DECEPTION PASS TO NEAR SKOKI LAKES
Trip date: Friday Feb 11, 2022
Submitted by DEMOCRATIZE AB
Particpants:
MR LEGALIZE REAL DEMOCRACY ON WAXED SKIS THAT DID NOT GRIP MUCH
Discussion:
The Ski Out at Lake Louise ski hill was hard packed and difficult to get grip on Swix 40 wax except in areas where the sun doesn't shine- yet. I had to do the herringbone boogie most of the way up. Snow speed was very fast skiing out at night. Ozone destroying space rocket fast that is. I would not doubt if I hit speeds of 90+ km/hour coming out in some spots. It was a moon light ski rush skiing out with the aid of my headlamp where the moon did not shine, although I was going to fast for the brightness of my light.
The skier trail from just above Temple Lodge was also very difficult to get grip but with the ups and downs in the contours, I was able to get some good polling to move along reasonably quick. Within about 1.0 km of Half Way Hut the snow became more grippy, but still fast. The sun was very intense skiing in although the air temperature was not real warm. The sun warmed up the buns very very nicely as it was directly behind me skiing up.
When I got near Boulder Pass I found the snow had been heavily scoured by the wind in recent days. Ptarmigan Lake had about 2 feet of snow scoured off the surface. The snowmobile track was much higher than the general snow pack. Ski penetration on the Lake is only about 1 cm on average, making for excellent easy ski traveling. The wind was behind me pushing me across Ptarmigan Lake towards Deception Pass, which is common and an energy reserving treat.
Deception Pass was mostly wind scoured but there were some nice smooth snow areas. The softer areas had 3 cm of ski penetration. The sun was being partially blocked by sun blocking airline emission trails which were acting as moisture attracting nuclei and forming clouds which was a bit of a piss off. Who gave the corporate airlines the right to take my passive solar sun warming energy rights away from me? My butt was getting cool and I wanted that solar sun energy back to warm it.
I was blown over Deception Pass by the wind on my BC 59 skis and in what seemed like a minute, I was down near Skoki Lakes. The winds were somewhere around 70 kph or so. The snow was less wind scoured on the Skoki side of Deception Pass. I was considering skiing down to Skoki Lodge, it would have only taken minutes with the ozone depleting space rocket fast snow, but I decided not to due to thinking I did not want to miss the men's 50km xc Olympic ski race. (It turned out the rece is next Friday at 10 pm PST on CBC). I timed my ski back up to the top of Deception Pass so I would watch the sunset. It was glorious looking up the Pipestone River Valley and seeing the sun colored red mountain tops as far as the Clearwater River area. The lighting was spectacular and worth dealing with -35c wind chills that frosted my exposed cheeks in a minute. When I battled my way over the pass in the heavy wind, I was gifted with a stunning sight of the top of Mt. Douglas beamed in fire orange light. Boulder Mountain was also enshrined in fire orange colors created by the setting sun beaming on the clouds created by the sun blocking airline trails. Pollution does make for nice sunsets in many cases.
I hung out at the top of Deception Pass until the colors disappeared from the mountain tops as the sun set. I skied some nice wind sift coming down Deception Pass as the skies began to get darker. A very brilliant 2/3 high moon gave me some nice ski lighting going across Ptarmigan Lake and to my dinner spot at Half Way Hut. After dinner I popped out of the hut when the skies had sparkling stars and the landscape was lit up by the moon. It was a classic fantastic moon lit ski through the meadows on my way back. Mount Richardson looked spectacular with the moon beamed landscape looking almost as bright as day.
Over the decades I have had some great classic sacred moon light skiing in this area, including skiing Fossil Mountain from the top at midnight in July on downhill skis. Hopefully I will be back up there in May for more moon light skiing.