Training Log Archive: Bash

I hadn't skied the Northwest Passage at Kolapore this season, and with the temperature climbing above zero next week and compressing our fluffy snow, I figured today might be the safest day for it.



Northwest Passage is a challenging 7.5 km trail that includes a 2.5 km steady downhill, some long, steep climbs and an often terrifying descent with a rocky creek in the middle of it that isn't always snow-covered or frozen. (Yeah, I fell.) The Bruce Trail shares the same route for short distances so there are always sections that have been stomped by hikers or snowshoers. To get there and back from our place adds another 7.5 km.

It was another spectacular ski day. This winter has been almost impossibly good for snow, temperatures and sunshine. It doesn't take the sting out of the pandemic but it does take our minds off it for hours at a time.



Following up on last week's totally unexpected discovery that I can earn Strava crowns by skiing at Kolapore, I got the crown for the Northwest Passage today, which is extra special for this reason.



I predict that will change by next weekend, given the terrific ski conditions.

Snowshoe with Mark and Jackie Tarno and 3 dogs.

Jackie’s first tour of Kolapore on another spectacular day. She has excellent skills from all her downhill and skate skiing experience but her borrowed classic skis were set up for a heavier person so she couldn’t get much grip. In spite of that, we had a fun catch-up on the Dhaulagiri Loop minus the climb. We were hit by snow squalls for a while, which made things extra amazing.

Darcie texted to see if we wanted to go out for a ski. We were tired but it was hard to say no on such a brilliant day. It’s great to see her enthusiasm for her new sport even though the ski hills have reopened, and she had already spent most of the day there. So ‘Bent and I joined her for the main loop in the late afternoon sun. We ran into Stephen Couchman twice! Otherwise, the trails were very quiet today.

'Bent and I went for a late afternoon ski around Kolapore, which has a *lot* of snow.



It's warming up though, and I'm getting nervous. I saw slush along the highway, which means spring skiing is coming, and I am *not* ready to give up winter yet. Coach LD and Goose are smart to go to Yellowknife next week. :)



But for today, it was still winter and we had a wonderful ski with lots of stops so 'Bent could take GoPro footage. (I deducted some time.)





He also put up a new sign to keep snowshoers off our connector route between the Bruce Trail and the ski trail network. Several groups of hikers have followed our bushwhacking tracks off the Bruce Trail, then they've walked on the ski trails. Ugh, guilt.





We ran into Mr. and Mrs. Gally! She was feeling off after getting her 2nd dose of Pfizer vaccine yesterday. Best reason ever to feel unwell.



'Bent flew down the western Wild Mouse trail. I'd hoped to take video but there was no time to set up the camera for that.







I recently discovered that I have the Strava QOM (Queen of the Mountain for non-Strava users) segment on the eastern Wild Mouse climb. Bob has the KOM. The first QOM happened by accident but today both of us gave it a good shot. 'Bent is still 2nd to Bob, as he was before - now by 7 seconds. I took a big chunk off my time though, extending my lead over the 2nd place woman to 2 minutes. Strava helpfully pointed out that I only need to cut out another 39 seconds to catch Bob, lol. I find this hilarious. Speed has *never* been my thing so it's weirdly fun to have the chance to think that way in this tiny corner of sport.

I met Tracy Roth for a tour of Hockleycrest. She's another avid snowboarder who has taken up cross-country skiing this winter. She has the right skills, and she got braver as we skied. We managed to get down most of the toughest hills in the trail network with no incidents. Weirdly, her Garmin measured 13.4 km while my Ambit measured 9 km. That seems low so hers may be right. My watch also measured 2400 m of elevation gain and said we went more than 900 m below sea level. Um, no.

We had another dump of fresh powder overnight and through the morning! I had an errand that took me in the direction of Albion Hills Conservation Area so I stopped for a ski enroute. I had my heavy backcountry skis because I expected to be breaking trail through deep snow but I couldn't have been more wrong. The grooming was as good as I've ever seen it.

I only saw one other person and he was lying in the snow at the base of an uphill trail. Rather than embarrass him by hovering and waiting, I carried on and took a different route up the hill. Turns out they don't groom that section of trail so I got to do some floundering in deep powder after all.

They currently require reservations for a particular date but you can go at any time. That may ease off with the next random shuffle of Covid colour zones.







Nice sunset tonight!

Shannon, Denise and I went for a ski tour around Castle Glen - my first time there. It's not maintained for skiing but it's really nice! We didn't encounter anyone in 2 hours. That also meant we had to break trail through fluffy snow the whole way but that's OK. I had snow up to my knees in a few places! Beautiful morning with snow squalls passing through. :)













P.S. Elevation profile and total gain is all wrong - too low this time.

Conditions were so amazing that I had to go for another ski, this time in Kolapore. 'Bent had worked hard breaking trail with Tarno this morning but it wasn't hard to convince him to join me for a quick jaunt around some of the northwest trails.