A great day at WBC
Trip date: Saturday Apr 15, 2023
Submitted by Alf Skrastins
Particpants:
2 of us + a bear
Discussion:
The recent melt-freeze cycles and several snow flurries in recent days meant that the West Bragg Creek trails were getting set up for nice April skiing. A -10C overnight freeze told me that this would be a good day.
We started on the Sundog and the Crystal Lines, then took Mountain View to West Meadow and Tom Snow... then off trail to Mountain View West. I was pointing out where I had skied a few runs on a cut block, west of Mountain View West, when I noticed a grizzly bear marching across that same cut block. No worries, since that was almost 1 km away from us... but a good reminder that bears are now out and about. We returned via Mountain Road, Mountain View and West Crystal. There was a bit of "catch & release" glide on some of the alternating sun-shade downhills on the way back, but otherwise very good skiing.
The XC trails are multi-use at this time of year and fat-bikers are exploring some of the ski trails. Turns out, that is a very good thing, because the fat tires do a fine job of grooming the snow so that it provides both grip and very good glide. I noticed that most skiers were staying in the fat-bike tracks.