m y T r i L i f e

Skier's Paradise

A perfect day for skiing yesterday here in Sherwood Park. With temperatures finally rising close to zero, I grabbed my ski's and drove out to the Strathcona Wilderness Centre. Conditions on the trails were rated "super excellent" and I had to agree. We've had plenty of snowfall here in the capital region over the last month, and the trails were freshly packed for some fast skiing. This being my 4th time out on the ski's, I was finally finding my rythm and was able to cover considerable distance in the 60mins I was out there. I am hooked on this sport!

Last night, I decided to google other places to ski around here.... and discovered that living in Sherwood Park is a skier's paradise. I have 4 places to ski within 25mins drive of here... Strathcona Wilderness Centre, Ft. Sask, Elk Island National Park, and Goldbar/Goldstick/Hawrelak parks in Edmonton. I've asked Naomi if she wants to drive the 80km sometime to the Tawatinaw Valley which is about 80km north of Edmonton but has 25km of trails.

It was always disappointing living in Calgary for nordic skiing. In the 8 years I lived there, I never did get out, although I did downhill about a dozen times. The 10-14 day clockwork Chinooks destroyed any usable snow within the city. The closest place to ski from what I know was Kananaskis... either Kananaskis Lakes for classic skiing, or Canmore for skate skiing. Both... a solid hour of driving from the city. While I may be a lot farther from the mountains now, my skiing opportunities are much better.

There is a winter triathlon coming up in Edmonton in February that is skate-ski-run, so I'm going in search of a pair of used speed skates in the coming weeks. Should be interesting trying to transition out of a pair of skates, into ski boots, then finally into runners! Now, if I could only afford a set of classic ski's, I'd give the Birkie a try... but that will have to wait til next year.

A few links:
http://www.xcountryab.net/
http://www.stat.ualberta.ca/~wiens/TrailReport/TrailReport.html

posted by Greg Nicholson @ 1/11/2009