The Winter that wouldn't end

Sat. 9 April:  The Winter that wouldn’t end

 

Well into April and still no sign of the hiking season.  So today I went on two separate winter trips, one on skis and the other on snow-shoes.

The sun now rises before 7 a.m., and it needs an early start to get the best out of the cross-country ski trails at this time of year.  As soon as the sun comes up, the snow gets all sticky.  Waxless skis apparently work quite well in these conditions, so I went out and rented a pair to try them out.

Not surprisingly, the roads were quiet so early in the morning before dawn.  The weather had been cloudless the day before, but this morning there was a fair amount of thin cloud over the mountains.  The road surface was dry all the way down the Kananaskis Valley.  

I was on the trail before seven o’clock, setting out from Pocaterra hut.  I quickly found that waxless skis don’t have much of a grip, and I was herring-boning up any tiny slope that was not completely flat.  The grooming machine had been up here only two days ago, but it had snowed almost every night for the past few weeks, so I relied on skier tracks, where I made good progress.  The double set of tracks soon reduced to one.

I turned around at Lynx junction.  There was still deep snow all around, and the snow-covered mountains were a little hazy today.  It was a silent and grand setting so early in the morning.  Earlier this week someone had seen bear paw prints on the Tyrwhitt trail, at the south end of the Peter Lougheed Park.  I had bear spray ready but saw no wildlife at all.

The return journey down the icy and crusted tracks was an interesting experience.  The skis made a sort of humming sound like a little motor, as I glided effortlessly back down the trail.  This is where the waxless skis have the advantage.  I had very little control, except in patches where the snow was still soft.  Most of the trail was glazed ice.  I made it back to the Pocaterra hut safely, enjoying a sandwich in the warmth and comfort of the cabin.  A couple of middle-aged snow-shoers were walking towards the hut as I returned to the car.  We exchanged greetings.  Theirs was the only other car in the car park.  The temperature had risen from minus 5 to minus 2 while I was on the trail, and it would continue to rise steadily during the day.

Statistics
Pocaterra Trail to Lynx Jn.
Sat. 9 April
Total Dist.	7.2 km (XC ski)
Height Gain	200 ft.
Max. Elev.	5,545 ft.
Time	1 hr. 45 mins.

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Since it was still not yet nine o’clock on a pleasant Saturday morning, I decided to try another challenge.  I would drive up the Smith-Dorrien Highway to Burstall Lakes parking lot, and would snow shoe up towards the lakes.

Smith-Dorrien runs the Icefields parkway a close second for scenic beauty: a high valley lined by spectacular peaks (and some glaciers), side valleys leading up to hidden lakes, and the best snow conditions in Alberta.  At Chester Lake car park, snow depth was reported today at 160 cm (over five feet).  Right across the highway from there is Burstall Lakes car park.  It did not surprise me to find a half dozen vehicles there, and the Park Ranger in her truck.  This is a very popular backcountry skiing trail, with superb powder up at the Pass.  It is also a very dangerous place up there.  Two men died on the Pass earlier this season, caught by an avalanche.

I wasn’t planning to go all the way (over 8 km) to the Pass, but was content to snow shoe out into this wintry scene as far as I had the energy to do so.  The Spray Valley floor is wide and flat here, with the trail heading quite steeply up Burstall Creek, towards the distant Pass.  

I veered away from the main trail, following a set of very large snow shoes which headed out across the open landscape of scattered trees and rolling meadows buried under deep snow.  Whoever this person was, he must have been a giant.  I am tall, but my long stride could not keep up with the large prints made by those snow shoes.  

After wandering across the valley floor, the ‘shoe prints headed up onto the forested mountainside, making a haphazard route up through the trees.  I had no idea where I was going!  But it was an interesting challenge following those tracks.  The general direction was up, and the person seemed to know where they were going, as the tracks intersected some forestry trails.  I heard some voices in the trees far above me.  Eventually after a long steep ascent, I came out – miraculously – on the main trail up Burstall Creek.  The giant snow shoe tracks continued to head straight up the forested slopes, but I turned onto the narrow trail, and set off up towards the Pass. 

The skiers and snowshoers ahead of me had beaten down a nice path, about a foot deep in the surrounding snow, and now the angle eased off, so it was easier going.  Down below me to the right was a deep creek, which further up the trail led to the Burstall Lakes, mostly hidden in the trees below me.  The trail crossed a dangerous looking avalanche path running down the huge mountainside above me.  A little further along the trail I squeezed past a very large boulder, result of an earlier avalanche.  

In summer this is a wide forestry trail, and you can push or ride your bike up here for the first three and a half kilometers.  At that point, the trail dives into the trees, and then reaches the wide flats below Burstall Pass.

By this time, at the point where I had my first good view ahead of the flats and the Pass, I decided that this would be a good place to turn around.   Almost immediately I met a handful of snow shoers coming up the trail, asking whether I had been up to the Pass.  I smiled and said that I had not.  A little later I passed a single snow shoer who wondered whether there was a loop back down across the lakes and I told him I thought that there was no such route.  That was all the people I saw on the trail today.

On the return journey I stuck to the main trail, which angled nicely down to the valley floor.  The spectacular peaks were half hidden in the haze, with a weak sun shining through the cloud.  It had been breezy higher up, but by now it was above freezing.  I made good time back to the car, where a backcountry skier was preparing to set out up the trail. 

I drove home via the Spray Lakes and Canmore.  The surface of the Smith-Dorrien along the Spray Lakes was varied.  In places it was smooth and snow packed, but especially closer to Goat Creek, it was wretchedly muddy with small and large potholes.  There were lots of people out in the middle of the wide lake, ice fishing and playing.  There were also single vehicles parked alongside the road in random places, where, I suppose, skiers or snow-shoers had headed out onto their favorite trails.  The steep road down to Canmore still had deep drifts along its precipitous sides.

This had been an active day, which I hope will mark the official end to my winter season adventures.  But with all that snow still out there, I’m not guaranteeing it.     

Statistics
Burstall Creek
Sat. 9 April
Total Dist.	7 km (‘shoe)
Height Gain	330 ft.
Max. Elev.	6,560 ft.
Time	3 hrs. 03 mins.

Statistics
Total 2 trips
Sat. 9 April
Total Dist.	14.2 km
Height Gain	530 ft.
Max. Elev.	6,560 ft.
Time	4 hrs. 48 mins.

Other Stats.
Start ski:         6.56 am Lynx Jn.:        7.57 am Ret. to hut:     8.41 am Temp. -5 to -2 deg. C Sun behind mtns, mostly cloudy	Start ‘shoe:     9.24 am Open flats:    11.12 am Ret. to car:    12.27 pm Temp. 0 to +3 deg. C Hazy sun, breeze higher up