Three Lakes Valley

Another beautiful day in Kananaskis Country.


We were looking for something scenic and not too committing, so Chester Lake and Three Lakes Valley was the choice. I was also curious about the changes to the area since this summer's floods.

The original trail from the parking lot is no longer recommended for skiers (presumably because a bridge is out and crossing the stream would be trickier on skis than snowshoes), but they've done a good job of re-routing the trail and we had no difficulty finding our way.

Chester Creek

Other than one early bird who was already on his way out, we encountered no other people on the way up.

Lunch was at the Elephant Rocks, where it was spring-like in the sun.

We proceeded into Three Lakes Valley and noticed that the first slope was heavily skied out. Heading deeper in, tracks ended just above the first lake, but the large slope on the left (below Mount Galatea) looked very appealing and untracked.

Skiing off the side of Mount Galatea

Due to the warm weather, the snow was settling quickly and made for a good base. Snow depth was 30-60cm, but because of the density of the snow, we didn't have many problems with rocks.

The slope itself was not steep enough to slide, although there was potential for overhead hazard.

Lots of surface hoar

I didn't notice much of a presence of the October 27th rain crust, but there was very large surface hoar everywhere (nearing 2cm in size).

All in all, a good day out and we gathered some useful information for later on in the season.

http://www.endomondo.com/workouts/272003107/3101909