Well I must be some kind of fool to be going back-county skiing only 3 days after an invasive surgery procedure, but with winter coming to an end, time was of the essence. Plus, I had an invitation to check out a new line in the Kootenary Park burn. So on Friday April 1st, I met up with ACC Calgary Section member Julie Muller and we drove out to the park, stopping just north of the Vermilion Lodge.
The snow on the lower slopes of the mountain was fairly baked and crispy in the early morning, but the higher we climbed (slowly), the better it got. Near the top of the range we found caribou tracks and knee-deep powder – too deep, in fact, for the shallow slopes there, and we had to pole our way over to the steeper slope of the main face. That was so nice we had to do two laps of the upper mountain!
Then we located a clear “ski run” down the mountain which was untouched. From mountain-top to road-side was about 1000m, so, lots of turns were to be had. And thankfully, the weak sun had softened up the snow at the bottom for our cruise back out to the car.
Here’s a video excerpt of the day’s skiing:
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I saw you hugging that tree!
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