ELK LAKE TRAIL
Trip date: Friday Jan 07, 2022
Submitted by DEMOCRATIZE AB
Particpants:
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Discussion:
The Elk Lake trail is in excellent skier tracked condition well beyond the Amphitheater Junction. Some fat skiing super heroes cut most of the fallen trees on the trail to near the Amphitheater Junction. That was impressive and made for a better day. There still were 4 trees I had to do the "cross country duck" under. The trail is not fully skier cut to Elk Pass campground yet. I broke trail about 1.5 km beyond the end of a skier tracked trail. I think I came roughly near the 2.5 kilometer point to Elk Pass campground. Trail breaking was moderate difficulty to difficult with mid calf ski penetration on average with my 205 x 60mm metal edge cross country skis on wax without skins. My green -14c to -18c wax did not grip while trail breaking. Snow speed was variable but generally moderate on the skier tracked trail and somewhat slow trail breaking.
I recommend letting the chinook winds, when they come in a few days, to knock snow out of the trees to make a better base before attempting to break trail further. Some warm temperatures would also be nice to settle the snow more.
The snow pack was significantly affected by the recent cold weather. Crusts in the snowpack have been faceted and have broken down significantly. Near the end of my trail breaking there must have been around 1 meter of snow on the ground. This was the most difficult trail breaking for me this season. It was classic Alberta eastern slope cold January snow for the most part.