Prarie Mountain, Kananaskis

This is  Chris's Corner, with special guest Percitron, your friendly neighborhood android!

Carolyn and I went for our first hike in the mountains this season during the last week of April. We decided to climb Prairie Mountain, one of the closest mountains to Calgary, because it can be climbed in the spring, boasts a 360 degree view, and the hike up isn't too long. In addition to being a safe hike in the spring, it is also popular as a spring training hike because it is quite steep. The weather was great, the conifer forest was beautiful, and the views were fabulous above treeline (360 view at the top). While the bright sun and warm weather (high 40s!) forced us to delayer at lower elevations, there was an abrupt increase in wind as soon as we hit the top of the ridge. While the snow below treeline primarily fell during the previous two days and turned to slush under our feet, a snowy cornice tends to remain on the peak well into the spring because of the higher elevation and strong wind. The slush was compacted by heavy foot traffic, making our yaktrax and hiking poles a necessity. In the weeks of May, there have been a couple more substantial snow falls, which melted within days of falling. At this point, snow in the city seems unlikely and we are just waiting for the leaves to arrive. We hope to explore more of the ridges in Kananaskis and Banff now that the warm weather has arrived.

Chris's Corner! XC-Skiing at Pocaterra

This is Chris's Corner, with special guest Dr. Percival!

This morning, my adviser and his friend took me out to do some serious xc-skiing at Peter Lougheed Park.  There is plenty of base left up in Kananaskis, the trails are groomed, and there was a soft dusting of powder from last night that made the surface quite excellent.  We started at Pocaterra, a warming hut near the entrance to the park, and continued up along Pocaterra Trail towards Elk Pass (pdf map for those interested).  We followed the rolling trail about 10k with around 900 feet elevation gain before turning around.

It was quite a learning experience for me, because of the dry powdery snow and the solid trackset.  My heavy, wide, wax-less back country skiis that have served me so well in PA and skiing around some of the golf courses in Calgary were no match for the light and nimble wax skiis of my hosts in the conditions.  Because of this, and because they have both skied significantly more times than me this season, I was left pulling up the rear, huffing and puffing.

Regardless, it was a great trip with some really fun downhill sections on probably the best condition trail I have ever skied.  There were no trees to dodge, no icy patches, no banging the skis up on hidden logs and rocks, and no blueberry bushes to snag my poles in.  I look forward to more xc-skiing, perhaps this season (still probably another month and a half of snow in the mountains).  Although I may have to look into some lighter skis.