Seven ACCers converged on the Lake Louise area for a long weekend of backcountry Nordic day tours February 19th, 20th, and 21st. Three potential new converts to the free-heel fraternity joined this trip, taking advantage of the club’s loaner avy gear and finding that Wilson Mountain Sports in Lake Louise rents backcountry Nordic skis and skins. Good snow and moderate avalanche conditions promised to show them a good time.
Saturday’s objective was Molar Meadows via Mosquito Creek. Cloudy and a bit breezy, but warm (-2 at the trailhead, -5 up high), and we had several cm of fresh powder on the trail. Skins on and off we went, following good trail to the Mosquito Creek campground. From there we were breaking trail as we followed the drainage up. We Z-tracked our way through deep powder up the last steep 150m climb (of 450m total), an open treed slope that broke out into Molar Meadow at the top. Great views despite the cloudy weather. Lunch, and then fun skiing back down! It was a most pleasant tour in the backcountry; we had it to ourselves once past Mosquito Creek campground.
Sunday’s tour was a perennial favourite of the trip leaders: Chickadee Valley. A cooler day, -13 at the trailhead. It was sunny as we started but it soon clouded up and we had off-and-on snow flurries most of the day. We certainly didn’t have it to ourselves, as Chickadee is a favourite for many other skiers too. It never disappoints. We skinned up the first 1.5 km of trail, then peeled them off and enjoyed the rolling tour up the valley to the headwall. We crossed paths with several groups of AT skiers out for turns in the great powder, but it was quiet up at the headwall where we sat down for lunch. We enjoyed the wonderful snow-covered forest and dramatic mountains scenery on the ski out, and we got our share of turns (and grins) in on the serpentine descent of the last 1.5 km. Plus we had a flock of Mountain Chickadees and a pair of Clark’s Nutcrackers for company.
Monday continued the downward temperature trend. It was -22 at the trailhead at Boom Lake, sunny but windy. The breeze had a bite to it! Boom Lake is not very long, so it makes a nice quick morning ski for the drive-home day. It’s very popular, and usually well packed, an easy ski. There’s no real flat on it; it’s skinning up the first 3/4 then swooping down to the lake, and the reverse on the way out. We enjoyed the scenery at the lake, and did take the opportunity to tour up the shore a ways, but given the temperature we elected not to sit around for lunch. It was a fun cruise out though.
So it was a nice backcountry touring sampler. A range of temperatures, good snow, three very different trails, some easy stuff, some trailbreaking work, some time up above treeline, some fun powder skiing, wonderful places to be, and good folks to be there with.
