The Alberta XCD thread

[Lhartley]

Unfortunately weekdays are out for me as I'm one of the average schleps with a manual labor Monday to Friday life sentence. Hence why Im passing over the Norquay pass a bit. What I'm trying to do is have an option to get hot laps in on the way out to or returning from backcountry zones I hit regularly. With Nakiska I'd be able to stop in when passing by from tons of backcountry options in the spray range. Alternatively, Norquay is close proximity to options on the Transcanda, and the Sunshine backcountry. I do think Nakiska will get boring fast unfortunately

[Capercaillie]

Makes sense. I don't know your circumstances, but I've known a few people who were really happy with 4/10 or rotation shifts, might be worth looking into.

[Lhartley]

I get occasional shift work but, should have made better life choices and got in with teck like @Inspiredcapers. Got the Nakiska pass, gonna save the pennies for an RCR pass next year

[Inspiredcapers]

EVR is hiring. Young guy hited four weeks ago got a dozer/grader bid…it used to take years to get one. The Health and Wellness claim goes a long way to towards RCR passes.

[Lhartley]

Shadow Lake Lodge is now self serve. Really great news as this a popular backcountry lodge destination with an easy Nordic ski in with access to many alpine tour options as featured in The Bow Valley ski guide book.

https://shadowlakelodge.com/

https://skiuphill.ca/products/the-bow-v ... e8f8&_ss=r

[Lhartley]

Bill 35

The All-seasons Resorts Act

https://www.alberta.ca/release.cfm?xID= ... 64E21125A6

I wonder what this will amount to? I'll never understand why we don't developed hut to hut systems like Europe and Scandinavia. Currently options for overnight backcountry touring are limited to high end guide outfits, wapta traverse, a handful of 4 season backcountry campgrounds, or near unobtanious bivy permits. There's no reason why there couldn't be extensive routes developed in the Sunshine backcountry, along the transcanada, yoho, the ice fields, kananaskis, jasper, and Waterton. Build the train, develope a better backcountry system and we could have a great circuit system of backcountry ski touring

[Capercaillie]

Looking at phrases like "The development of all-season resorts will attract billions in private capital investment" and "locally accessible resorts that will drive revenue into rural regions" and "sustainable revitalization of underused spaces across the province" the first thought that came to mind is someone is hoping to find a sucker investor to build time-shares next to the prison in Grande Cache.

But apparently the sucker is me. In the language of our neighbors to the west, "all-seasons resort" means ski resort: https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/indu ... evelopment

It looks like someone is hoping to find a sucker investor to build ski resorts near Nordegg or Grande Cache (it is as idiotic as it sounds, but whoever "they" is started seeding the media with this idea back in September: https://edmontonjournal.com/opinion/let ... ark-resort).

Meanwhile, Fortress, a place that actually gets snow and is near a real market, has been "re-opening next season" for the past 10+ years.

The idea of building time-shares between the prison, the strip-mine, and the clear-cuts in Grande Cache isn't so bad in comparison.

[Lhartley]

As someone who grew up in Grande Prairie I totally see the Grande Cache area as unrealized potential. There's a Lotta money in GP as illustrated by decades of success of a mediocre riverbank resort like Nitehawk ski area (Nitehawk imo is fucking awesome, don't get me wrong). I have no clue what snowpacks would be like though around Grande Cache, I assume this said ski area would consist of synthetic snow like Nakiska.

I also seen talk on Twitter of the FRR being paved and a ski area developed around Nordegg. Assuming it would be north of the DTH

[Capercaillie]

I don't think Grande Cache gets or keeps enough snow. The mountains around are mostly 2000-2300 meters (and in Willmore Wilderness, which this bill doesn't apply to). Every trip report I've seen, the snow has been patchy, and I've also read that a lot of streams dry up by June.

If Nordegg/David Thompson corridor/Abraham Lake actually got any snow, and it wasn't being constantly blown off by the wind, a gondola to Allstones Peak would be absolutely sick. Of course that is not the case.

Maybe something around Coal Branch is better?

[Lhartley]

I'll admit ignorance, I really don't get out of Kananaskis and Banff enough to know about those areas. Bucket list stuff. I only ever passed through Grande Cache driving from GP to Marmot, and have never travelled the FTR north of Nordegg. I WISH. There's this Twitter account @martyupnorth and he has a YouTube channel exploring those areas pretty thoroughly (not skiing)and he actually reviews those maps you shared. I have that area on my list of things to do