Spray River West and Goat Creek MUCH better than Poor

Trip date: Wednesday Nov 30, 2022

Submitted by Septuagenarians

Particpants:

Two cold old timers.

Discussion:

Thanks to Chuck for pointing out that Spray River West is in good shape, and reminding us to wear warm mitts.

About 2 cm (at the trailhead) to 4 cm (near the second Spray bridge) of fresh snow which had fallen since the grooming improved the trails even more. Goat creek was wonderful because there had been minimal traffic on it since there was no traffic from the top and it felt like backcountry. The descent was very smooth as a result. The cold snow was a bit slow even with our Polar grip wax because we had not applied cold glide wax.

We removed a couple of small rocks from Goat trail, but there is still one 2 cm from the trackset on the long descent toward the bus stop shelter at Spray river. We placed a small spruce bough near it to warn us on the way down.

We encountered only one hiker on the skier only section of Spray West, compared to about eight skiers.

It was minus 17 when we started, but it felt balmy compared to the minus 26 we encountered at Lake Louise yesterday.

It was a wonderful day in spite of the frosty weather. Conditions should be even better tomorrow since it was snowing when we left.