Jasper Skiing was C O L D, -40C or -40F no dif.

Jasper -Alberta Dec 13th & 14th 2008

The skiing was VERY COLD this weekend.
The lifts on Saturday were only partially operational as the wind chill was too much for the employees. The wind chill was recorded at -41C. Add the speed of skiing to that and you could see why skiing was dismal.

Sunday proved no better with the wind chill at a balmy -39C. There was no inversion as is often the case at Marmot Basin Ski area. The temperatures just got colder the higher up you went. The lifts that were operating were surface lifts only one only T-bar on the beginner slope and the Magic Carpet in the practice area.
On the upside - the snow was quite good for the time of year. There were a few rocks on the two or three slopes that I skied albeit these slopes have snow making. Couldn’t ski the rest of the hill and the upper slopes were in ice fog so no report about up high.

The crowds were nonexistent you could ski right on to the lift - as expected with that cold weather. The skiers at these cold temperatures are all "hard core" as you would also expect, with many happy faces and much laughter. The most common site was ski school instructors and ski patrollers getting their winter face on.
A word about wax - no matter which wax I would have chosen it would have been S-l-o-w. My wax is good to minus 20 so at minus 25 or worse the wax was very grippy and glide was awful. The skis felt as if they had a binding ski brake open or something hanging over. To this you add the fact that the slopes that were operational were easy slopes.

As for dress this weekend I was layered in all three layers base, mid and top layer in the heavy weight fleece and wool that I own. I skied with mittens and a face mask of a neck fleece tied into a head scarf under my helmet and goggles. The only exposes skin was the tip of my nose and even that got whit with frost bite once. When the cold is this deep you have to watch out for your fellow skiers and tell them that their nose or cheek or whatever is getting white which is a sign of frost bite. The ski patrol were busy dealing with this type of “injury” all day.

On the way home we stopped just outside of Edson about half way to Edmonton to cut a tree and found a lovely eight footer blue spruce. We lopped it off and strapped it to the estate wagon roof. The tree would have been mulched next summer as part of highway road safety cutback program so before you lament its demise think that I have given it second life. It will stand in my living room until the needles fall off! I do love the natural pine tree smell. The tree this year was a blue spruce a rare beast in our neck of the woods. I have counted the rings and it is 14 years old. Not a bad growth rate for a 70mm- 80mm caliper I’d say.

There you have it, my report as promised

Sounds chilly!

A guy in ASDA car park tried to charge me 50 quid for a tree last weekend! Your way sounds nicer. :mrgreen: