After our ad in the Ward Bulletin for unused winter sporting equipment we had enough X-Country ski equipment to have us put on this event and not have to rent any equipment. A fellow scout leader from Airdrie suggested Chester Lake to us as it always had lots of snow when ever they went. Snow is important to a ski event, and we weren't disappointed. Instead of camping outdoors and try to be close to a suitable ski location the team opted for a sleep over (well not much sleeping and lot of gaming) and then at 5:00 am get up and head for the site. With that we did manage to get off after an nice bacon / egg / and hash brown breakfast. Definitely slept on the way there, but got there for 8:00am. There was good daylight already and we put on the equipment and headed up the ski trail.
It was a bit of work getting into the rhythm and handling the uphill parts. Turns out the waxed skis still proved to be a bit slippery than the no wax ones. Daniel and Connor were match up with the waxed skis. Daniel was able to bend his heals out of the binding and dig them into the snow as he attempted to get up the steeper inclines. But then on a particularly long climb toe portion of the sole tore right off his boot. We were about a third of the way up at this point. We did bring extra boots so a run was made to go back and get them. After that we switched up the skis a bit and gave Daniel the no wax with the new boots. Much better after that.
The scenery got more impressive as we got closer to the lake. Once there we cross over to a large rock pile and had lunch. Others were around us enjoying the same area. Some had brought Crazy Carpets and hikes up the large scree slop and slip down out onto the lake. Awesome toboggan run if the brought the tubes etc.
We know the hike out was going to be fast. We tried out the tactic of sitting on the backs of your skis when the sloops got too steep. This was sweet as most to the trail was nicely banked on either side and you could real whip down them.
As expected we were out at the parking lot in about an hour. The team had no problem catching up on the rest of the missed sleep on the ride home. This was definitely a great place for new skiers.
Dan Merrel, Karl Burndorfer - Scout / YM Leaders | |
Connor Johnson, Nathan Johnson, Daniel Urquijo, Ben Burndorfer (Cook) - scouts |