Mar 6/13 - Two days of Clear Skies

Sorry for the gap in reports but I have been out riding ALL DAY for two days. Limestone three days ago had a good 30cm of untouched snow from the last snowfall and about another 10cms of fresh. It was great and the sky was clear. We played all day with no signs of unstable snow on the convex terrain or in the trees. The snow really changed at 6000ft as we anticipated. Rode to Packhorse Creek Outfitters yesterday and the trail from our house starts out icy. It is beat up pretty well from all the guests back and forth on it this weekend and we need some new snow in order to groom it and have any results. It is ride-able but you need SCRATCHERS! If you are riding the Flathead ....it is really really rough and for new riders it is demoralizing. If you know you are headed to alpine and have knowledge of the price you have to pay to get there then you will suck it up and go but I wouldn't ask beginners to try it and expect them to want to go again the next day. Hopefully it will be groomed this weekend but I cannot confirm that. We rode down the Flathead and it improved a bit just before Heartbreak access and steadily improved to Rain Gauge access with signs of a couple of inches of new snow. Once we got to McLatchie it was all smiles and really nice but you can still feel the base and that it has had traffic. Just before Pollock Creek the trail has seen some small sliding filling in a few spots but is still fine for a beginner to be able to traverse safely. The Packhorse Creek avalanche run out has not come down across the trail in a long time and there looks to be some wind deposits on the lee side up there that will eventually let go with more snow or warmer temps. Be aware crossing that and use the procedures for crossing from your avalanche courses or by doing the course online at avalanche.ca under training. B road is getting rough but still in good shape - I would ride that without hesitation but Curt, Harley and Mike said the Pipeline was super rough with lots of open creeks and I cannot imagine that that has improved at all over the past three days. Looked like only a few guys had been into Heartbreak and that wasn't yesterday and I didn't look hard enough at Rain Gauge - but I don't think anyone was in there. Remember those two bowls can be very dangers so choose your terrain in there carefully with all these weather changes. Last time in last week the cornices were ripe to come down but the trees were Verrry Niiccce. Weather: It is cool out with slightly overcast sky at -2. Temps supposed to be in the -5 range to +1 over the next 4 days but not swing drastically. We are supposed to get more snow over the next few days also with 1-5 cms a few times so hopefully 10-15cms of snow over the next 48 - 72hrs and another 5-6cms on Mon -Tues March 11/12th. So if you are coming....scratchers are really important and be prepared to tough out the rough trails to get to the sweet spots. Fernie is grooming and if you catch it right the snow will have fallen and you can get fresh there too before it gets ridden out. Crowsnest Pass reports from riders say York Creek is really thin but if you go back into Atlas it was not too bad. Some areas in Atlas are great but very technical to get to and ride and usually if you are riding that stuff you know someone close to the source to get more detailed info from. Okay so have a great time riding and Curt...congrats on your new Bike and Timbersled kit (Cooper has a permagrin)! Cheers - V