Nov 25/13 - Testing and Refilling Avy Packs

Good Morning Sledders, its time to check your avy bag & beacon and equipment. Kids were refreshing the beacon batteries and doing a check and we had them pull their avy bags. Good thing cause Cooper's did not have enough pressure to fully fill the bag. Curt taking them to be refilled at Walt Healy in Calgary on his way to work. Trent and Sheldon are closing the doors at Walt Healy in March 2014. Sad to see them close this chapter but excited for their new ventures. Hard to lose dealers who ride the equipment and put it to the test. Curt and Cooper went out grooming out trail just to Tent mountain yesterday. Watch when you get off trail it is still bottomless. Matt picked up a rock going into Rain Gauge - bummer! Temps are cool at night and warming up to that -2 to zero range during the day. Snow is setting up. Start checking your avy reports so you have a baseline for the rest of the season. Try to know the area you ride from the first layer up. Cheers - V

Nov 22/13 - Great report from York Creek

Howdy,its -13 but headed towards -2 this afternoon and Tim at Over The Top Rentals came out and went and rode York Creek and he said it was 1-3ft on the trail and back in the bowl there was 5ft of snow! That is way better than I thought. I hadn't heard any reports. So if you want more info and info on sled rentals give Tim a call at 403-829-7533. He will be going different places breaking in engines on his new sleds up for rent for this winter. This weekend Rhonda and Matt from The Betties will be here breaking in their engines on their new Cats! Shawn Luhning with Timbersled is out at Revy this weekend honkin' on that new turbo'd Timbersled. Curt is converting the Commander over to tracks. On Dec 6th Roger Mohr and the crew from Sask are coming out and their bikes and ours will be out. Season is kickin up a gear! Cheers - V

Nov 19/13 - The Pass is now OPEN

Just keeping you up to date. The Pass on Hwy 3 is now open again and visibility is excellent and the temp is -8 with gusty winds but nothing harsh. Cheers - V

Nov 19/13 - The Pass, Hwy 3 Closed

Quick update. We have easily 15-20cm of snow - lots of grauple with the temp changes but dry and heavy. The Pass closed at 6pm and rightly so - we drove it at 5pm. Looks like it will open soon as the storm is moving on and should be out of the area around 10pm. Snowploughs are out now after not seeing anyone since 6pm. East wind always stirs up weather trouble. Supposed to get sunny and in the -3s by Thurs with evening temps still in the negative teens. Slow down and make it to your next sled trip! Cheers -V

Nov 19/13 - now its snowing again

See crazy weather. It metls and then snows a bunch then melts and now it is snowing a bunch. Just keeping you up to date. LOLOLOL Cheers - V

Nov 19/13 - PLUS 3 & Melting

Morning, it is +3 and melting. Snow is slushy and if it is going to go into the tank of cold tonight then this is all going to be ice. Looks like it is snowing above us though. Supposed to be -10 tonight and going to -14 in the evenings all week with daytime temps of -1. Good time to check over your avalanche packs and scotch guard your stuff! Have a good one - V

CAC WARNS AGAINST USE OF NEW SMART PHONE APP

Hi - I forgot to include this in my last two posts. There is a new smart phone app that they are marketing as a beacon replacement and the CAC has serious doubts about many of its features. Here is the link and my two cents is nothing replaces a beacon. Wear one, know how to use and test it often! http://www.avalanche.ca/cac/avalanche-search-apps-press-release - V

Nov 18/13 - Snowing and warm

Hey Gang - quick update. There was about 5cm of fresh snow yesterday first thing in the morning and another this morning - light and fluffy but then it has been snowing on and off and it got warmer today in that +2 to zero range and the snow got sticky and wet and settled. Tonight it is about zero and there is about 15-20cm of snow. Fernie has a snowfall warning and is supposed to get another 20cm of snow overnight. That means the area we ride south of us will be getting that too likely. It is supposed to get really cool at night mid week. Definitely enough snow to trail ride now. Still bottomless off trail though. If you are looking for Avalanche courses try checking out www.zacstracs.com and www.trigger-point.ca both Lori and Amber work together to cover all the demand. It will be well worth your while as this winter is already laying down some serious swing weather. Cheers! V

Nov 17/13 - Light snow 5cm

Morning Crew! So it was snowing yesterday and the roads were icy from Pincher to Cowley but then they improved a bit through the Pass to our house. Dad drove back to Rouleau (south of Regina) and said it was summer roads all the way to Gull Lake and they it was trecherous! Semis parked on side of the road and in ditches - huge long train of them and Dad said it was very bad driving. (Of course he didn't stop though!!!) Today it is lightly snowing again. We had 5cm in the yard yesterday and it is supposed to snow for the next few days. Cold at night and warmer during the day. Trail riding would be good enough to wet your sliders. Corbin group reported 3-4ft of snow in Rain Gauge but big beware for the stumps and rocks. Do not want to be that guy with bent A-arm when the big dump comes. Fernie was getting big snow as reported from a friend so the trails there may be even better option this early in the season. We always skied Fernie early as they usually had the most snow early in the season. South of us gets that same weather system usually. Curt is getting new sled fever.....He will be looking to sell his 800 XP sled and I see OT in his future lol! Cheers - V

Nov 13/13 - Corbin Staging Open

Morning, it was +4 at 7am this morning and it is supposed to go to +5 over the day. Our yard between last night and 7am and now 10:30 has melted considerably. Tim at Over the Top rentals called to see about breaking in some new engines and my recommendation was to wait. What was sticky snow is now icy in some spots and now melted through to grass in others. Also anyone wondering about the Corbin Staging Area....it is NOT CLOSED. Teck has cut it in half with large concrete barricades which were there in the fall. People have been using the area right after the tracks where our trail comes out to stage if they have big trailers. Do not park on the highway just outside the staging area and congest the entrance to the mine. Please park further away so we don't make it difficult for Teck equipment arriving and exiting the mine. Also it looks like grooming on the Flathead likely won't go any further than Rain Gauge. Some repairs to the Heartbreak horseshoe have been done so it looks differently than it had when we were quading this summer. Not a big issue as the roughest part of the trail has typically been the stretch to Rain Gauge. The bridge is out on Barnes but the flood actually eroded the banks making them more accessible than they were before the bridges went in. So hold off unless you have specific local info on where you want to ride and have reasonable expectations for snow conditions or you will be disappointed or worse have a damaged sled prior to the big dump! Cheers - V

Nov 12/13 - Chinook

Howdy crew! Nov 5th we got a few cms of dry fluffy snow which settled on top of that crusty base. Guys were out down the Flathead & leaving from Fernie - trail riding and locals were testing the base (on trails). But last night we had a chinook roll in and the temps went to +9 today and are at +6 tonight with a strong warm wind making hwy travel gusty. Snow below 5000ft has melted significantly but we are just high enough that it remains in the yard and on the trail but is sticky and soft. May take another flurry to add enough to make it worth breaking in a new engine. My recommendation for that is to wait til it cools off again or you could over heat it. I will report new significant weather to help you decide when you want to venture out for pre-season tuning etc. Do a little snow and dance here and there! Cheers - V

Nov 4/13 - 13-15cm of snow

Well the snow finally let up but it has left behind 13-15cm of snow here. The first day of snow (photo of Cooper out on the SnoCruiser) it was wet cotton ball sized snowfall and that has made a crusty base but then it started to become dry snowfall and that created an airy layer that will settle over the next few days. The other three photos are just out the back gate, not far...going out and coming back on the old Cruiser. So its coming. The grassy front is fun on the old sled as it floats over it. Supposed to get to zero over the week and then start snowing again Thursday with flurries on the weekend. Get your winter tires on so you aren't pulling that trailer into the ditch! Cheers - V

Nov 2/13 - Wet Wet Snow

There was light snow this morning and by 5pm there was 4cm on the ground. More snow is falling now - cotton ball sized wet heavy snow and it is supposed to continue till Monday with 5-10cm resulting from it. Mon-Wed is supposed to be a bit sun and cloud mixed and then snow again on Thurs. Temps to run between -2 and 2 degrees so we may get some rain out of it. Rain Gauge had a foot of snow in it two weeks ago but it isn't worthy of trail riding quite yet or breaking in a new engine....wait for it. Shawn Luhning was here with a load of new Timbersled bikes with the newest turbo! You can see it at the Sled show in Saskatoon this weekend. Cool - check out the newest products at wwww.timbersled.ca Also have you booked your avalanche class? A&E Racing is hosting the classroom session so give them a call if you are in that area or go to www.zacstracs.com Start going over your gear....tis the season! Cheers -V