Calgary has had a couple of non-trivial snowfalls, but the recent spate of warm weather cleared things up to autumn levels. Driving past Banff, however, the snow levels by the side of the TransCanada Highway increased dramatically. It looked like Lake Louise would be in full winter mode.
I got to the trailhead around 9am and managed to find some space at the official parking lot. There was an impressive amount of snow on the ground, and more was falling.
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| Winter has arrived at Lake Louise! |
I didn't do much skating last season (I got out once ... I think ... twice at most), and I've never been very good at skating to begin with, so the trip in was very difficult for me. 9.26km with 253m of elevation changes (mostly uphill) took about 2.5 hours. I could run that in half the time and been less tired. I would skate a couple hundred metres, then take a break to catch my breathe. Fortunately, things did settle down a bit and the skate out took half the time (mostly because it was downhill).
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| The end of the groomed trail, with large avalanche slopes just beyond. |
When I got back to the trailhead, cars were overflowing out onto the road up to Lake Louise. It was a busy day. And a great way to notch ski day #1 of the season!
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