October 14, 2011 (Canmore, Alberta) – Although the leaves are only just beginning to drop from the trees in Canmore the ski season is set to start in just a few days! The crew at the Canmore Nordic Centre have been working hard over the past few days to spread out a huge pile of snow that was stored from last winter. The snow was kept insulated under a blanket of sawdust through the summer and is now almost ready for skiing.
Snow moved in by dump trucks waiting to be spread out on a section of trail.
More snow waits to be groomed as they work on connecting this end of the trail to the end in the previous photo.
The two ends close to meeting as the trail snakes up through the trees and behind the Biathlon range.
The snow has been spread and is just waiting to be groomed…
The trail emerges from the trees to the left of the biathlon range and looks like it will continue up the hill parallel to the Banff Trail as it leaves the Stadium area.
A section of trail behind the Biathlon range almost complete!
And the source of the snow, a giant pit that was filled with snow last winter.
The operation to get the snow from the stockpile to the trails is quite the process. There looks to be a reasonable amount of snow left in the stockpile so connecting the remaining trails shouldn’t be an issue.
My guess is that by the time all the snow is moved out, there should be between 2 and 3km of skiing and that’s on a base of around 1-2 feet! It’s good to see that they haven’t stretched the snow too thin because although it’s supposed to freeze most nights temps are still climbing well above zero during the day for the next week.
It looks like the skiing at the Nordic Centre could be ready as soon as Saturday (Oct 15th) or as late as Monday Oct 17th. Check out @CanmoreNordicPP on Twitter for more updates on trail conditions and also look for news on Monday as Cross Country Canada holds a media conference to unveil the 2011 National Ski Team and officially open the ski loop being touted ‘Frozen Thunder’!