say.
I was surprised that the Goat Creek Parking Lot seemed to have disappeared, unless it was buried in snow but I don't think so. I skied through it checking out all the crazy gates and signs that the UCP wasted money on along with piling up of rocks in areas to, what appears, eliminate car parking. Sign sign everywhere a sign in the old parking lot now. Don't do this and don't do that as the great Five Man Electric Band song goes. One gate was open for bus parking only. It appears that car parking may be eliminated and that people will have to take some drag bus to be unloaded for skiing down the Goat Creek Trail. Some bus company will be raking in the cash with the elimination of parking as it appears. This will reduce the winter skiing popularity of the trail. With the United Conservative Party undemocratically eliminating ski parking access up there, they must be pissing a lot of people off. This is just the start of such undemocratic car access closures in Kananaskis Country. Less freedom is what happens when the Conservatives unsustainably over grow the economy which is also political code word for over growing the population. They are mutually inclusive pretty much.
Skiing down the upper 2/3 of the Goat Creek trail was also slower than I liked because of the wind I was skiing into. The trees were blowing into each other and swaying at least 15 feet at the tops. The forest was alive with the sounds of creaking and cracking trees. Once I skied down further, the bottom 1/3 of the trail was as fast as a Tesla on steroids or perhaps lightening. The wind did not matter at that point.
I was hoping to get some comet viewing but it was too cloudy at night. When I skied around one corner on the Spray Trail for a fraction of a second I thought I was seeing interesting colored lights in the sky. It turned out to be the unsightly light pollution of the foreign corporate owned Banff Sulphur Mountain Gondola station lights at the top of the mountain which have no place in a national park, just like all the clearcutting and burning going on in Banff.
Overall a good day of skiing today but if the chinook winds keep dumping debris in the tracksets, things will significantly worsen in the coming days without new snow.