The quest for cold snow and calm air

Trip date: Tuesday Jan 11, 2022

Submitted by Bob Truman

Particpants:


Discussion:

Mid-afternoon was the perfect time to arrive in PLPP. Early skiers had skied-in the tracks on the west side trails, and I was one of two lucky people to ski Fox Creek on beautiful new tracksetting(although Steve's photo shows that it was also in nice shape before tracksetting).

There was a ferocious wind on the drive out, but calm air greeted me at Elkwood.

With the tracks on Braille, Lodgepole and Sinclair well-polished by the time I set out, I didn't have any problems with my wax sticking. The temperature hovered around zero and there was 2-4 cm of fresh snow over last night's tracksetting. I used my warm-weather skis, which of course I hadn't used for a month, and whatever wax was already on them worked phenomenally well.

It's a rare occasion when Fox Creek has such excellent, clean tracks. I had intel that it was being trackset, so after my first go-round from Elkwood, I drove to Elk Pass where the snowmobile grooming was staged from. I did an out-and-back and a bit of Moraine which was also being groomed.

If there are any novice skiers reading this, the trails on the west side of the road are pretty easy as long as you stay away from suicide hill at the extreme north end of Lodgepole. So don't start at the hut. You can access these trails best from Elkwood Amphitheatre but also the visitor centre. The ultimate easy trail is Spruce Road which is accessed from Elkwood on the WWL Access trail.