Haig Glacier Update!
· Wed Aug 12, 01:55 PM by Kristen Westesen
By Leif Zimmermann
Kristina Trygstad-Sarri, Glenn Randall and I packed up my car last weekend and headed north to Canada! We arrived in Canmore, AB. to a dark, foreboding cloud cover, that would delay our trip to the glacier until the end of the week. We have our skis and duffel bags flown in with a helicopter, so if you can’t see the huge Canadian Rockies jutting straight out of town, you can’t fly a helicopter to the Glacier. By Friday afternoon we had clear, blue skies, so we got ready to head in on Saturday morning! After dropping our gear off at the “heli pad,” we drove a little over an hour south-east of Canmore, to the trail head. After about 12 miles of running/hiking and 3,000ft elevation gain, we made it to the three little “huts on the Moon!” We settled into our small bunks and ate a quick lunch, before hiking “up” again for about 45 minutes to the Glacier.
As you can see from the pictures, we had some breathtaking views to enjoy while getting some very quality “on snow” training in August! We skied 4 days, with all of us being able to get around 10 hours of skiing. With the glacier sitting at just over 9,000ft, we took it very easy and just worked on getting the feeling of “sliding on the slippery stuff” back. We all worked on lots of technique, and did some specific strength (skiing with-out poles, skate and classic) most days! The conditions where definitely spring-like, so most days it was best to start out with skating when the tracks where a little more firm, then switch to classic with zero or “hairy” skis, as the the day warmed up the snow. On the last day, the weather got a little nasty. It started to rain and the wind was so strong that it would blow your poles completely horizontal out to your side! After our ski in the rain on the last morning, we still had to get out to the trail head so we could join the rest of BSF in Canmore for some dry land training. With the weather being a big “uncertainty” in the next few weeks, and not knowing when the helicopter would be able to fly again, the three of us “slung” our 35lb duffel bags over our shoulders to hike all the way out in the pouring rain!
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