Living the Dream of an Outdoor Enthusiast.

Yes live is a wonderful thing and it is only through when one says:” You can’t always get what you want, but wait some time and You get what You need.”

After waiting for several years to finally realizing my dream to be working in the outdoors, the National Parks and especially the Rocky Mountains I reached my goal and will be working as a professional hiking guide for the well renowned company : Timberwolf Tours in Spruce Grove AB.

This company exists since more then 20 years and provides easy mountain adventures for singles, couples and families throughout the National Parks of beautiful Canada.

This career will not only give me the possibility to share my passion for the outdoors and it’s preservation with international visitors, but also to visit and explore still unknown areas for me during my work.

Since I received the news about this opportunity, I prepare myself by studying for the interpretative guide apprentice course at the Interpretative Guides Association in Banff, AB, as well as deepening my knowledge of the Canadian Rockies by reading Ben Gadd’s “Handbook of the Canadian Rockies“, Brian Patton’s and Bart Robinson’s “The Canadian Rockies Trail Guide“, the essential literature for every avid hiker and nature advocate.

Happy skier, definetly

Of course does the preparation for this new venture take some time away from some activities as my blogging, but I hope to be soon again more active to give all of you some more insight in the world of hiking.

Fun Nordic ski weekend. 60 k, 1300 m elevation change, Part 2 Goat Creek & Spray Lakes trail

Here’s the continuation of our fun weekend in the Rockies. After Saturday Brenda and I decided to invite our good friend Liliana for a Sunday Nordic ski day.

Our decision was not easy as the trail conditions in Peter Lougheed Provincial park as well in the Ribbon Creek area were good according to Skier Bob’s report page.

I highly recommend his and other skiers posts about the trail conditions.

We decided to ski this day on the “Goat Creek”  and “Spray Lakes” trail. These two trails combined create a connector trail in between the Trail Head at the Smith Dorrian/Spray trail, about 8km south of Canmore. This trail location is also used to access the hiking trail for “East End of Rundle” and “Ha Ling Peak“. Both superb scrambles in summer.

The trail is usually skied one way from Canmore to Banff as a downhill run and a second vehicle is left at the “Spray River” trail head in Banff at the Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel. Another option is to ski from Canmore to Banff, spend the night in Banff  and return to Canmore the next day. This option is still in our plans for this season.

Here are the stats

Distances to intersections

We decided differently: We challenged ourselves to start in Banff and ski the entire return to Canmore and back. The entire length of this ski is 37.2 km with a elevation change of 611 m. From Banff the trail climbs 435 m and descents 176 m.

We left Calgary at 9:20 and after an entertaining drive we arrived at the trail head just passed the Fairmont Springs hotel at 10:30. The temperature was pleasant and we had partially cloudy skies. The parking lot itself was not very busy as the favorite start of this trail is in Canmore.

We commenced with high spirits at 10:50 with a good speed of 6.4 km/h until the campground SP 6 ,5.9 km from the trailhead in Banff.

Some Ice along the bank

The trail follows a slight uphill from the parking lot along the beautiful Spray river, until the intersection with the “Goat Creek” trail 9.9 km distance from Banff. From there the trail turns east and  descents to the “Spray River” bridge, continues uphill and again downhill to the “Goat Creek” bridge. We had great conditions, with some slight ice covering the tracks which made for faster gliding speed and hard packed snow with some loose snow in the centre section,which made steeper ascents easier. We actually did not feel as if we are ascending much, due to the slight elevation gain until the Spray River bridge. From there the grade chances quite drastically.

Goat Creek junction

At Goat Creek bridge. 9.5 km from Banff

The ascent after Goat creek Bridge

We arrived at the Goat Creek Bridge at 12:20 after 9.5 km and a time of 1 hr and 36 min. We took some time to take a few pictures and went on.

From here we ascended over various grades until 1.7 km from the Canmore side trail head. The trail from here varies from a trackless bowl-shaped initial ascent, to track sets in both direction combined with 1 foot high center mounts on the trail. We really inspected the trail as we will return to Banff the same way.

Happy almost half way done

During our way to Canmore we were passed by a few faster skiers returning from their overnight stay in Banff as well as some skiers which returned from the Goat creek Junction 10.5 km from Canmore.

At 13:56, after 3 hrs and 16 minutes and 16.9 km we arrived at the Sign which seperates the Nordic Ski trail from the snow show trail at 1.7 km from the Canmore trail head.

From here on the trail is no longer track set and is used by walkers, snow shoe users as well as skiers. Caution  is a must as the trail descents with an icy surface and it is quite narrow.

A few Minutes later we arrived just below the parking lot at the Canmore side situated below “Ha Ling” and “East End of Rundle”.

There we enjoyed our lunch with Soup and sandwiches, a cup of tee and congratulated ourself that we conquered the 18.6 km from Banff. Now we just had to return to Banff, which would be the easier part as most of the trail descents towards our starting point.

Our Half Way point Ha Ling in background

Brenda and I at half way point

During our lunch more and more skiers arrived back here after their return trip from Banff or the Goat Creek bridge.

At 14:30 we commenced our return journey which we treated as the beginning of our Journey for psychological reasons.

Challenging descent back to Goat Creek

We arrived at the Goat creek bridge after 5.1 km at 15:26. The descent towards the bridge was a little challenging as the trail was icy and the steepest part was bowl-shaped which made a controlled slow descent a bit harder than under better conditions.

From here we continued to the Spray River bridge and we arrived at 15:45.

After this point is a slight uphill up to the intersection with Spray Lakes trail, and then the trail flattens out and is mostly downhill towards Banff. We arrived at the junction at 15:50.

I actually realized shortly after this point that I did not carry enough food and water with me for a longer trip as this. The amount of 2 liters which I carried was depleted and I soon felt the consequences, as my energy level dropped quite significantly due to light dehydration.

Brenda and Liliana

Despite this our spirits stayed high and we were just happy to be out enjoying this wonderful day. The ladies even showed some goofiness.

5.9 km from start point again

The trail and it’s conditions made the return quite easy as we glided most of the way. The sun was in our back, the mountains were glimmering and the temperature was perfect.

Soon (16:23) we arrived at the SP 6 campground again 5.9 km from the End of our journey.

0.7 km back to Banff

Our speed dropped back to about 5.6 km/h which still made a fast return back to our origin easy. Liliana, our most energetic skier charged ahead and Brenda and me arrived shortly after at the best sign on the trail so far.

At this junction we could have skied east side of the spray river towards Canmore but we elected to stay on the west side as the east side is also used by equestrians.

My standing fall at trail head

We finally arrived back at the beginning of our adventure at 17:15. And there of course just 2 meters from the end I slowed down, crossed my skies and had the classic standing fall.

Victorious three

After 6 hrs and 2 minutes we arrived back at our car and it was definitely time to celebrate.

At Banff trailhead

Here again just some stats:  Total Distance: 37.2 km.

                                                              Elevation Gain: 611 m

                                                              Elevation Loss: 270 m

                                                              Total ski time: 6 hrs and 2 Min

                                                              Average speed: 6.20 km/h

After this great Nordic ski we returned to the great town of Canmore and enjoyed and high calorie meal at “La Belle Patate“, consisting of a large Poutine Supreme and a Spruce Beer float. Definitely My  favorite meal after a long day in the mountains.

Fun Nordic ski weekend. 60 k, 1300 m elevation change, Part 1 Skogan Pass in Kananaskis county.

Smiling even on the incline

So to start: I am not sure how many of Us outdoor enthusiasts sometimes just want to spent an easy day in the mountains, to enjoy the peace, quite and clean air. Then you arrive at the trail head, or the parking lot for multiple trail heads and then it just hit’s you: “Let’s do something new and harder”. And there we where, in Kananaskis County at the Ribbon Creek parking lot checking out the Nordic trails up to Skogan pass.

The Skogan pass trail system

The entire trail commence at the Ribbon Creek Parking lot in Kananskis County and connect to the trail head at the Alpine Haven Resort at Deadmans Flats at Highway 1. The trail climbs 625 m over a distance of 10.1 km and then descents 670 m over a distance of 9.5 km.

Brenda and I  decided to only ski to the highpoint of Skogan pass and return which would give us a distance of 10 km and 625 m.

We commenced at 13:30 at the Ribbon Creek parking lot. We started on “Hidden” trail  for 3 km . From there we took the “Marmot Basin” trail to the “Skogan Pass” trail for the next 7.1 km to the high point . The trail ascents relentless from the beginning with an average incline of 5%. On some areas the trail flattens out but mostly it is just uphill.

The track conditions were good as some icing occurred over the last few days.

After about 1.3 km we passed through the Nakiska ski resort. A very busy place at this time and we had quite a few stares from downhill skiers as we crossed the area to connect to our Nordic trail on the other side.

3 km on trail 1 hr time

About half way.

We had a good speed at the beginning. And made a good progress. The temperature was perfect in the 1 degree range and we had almost clear sky and only light winds.

This trail is probably one of the most demanding tracks in Kananaskis County and we did not expect many visitors on the trail and so we were not surprised to met only a few dye hards coming from the direction of Deadmans Flats.

As we skied on and our bodies were warmed up we had to have some fun and  played with the great combination of snow, sun, blue skies and our equipment.

Our skis in the sun and shade

Brenda uses Madhshus Eon Backcountry Nordic skies and I use Rossignol BC65 skies. These skis maybe have the disadvantage to not reach top speeds downhill, but in adverse trail conditions especially icy descents, which we encountered, do they perform superbly.

We continued on our Journey and the trail wound itself up the hill. The trail changed from being enclosed by trees to semi open, back again into the trees until it follows the power lines up the hill after about 5km. The grade in the power line area variates from steep short sections, to a more gradual climb but as mentioned before there is no relief in the climb until the high point.

Views and clouds

We soon arrived at the intersection with “Skogan Loop” which goes along a view point. We decided not to take that route as our goal was to reach the high point. We also had to take the time of the day into account.

From this point on we had 2 km more to master until the high point on Skogan Pass as well as the half way point of this trail. The high point is hidden in the  trees. We only knew that we reached it as the the trail commenced to descent from this point on towards Deadmans Flats.

So here it was time to congratulate ourselves. We arrived at our return point at 16:00. Here we had a little snack after climbing 10 km. With a 625m elevation gain in 2,5 hrs. Our average  speed was 4 km/h.From here we  commence the joyous descent back to the Ribbon Creek parking lot.

The trail was still Icy so we reached higher descent speeds as usual. Most of the descent was manageable by staying in the tracks only on some section did we use the centre part of the trail to control our speed by plowing.

The entire journey back to to parking lot took us 1 hr, so we reached an average speed of 10 km/hr.

We reflected a while about our accomplishment at the parking lot, had some hot beverages and stretched our slightly aching muscles.

A Cougar killed an Elk on trail

An interesting fact from the Ribbon Creek area. A skier reported the previous day that he encountered an area of a animal kill on the “Ribbon Creek” trail just south of the “Link” intersection. Fish and Wildlife closed the are temporarily. It was determined that a Cougar killed an Elk close to the trail.

Take close to Highway 1

 

 

 

We commenced our journey back to Calgary during our favorite time of the the day. Sunset and that in the Canadian foothills.

We decided that we will return tomorrow with a friend of ours and that we will attempt another harder ski in the Rockies: We decided on the “Goat Creek” trail which connects from the  parking lot on the “Smith Dorrien/ Spray trail” 8km from Canmore to the “Spray Lake” trail parking lot in Banff at the Banff springs hotel. A 36 km return journey with 611 m of elevation change.

I hope you will check it out soon.