DISCLAIMER: THIS BLOG ONLY REFLECTS MY PERSONAL OPINION AND IS NOT A GUIDE FOR NORDIC SKIING OR HIKING
ALL CONTENT IN THIS BLOG IS THE PROPERTY OF THE OWNER (Roland Laufer) INCLUDING ALL PHOTOS AND GRAPHICS.
After the exceptional snow fall in Kananaskis county, Alberta over the weekend of Feb 16-17 Me and 2 other members of the Calgary Outdoor Recreation Association (CORA) had the pleasure to be skiing in the beautiful Ribbon Creek trail area.
Trail system map
We left Calgary at 9:00 under a grey overcast sky and as soon as we entered the Kananaskis county the clouds lifted and made the foothills shine in the beautiful winter sun.
Parking Lot Ribbon creek view to the south.
Ribbon Creek trail
We arrived at the Ribbon Creek Trail head at 10:30 and the temperature reached -1 celsius. The last snowfall of 15cm, created a wonderful scenery and extremely good ski conditions.
The trail system was groomed the night before and thanks to the great updates on Bob Truman’s website lots of Skiers joined us on the parking lot.
Our small group consisted of advanced, intermediate and beginners level skiers. We looked forward to a great day.
Ribbon Creek
We commenced our day on “Ribbon creek” trail, which gradually climbed through the snow-covered trees and connects to the “Link” trail (0.8 km) after 2.2 km. This section starts with a slight downhill section, followed by a bridge crossing and climbs gradually again. This trail connects after the bridge to the “Kovach” trail (3.00 km). It was in excellent conditions and we had great glide as well as grip with Wax less and the waxed skies. The blue wax my fellow skiers used worked great.
Ascent on Kovach
The ascent to the view-point, which is equipped with a picnic table was a challenging for some but definitely worth the effort. We paused at this point conversed with some fellow skiers and continued on “Kovach” to connect to the “Aspen” trail.
At Aspen Trail
Aspen trail (1.9 km) is an easy to ski connector back to “Kovach” to descent over “Terrace” (1.00 km) back to the parking lot. It opens a 2 points to a wonderful view on the surrounding mountains. After we skied half this trail we paused to replenish our energy with try fruit, protein bars and water. The temperature was still pleasant although in the open areas, the wind chill us down a bit.
After or break we continued on to join the “Kovach” (1.30 km) trail again. This section is mostly downhill, with some flat areas and slight uphill. A wonderful rolling section which we definitely enjoyed.
After a swift descent we arrived at our last intersection to “Terrace” (1.00 km) which we descended down to the parking lot. This trail is a great practice hill for beginners and intermediate skiers as it includes steep sections, tight turns as well as lighter descents and ends with a flat section at a bridge head. The descent was very pleasant once again because of the great snow conditions, which I hope will stay with us for awhile longer . Thankfully some more snow is indicated in the 7 Day forecast for the Kananaskis county area. Although we had a slower pace today I burned approximately 2200 calories during this time according to a online burn calculator
Back at trail head
We arrived back at our transport at 2:15 enjoyed some lunch and returned to Calgary. Our original plan was to add some more trails to our day but some commitments in Calgary came up for the evening. We almost decided to turn back to the mountains as Calgary was still under overcast skies with a temperature of -6 celsius. Unfortunately we sometimes have to return to our everyday life on one point.
DISCLAIMER: THIS BLOG ONLY REFLECTS MY PERSONAL OPINION AND IS NOT A GUIDE FOR NORDIC SKIING OR HIKING
ALL CONTENT IN THIS BLOG IS THE PROPERTY OF THE OWNER (Roland Laufer) INCLUDING ALL PHOTOS AND GRAPHICS.
Roland's Blog, life and Inspirations 