The Alberta XCD thread

[Lhartley]

Does anyone here ever ski Beauvais Lake near Pincher Creek? Been working in the area and doing some hiking, there some great trails with some nice looking meadows for turns, I wonder if there's decent snow here ever

[Inspiredcapers]

Haven’t skied Beauvais but have done some hiking there. About 15 minutes down the road past Beaver Mines (roughly 1/2 an hour from Beauvais) is a place called Syncline https://synclinecastletrails.org/ that can be fun. I’ve parked near there a few times and took off on skis to explore Castle Falls and area. Snow conditions can be hit or miss. Stepping Stones B&B in Beaver Mines is comfortable and the hosts are great.

[Lhartley]

Haven’t skied Beauvais but have done some hiking there. About 15 minutes down the road past Beaver Mines (roughly 1/2 an hour from Beauvais) is a place called Syncline https://synclinecastletrails.org/ that can be fun. I’ve parked near there a few times and took off on skis to explore Castle Falls and area. Snow conditions can be hit or miss. Stepping Stones B&B in Beaver Mines is comfortable and the hosts are great.

Thanks for the tip on Syncline, will definitely check it out first time I get the chance. I'm done in the Pincher Creek area for now unfortunately, will be in your hood for a couple weeks but working the night shift with no time for exploring:(. Will bring trail runners for a quick jaunts

[Capercaillie]

For anyone interested in the eastern slopes north of Kananaskis, Fording River Publishing now has maps for Job/Cline and White Goat Wilderness (David Thompson Country) and Bighorn Backcountry and Ya Ha Tinda. I bought their map for the east half of Willmore Wilderness Park a couple of years ago and am very impressed with the quality. Definitely beats trying to put together NTS maps, and whatever road atlas garbage Backroad Mapbooks peddles as "topo maps." In terms of the map as a map, I like the Fording River one a lot more than either National Geographic (good) or Gemtrek (only ok) maps; of course neither of those publishers cover the eastern slopes outside of Kananaskis. Definitely looking forward to getting Fording River's other maps.

https://www.fordingriver.com/store

1:65,000 scale with usable UTM grid and 25m contour intervals. Nice plastic paper and detailed trail, campsite, and trailhead/parking markings.

[Lhartley]

Thanks for the link. I generally use the Gaia topo maps in combination with Gillian Daffern's Kananaskis guidebook. Recently with with Outside Magazines purchase of Gaia I've been reminded of the unreliability of digital topo maps and would really like to get back to paper maps and compass with GPS backup.

https://natural-resources.canada.ca/ear ... /maps/9765

NTS makes nice topos but lack trails and points of interest generally.

These maps from Fording River look really great and I look forward to future additions, although I hear this guy really specializes in the Bighorn region as he lives elsewhere in Canada and visits Alberta specifically for that region. Then again, Kananaskis and Banff is getting very overwhelmed with Trudeaus recent gift to Alberta of 1000s of new Canadians (his last attempt at a voter base) daily. It's getting really bad. I feel the Bighorn is the final frontier. Guess it's time to buy a truck.

[Lhartley]

Interesting, I thought Xc skiing as a sport was growing typically, interesting to see shops folding. Oh well, more business for Norsemans

[Capercaillie]

Guess it's time to buy a truck.

If you thought you had too much free time after fixing all your VWs, you'll love that.

Alberta Rockies NTS maps have not been updated since 1994. IMO the most annoying thing about them is the fixed NTS grid. In my experience you need to get at least 3-4 separate maps to cover a trip. The scale doesn't help. Fording River really nailed it with the 1:65,000 scale.

I've never used a topographic map for navigation and don't want to. They are so much better for coming up with trip ideas than digital maps though. But it's back to digital for the details.

Compass is a must for following a bearing. GPS is useless for giving a bearing direction at low speeds, and even the hardware compass in my eTrex is only good for wasting batteries.

[Lhartley]

LOL. We run f350's at work. Far as I can tell they're easier to work on than TDIs. But I haven't got deep into them like TDIs I guess. Just don't like the idea of ripping up the FTR in the winter in a fwd. Seems like a BAD idea. It's really not that fun in the summer either, even with a lifted scumbag tdi

I just need my digital stuff to work

Got this for 20 minutes today. Completely unreliable. Might try all trails I guess, unfortunately just updated my gaia subscription when the troubles started. Their customer service is completely useless, and I got myself blocked by Outside Magazine on Instagram somehow and that doesn't help my outlook on their group of companies. Fuck em

In the future I'd like to be more competent with the stuff besides the app. I have a watch but only use it for strava and data, I have a garmin inreach but only us it for communication and emergency. Carry a compass but never use it. Just so dependent on the app and when it fails I'm fucked.

I like the way Skurka talks about navigation.

https://andrewskurka.com/section/gear/n ... -supplies/

[Lhartley]

Anybody ski Nakiska regularly?

https://skinakiska.com/purchase/season- ... ason-pass/

They have an early bird pass for just over 600 bucks and it's an hour from Calgary. Seems like a no brainer for getting max value of skiing time. The purpose of this pass for me at this point is just to get slope time and put in hours. I've only been there a few times to test equipment and didn't really explore it. Does it get old quick? Seems like a lot of it is never open and theres a lack of snow. Im not expecting amazing skiing, i have the backcountry for that. Just need some good groomers and various variable resort conditions to work on tele skills. Norquay also has a cheap pass and is only a bit further. Sunshine a bit further more and way better terrain but its more $$$$ and bonkers parking, more of a time investment. Leaning towards Nakiska. Really wish Fortress would just open again.

[Capercaillie]

https://osmand.net/ has been reliable for me. Between eTrex, OSMAnd on phone, and map, that's 3-way redundancy.

It's been 20 years since I've been there, surely the lines must have gotten smaller by now, but... do you really want to be skiing Nakiska on the weekend? If you have any weekday days available at all, a Norquay weekday pass is going to be so much better. Nakiska was also cut somewhat diagonally down the mountain, a lot of the runs are off-camber. I didn't mind this on a snowboard, but it is terrible for practicing telemark. I really got tripped up by that on the local hill.