Training Log Archive: Carbons Offset

The burn on highway 93 south with Woody and Miles. One lap (600m) down the front, several old tracks underneath but lots of new snow on top. One lap off the back, 250m in chunks of 100m then traverse, 100m more then traverse, 50 m more. Then climbed up and around to the front to ski down to the cars.
Fewer tracks on the back but the short fall line was a trade-off.
Lots of space, you could explore a lot of different lines to ski here.

Torn ACL.
Skiing down the burn on Highway 93 south, doing my usual turns and having a good time. Did a turn but the lower leg didn’t come with me. Didn’t feel like it caught on anything (Branch? Old track?) but I felt the upper leg rotate separately from the lower leg and felt the hard knock/pop of the heads of the bones passing over each other and back. It was enough of a movement that you couldn’t help to think that it shouldn’t be possible with a ligament there to do it’s job. Caught my breath and then tried to ski again but feared the joint wouldn’t hold for the next turn in the same direction. Sure enough it just twisted and had no stability. Even though I haven’t had this happen before, I could guess what the likely result had been (although part of me was hoping I would be proven to have overreacted as I have in the past). Managed to ski down (about 600 m vertical)... one leg was still solid so did a lot of traversing. Was able to drive home no problem, the heavy clutch wasn’t an issue (left knee injured). Booked an assessment appointment with Dr. Andy Reed for tomorrow.

Top Hat traverse with Carbon, Melissa and Peter. Lots of people on the uptrack all heading for the same objective but all following gps tracks they got from somewhere. When we got to the col, a bunch of tracks (there were tracks all over all of the zones around Hamilton Lake and Emerald Lake) headed right over the convex roll. We got to the col with two other groups and I knew people in both groups. No one else had been there before and didn’t know where they were going. I explained how to traverse across to get to a more planar slope and avoid the convex start. We had a good chat about how to manage three groups skiing down close to each other. We waited and let the first group go ahead. I then traversed farther skier’s left because I know it would still work. Got into fresh snow and had a nice direct fall line. Really good snow. The other group of 3 behind us from Canmore followed and were glad they did. I then traversed far left again and found another great line and radioed back for both groups to hear that there was enough fresh snow for all of us. Another great pitch. Then stayed far left and was able to fit our turns in between the spaced tracks that were there. Traversed hard right all the way to the far right drainage, this time skiing it from higher up than where we inevitably have to cut over to it. I’ve often looked up and thought it could be worth going in earlier. After that, we cut hard left for fresh snow between spaced tracks for the last pitch. Stopped to chat with a group that had come in the other way and was touring up the bottom pitch (?) for reconnaissance because they didn’t know the area. I gave them a bunch of info on how we did it, without trying to sound like their way was a poor choice (I wouldn’t want to skin up that slope with everyone coming down on me all day).
A good leg burn for most of us, some of the pitches had some nice length. It’s a beautiful tour, the sun and visibility were the best I’ve had and it was sweet to find fresh tracks even though there were a lot of tracks on the usual lines. The final tour down the creek was in great shape and everyone really enjoyed the adventure.
Started around 8:30 and got back to the car at 2:00.

Solo skate, nice for being able to focus on a little bit of technique as I get back into it.
Out on Banff and Bow (plus the little out and back of the Woodland Bliss dead end that I wouldn’t bother with again) to near the end of Banff trail. Then back on Meadowview (ugh, long climb but kept enough momentum that I never resorted to the walking herringbone) to the mine meadow and then back to the stadium via Banff. Still had usable light until 5:45 (nice!) and then was onto the lit trails so never needed the headlamp.

Easy birthday ski for Irene with Ted, Irene and Carbon
The campground loop at Lake Louise. Really pretty even though it was a foggy overcast afternoon.
New glide wax on the skis felt so nice.

First skate ski of the season. Headed out with Tom and also found Peter along the way. A moderate pace which was nice for the re-intro. Next time I should focus more on technique. Spent most of the night socializing while skiing which was good but didn’t focus on technique until the end and noticed the difference in speed. Nice to have this facility close to home.

Gap Hill with Myka, Clinton, Houda, Dave M
Clinton and I held a steady pace that proved to be quick enough. Got to the gate in 28:20.