It's Ski Season - Please Kindly Send Us Some Snow.

It's ski season. With the late arrival of winter and the snow that accompanies it, I've been slow to get out skiing this year. Here in Banff, we're still waiting for the snow to fly. I was excited just to be getting out for the first ski tour of the year and was stoked to wake up and see a perfect bluebird sky out the front window. Yeah!

For our first ski day of the season, we decided to go for a long walk on the skis to Sunshine Meadows. For our first foray into the backcountry, we just wanted to see how much snow is actually out there and what kind of shape the snow is in. Despite appearances of glorious meadows of white snow, the snow has got no depth to it. We are desperately in need of more snow.

Into the Abyss

The early morning cloud left us to reveal a rather magnificent, perfect blue-sky day. It took a few hours to wake up those rusty ski touring muscles - but we ended up touring for about 5 hours with a short lunch break. I forgot that ski touring is hard work! I frequently find myself breathing a lot heavier and working harder than I would on any run. The other thing I noticed is that your body is constantly struggling to find it's centre of balance when you're making your way through deep, untracked snow. My back and core were getting worked. As well as my butt And my legs. Oh yeah and my shoulders. :)

Either way, it was a beautiful day to be working out all of the creaks and we broke a trail all of the way to Howard Douglas Lake. The snowpack is shallow, there's no base and what snow is out there is full of layers, wind-blown and treacherous. What we discovered was that there really isn't enough snow out there for good turns, but there's certainly enough to go on a long, safe tour and enjoy some awesome scenery. Keith and I had a great day in the sun.

The next day I followed it up with a long run, shockingly - a road run. In the winter months, there's always lots of time spent on my feet on the trails, but a whole bunch of it is spent walking up hills and through snow. I'm always running on soft, uneven terrain. I thought it might be prudent to throw in the occasional road run, just to remind my body what it feels like to run consistantly. Here's the verdict: it hurts. Despite my fitness level and amount of time that I spend running on the trails - trail running is not road running. Fortunately, the scenery was awesome and I had myself a great run from Johnson Canyon to Banff.

C-c-cold at Johnson Canyon

Upper Falls

Keith dropped me off at Johnson Canyon and I ran the 6km round-trip up to the Upper Falls as a warm-up. Well, it was supposed to be a "warm-up" but instead I was frozen by the time I was done. Go figure. A trail run up a dark canyon to a beautiful frozen waterfall - cold? Ha! The 25km run in the sunshine warmed me up plenty and with literally no traffic on the Bow Valley Parkway, it was a pleasure cruise. Awesome.

Views from the road - the Bow Valley Parkway, Highway 1A

J.R.A - Just runnin' along....

I had seen this massive bull elk, when Keith and I drove by earlier. Sure enough, he was still sitting in the exact same spot when I came running by a few hours later. I gave him lots of space.

As always, the magnificent and well photographed Mount Rundle welcomed me home. I love this view any time of year, but even more in the winter months. As well, Keith welcomed me home - he ran out on the Vermillion Lakes Road to join me for my last few kilometres. It was an awesome "solar-powered" weekend.

We Interrupt this Post....

.....to bring you the first day of ski touring season!! :)

...ready or not, it's HERE! There was a surprising amount of snow out there for our first ski tour of the season. The sun was out and we were pretty happy to be back in our sparkling snowy playground of Sunshine Meadows....let the season begin!

Sunshine Meadows - Summer Vs. Winter

Why hello Sunshine. I've missed you. I've been waiting for your deep, cold snow to melt so I could revisit you. I've missed you. It's only been 6 weeks since I saw you last, but you've changed. Your meadows are finally free of snow and you're growing and changing daily. You grew a nice, green and brown undercoat and even a few flowers. I'm very impressed. You're really coming to life. I'm glad you left us some snow. You wouldn't be you without it. You've got some great trails buried under all of that snow. They can take me to some big mountains very quickly, so thanks. Your flowers are growing rapidly. I'll be back to visit you soon, probably when you grow more flowers. You're even more beautiful then. Hurry up though, or it might snow on your tender green bits. I'll be waiting for you. Until then...

Your biggest fan,

Leslie

A Perfect Weekend - 100km in three great days

I am feeling rather happy with myself right now: a little post run glow, content and mellow, tired and happy, but still freshly exuberant from 3 great days of running. The title of this entry says it all. A Perfect Weekend-100km in three great days! A magical 3 days, with 3 great runs, totalling 100 kilometres. Each day was very different than the other, with drastically different scenery and changing dramatic weather. It was truly an amazing fall weekend in Banff National Park! You be the judge, here are my 3 runs in 3 days:


Day 1: The Lake Louise Teahouse Circuit - 20km with Greg the Dog - Larches, Lakes and Glaciers

I awoke to a sort of cold and gloomy day in Banff, but the forecast was still calling for clear skys. After last weekend in Skoki, I really wanted to return to Lake Louise and see the larch trees in all of their yellow glory. The area surrounding Lake Louise has lots of them and a the Lake Louise Teahouse Circuit is probably the most popular walk in all of Banff National Park for good reason. Incredible turquoise lakes, rugged peaks and some massive glaciers all in one circuit. With the changing of the larch, I wanted a return visit! I picked up Greg the dog and when we arrived shoreline at Lake Louise it was cold and really cloudy. We started the climb up to Lake Agnes and I found myself surrounded by the moist cloud bank for most of the ascent. It was just sitting over Lake Louise and obstructing the views of the lake and Victoria Glacier. I took a detour to the top of Little Beehive at 2253 metres, when all of a sudden, POW!! I popped out of the cloud bank and this is what I saw:






The sun was shining and it was indeed a blue sky day!! It was amazing. We dropped back down to Lake Agnes and it was incredibly calm. The larches had changed colour and it even Greg thought it was cool!




We circumnavigated the lake and climbed up to the Big Beehive, before dipping back into the cloud and climbing up to Plains of Six Glaciers. On the way down, Victoria Glacier was grunting and groaning and burping and farting. It finally let out a huuuuuuge belch and a massive section of ice dropped off and let off a big avalanche slide of snow and ice!! A little drama. Greg didn't like it. He also started slowing down a bit on the return to Lake Louise, but after a pit stop in the woods he was good to go.


On the shoreline of Lake Louise we ran into my friend Allan Lam which was a great surprise, but a bummer because I was just finishing up my run! By the time we returned to the car, the sun was shining on Lake Louise and the cloud had cleared. Greg promptly jumped into the car and fell asleep in minutes. I think he had a good day.



Day 2: Mount Assiniboine Epic - 62km
Mount Shark Trail head to Wonder Pass to Mount Assiniboine Lodge to Citadel Pass to Sunshine Meadows to Bourgeau Parking Lot.

The most amazing thing about doing this epic point to point was just how frequently the scenery changed and just how jaw dropping it all was!! The changing weather just added to the dramatic feel of the day and I enjoyed every minute of it. I was fortunate to have the great company of Mike, who was as excited as me when I phoned, last minute and said "Hey, do you want to go for a 62km run??" And thank goodness for Steve and Brenda who gave us a lift at 6AM in the dark to the trail head. I sure appreciate my Banff friends.

Our run started before the sun came up and we were hooting and hollering to avoid any wildlife encounters, oh - all day. The first 12k flew by and before we knew it we were on the shore of Marvel Lake enjoying the first rays of sunshine. It's a big lake and we enjoyed a couple of km's of beautiful shoreline before climbing 550m up to Wonder Pass at 2395m.

We quickly emerged from the treeline and enjoyed the silver wet single track snaking it's way up the pass. It turned into snow shortly below the pass and when we reached the top, the view on the other side was a horizon full of larch trees and snow capped mountains!

It was very cool to descend down from the pass and through the beautiful larch forest. We were keen to reach the shore of Lake Magog and Mount Assiniboine Lodge for a little break and water refill at the 27 km mark.

From Lake Magog to Og Lake, the scenery changed drastically. We passed through a flat sub alpine meadow, that was loaded with grizzly bear diggings. It was really different and beautiful with the changing colours on the low lying vegetation. I was lovin' it!

Shortly after Og Lake, you enter Valley of the Rocks where the trail is a roller coaster of fun, as you slalom through a boulder field from an ancient rock slide. Then the valley opens up for some more fantastic views and ever changing scenery, before you take a sharp turn and begin climbing up to Citadel Pass.

It's a big, nasty, steep climb before the views open up above treeline. The last time I came through here, it looked like a back hoe had come through and excavated, but we never saw the creature who had done the damage. I made sure that we were making lots of noise!! Citadel Pass came at about the 46km mark and I was starting to sloooooow down. When we crested the pass, we were blasted with an icy cold Northerly wind and ice pellets were coming from the sky.

The views however, were fantastic and we could make out Mount Assiniboine off in the distance and see just how far we had come from. The run down from the pass, across the meadows and into Howard Douglas Lake was a lot chillier than my day here last Friday!! On the shore of the lake, the larch needles were being blow against the shoreline, which was really cool. Last week I was swimming here, today I was trying my best to keep moving and stay warm.


When we climbed up from the lake, for our last ascent of the day there was some fresh snow to greet us at the false pass. We could also look back and see the lake and the Citadel off in the distance where we had just come from.

From there, it was a quick journey back across Sunshine Meadows through more incredible larch forest. The scenery, the sky, the larch trees were all amazing. We had travelled through 55km of vast, immense, wild, wilderness and only seen 2 people. We blast out the last 7km on the Sunshine Village Ski Out and found ourselves back at the car around 5:00. Yiiihaw! Nine and a half hours of running and 62km later, I was a very happy girl!! I love the epic long days and especially such a beautiful and scenic point to point. Thanks for a great day, Mike!!

Day 3: Lake Minnewanka Shoreline - 18km

I slept for 12 hours straight and awoke to clear blue sky!! What is a girl to do, but go for a lazy recovery run. And it was sweeeeeet. My legs felt surprisingly good, I relaxed, I drank, I ate, I enjoyed and I soaked up some sun. I even squeezed in a nap on the shoreline in the sunbeam. Drastically different from the day before, yes?!? What a great day. What a great weekend!