Pocaterra Ski Vacation

This past weekend we took a trip out to Kananaskis Country with one mission: Cross Country Ski. Kevan and Leah have done it a few times before, I've done it once before, and Karyn has never done it. Needless to say it was going to be an interesting experience.

Kevan and Leah arrived at our place at about 8am and we ended up sitting around the table drinking coffee for three quarters of an hour. We weren't really in too much of a rush. When we finally got on the move we headed over to the Outdoor Centre at UofC to rent some equipment and finished that a mere 45 minutes later! Seriously, how long does it take to get 4 x-country ski packages!

Our original plan was to ski on the Ribbon Creek trail. Part of this reason was Kevan and I had been there before so we knew what to expect. Part of it had to do with the fact that it wasn't too far away. While we were getting our skis at the Outdoor Centre Kevan took a look on a ski report and there was no snow to be had at Ribbon Creek so we decided to go out to the Upper Kananaskis Lake and considered skiing into the Elk Lakes...It was only about 10km return so we thought it would be a nice "easy" day.

On our way to the Upper Kananaskis Lake we went by Pocaterra and after much deliberation we decided to ski there instead. The main reasons:

1. I had been there before and kind of knew what we were getting into
2. There was track already laid which we figured would make it a little easier for Karyn

We started out on a nice easy trail and Karyn was learning the basics. For those of you not aware of the situation, Karyn HATES skis attached to her feet but she was doing great despite this fact (though she didn't think so). We came to a fork in the road and we ended up taking the trail that had a few ups and downs. Not too bad for those of us who are used to having 5 foot planks attached to our feet, not so good for Karyn who didn't know how to control them going up and down. Needless to say she didn't have that much fun. I'm sure it didn't help that the skis she had were too long and her poles may have been a little big for her too (though the jury is still out on that one). Going up hills is kind of awkward on skis because you basically need to walk ducky up the hills and use your skis and poles together. Going down hills on x-country skis is easy when there's track, problem was there wasn't too much track to be had on the down-hill sections and as you can see, Karyn didn't fare too well, though I should point out that none of us really did!

At lunch it was decided that Kevan and I were going to take a longer loop that went through an "expert" area and Karyn and Leah would go off on their own taking an intermediate trail for a short period and then getting on easy trails for the rest of the way back to the lodge. Kevan and I took off and did a short 3.1km uphill push. That SUCKED. I was so tired when we got to the top and along the way I ended up falling on the track and managed to crank my tailbone on the peak of snow between the ski tracks. Not so much fun. When we got to the "expert" area we found that it had not really been tracked and after a few hundred meters (and a few pictures) we decided to turn back and go the way we came as we thought we wouldn't make it back to the lodge before the sun went down. So, back to the 3.1km we went up and this time we got to go DOWN!!! That was good times. We managed to ski that out in just under 15 minutes!

Kevan and I took a different route back to the lodge and figured the girls wouldn't be too far behind us. We were both exhausted when we got back to the lodge and Kevan actually ended up catching a few zzz's while I stretched out. A funny side note, Kevan decided to sleep on the floor after abandoning the bench for reasons I won't go into and ended up falling asleep over a vent. He was suddenly awoken by a soft breeze blowing on his stomach (which for some reason he thought was me...SICK!) and got up pretty quickly! I had a good chuckle out of it.

We were at the lodge for a good 30 minutes and the girls still had not showed up. We decided to mount a rescue mission to go find our damsels in distress, though neither of us were really looking forward to putting the planks back on. Our plan was to take the two possible routes they could have taken and meet up where the trails met. It would have meant an additional 10km of skiing for both of us but it was getting dark and we were concerned. We started down the trail and luckily ran into them only about half a kilometer down the trail before we had to split off. Karyn was exhausted and sore and I don't think Leah felt much better. Our way home in the car was quiet and dinner wasn't too full of conversation either.

Karyn has been sore since we went out and vowed that she'd never go again. I think she was just thrown into it a little too hard and next time we go out we'll do the same area again but stick to the easy trails as much as possible. She did awesome for her first time out and I think in a few more tries she'll be ready for the Olympics (she'll probably disagree with that though!).

Here's a few extra pictures that I took through the day for everyone to enjoy.

Until our next adventure...

D