Another ski month in review post! This one used to include April, but due to various issues, I ended up not skiing at all in April besides my second Alberta trip of the year (which, at the time of publishing this post, is not 100% confirmed to happen…more on that later).
Feb 28 to Mar 1 – Tasso Highlands & Limberlost (Ontario)
At the end of February, I spent a Friday with WWHSTA for a tour in the Tasso Highlands, situated just to the northwest of Limberlost. Not much downhill on this tour, and the downhill we did was pretty wild, but it was still a fun day. I ended up hitting my shin on the edge of Tina’s husband (Andrew)’s ski when he fell trying to pass me on a mellow descent on a road. Luckily, it wasn’t too serious.
That afternoon, snow fell in force in the Huntsville area which made getting around pretty interesting. After joining the Tasso group for a drink and nachos at a local restaurant, I made my way to Limberlost, where I would be camping at the same site on Buck Lake. Getting my car parked proved challenging (I had to dig away a lot of fresh snow so my tires had traction) but was able to set up camp without too much difficulty. I was also able to get my stove going for dinner once the snow stopped falling – I ended up using fresh fuel and also cleaning the stove which did the trick.
The photo above was accidentally taken when trying to check the time in the middle of the night – had to include it since it’s pretty funny.
The next day was another WWHSTA event – the Backcountry Ski Festiuval. Unlike previous events, this one was open to the public and I tried inviting a lot of ACC folks to it. I was only able to get Cecile and Jenna (who I had met at the AST-esque event in January) to join, though Jenna (who had also planned to camp with me Saturday night) ended up dropping out for personal reasons. The event started at 10am, but I was up and moving at 8:30am and decided to get some first tracks in the fresh powder from the storm. Super fun time and got quite a few laps at the old ski hill banged out before the event started. I skied with a bunch of folks after that, including a lap with Jeff who showed us a great viewpoint of Buck Lake.
Around lunchtime, Cecile arrived and after lunch Jeff took a bunch of us on a tour to the area to the south which I had only been to once before at the Limberlost orientation event. The skiing in these areas was phenomenal – much more snow than last time and definitely the best runs of the day. Once the event concluded, I skied a few more laps at the ski hill, and ended up at the end with my biggest vertical gain on skis to date (1234 meters). Not bad for Ontario skiing!
Mar 28 – Calabogie Peaks Uphill Skiing
I took a solid break after returning from the (not quite a) Wapta Traverse out in Alberta. I intended to find a good place to ski the weekend after I returned (wanted to keep the skiing up in preparation for my Mount Columbia expedition), but came down with a bit of a cold/virus a couple days after getting home (likely caught it from someone on the plane). I was able to keep up with training otherwise, but a ski trip seemed like not a great idea. In addition, my family planned to get together to scatter the ashes of my paternal grandparents, so I wasn’t going to miss that.
Finding good uphill/touring/backcountry out east at the tail end of winter is challenging. Southern Ontario had completely melted out of snow, and the USA was out of the question (given certain recent issues). I wasn’t sure how Limberlost looked (no recent beta) so my sights were set on eastern Ontario and Quebec. My research revealed that a couple resorts offered uphill travel, including Calabogie Peaks (near Ottawa), whose last day of operation was March 30th, as well as Mont-Tremblant in Quebec. Calabogie was the closer option, though with a four hour drive I would have to camp or stay at a hotel, as I’m not comfortable driving over 8 hours in a day solo on top of a full day of skiing. Thus, I planned to ski at Calabogie on the Friday and Saturday (weather looked not ideal on the Sunday) and stay at a hotel Friday night. Mont-Tremblant was tentatively shelved until later in April.
I got up at 5am on Friday after hastily packing the night before (resulting in only 4 hours of sleep, oops) and was out the door by 5:20am. The drive was uneventful and I got to the resort at about 9:40am after a stop for gas and McDs breakfast. I paid for my uphill ticket ($11 CAD) and set off at around 10:20am. The uphill route took the “Ole K&M” run on the right side of the resort all the way up to the top of the “Solar Quad” chairlift. This was about 1.7km of distance, and just under 200 meters of elevation gain. After transitioning at the top, it was a quick ski down back to the starting point, and repeat.
The morning I completed 3 laps in two hours; the first couple laps were pretty slow as I was focusing on keeping a lower, controlled heart rate. About ten minutes from the top of my third lap, I started to feel a pesky blister on my right inner heel, the same spot which kept me from wearing shoes for a week after my trip to Vermont in January. I was pretty flummoxed on how I could get a blister given I had taken (seemingly) successful precautions since Vermont to prevent blisters, including taping my heels and lacing my liners. I completed my lap and skied down, and returned to my car for lunch (homemade Mexican quinoa) where I removed my boots (I needed to shed a lower body layer anyway) and took a look at my feet. It turned out that a very small blister was forming just beyond the coverage of the tape, and I also noted that I was wearing my thin ski socks, which meant my foot was moving around a lot more in my boot. I wasn’t sure, but it’s possible that those thin socks were worn that fateful day at Stowe as well. I replaced the tape and changed into a thicker pair of socks immediately, and returned to the hill after lunch for more laps.
In the afternoon I completed four more laps, bringing me up to seven on the day and almost 1400 meters of climbing, my (new) largest day of ascent on skis to date. I definitely did not intend for that coming into this trip! The last lap was probably the most discomfort I was in skiing – the soles of my feet were killing me, the blister was a bit bothersome but nowhere near as bad as the January blister, and my leg muscles and joints were completely gassed. I definitely should have packed snacks and drank a bit more water – the last hundred meters of travel were brutal and the ski down was miserable; it took every ounce of focus to stay in control. The snow was not in very good shape all day – very granular and icy in spots, and I wiped out before lunch somehow so I wanted to make sure I avoided hurting myself seriously. Thankfully, I got to the bottom and stumbled back to my car to free my feet. The blister didn’t look any worse, which was good.
I then drove about 30 minutes to my hotel, a Days Inn in Renfrew, just west of Ottawa/Gatineau. After relaxing for a bit and drying my liners, I taped my heel and went for a short easy walk to Walmart to pick up some snacks and flush my muscles. Definitely a great idea. That evening, after getting a second opinion from my mom (former nurse), I decided to go with my gut and I elected to bail on skiing on Saturday to let my blister heal quickly. I was only planning to do 3 laps on Saturday, but it would not be worth trying and risking my blister getting larger and/or infected. In addition, I was hoping to ski the following weekend at a WWHSTA event which I didn’t want to miss. I made sure to get a good nights sleep that night (9 hours) to make sure I was well-rested for the drive home, which was a bit gnarly due to some snow and freezing rain. I made sure my windshield wiper fluid was topped up before leaving – I’ve had the misfortune of running out during a freezing rain event in the past and I couldn’t remember the last time I topped up. Overall, a good learning experience on this mini-trip – Calabogie is pretty awesome for uphill and I hope to spend quite a bit of time here again next year for training, being mindful to not overdo it like I did on this trip.
Veg 'n' Alpine 